Heavy makeup, gaudy jewelry, dramatic hairstyles, and clothes that are considered cheap, fake, too short, too tight, or too masculine: working-class Black and Latina girls and women are often framed as embodying "excessive" styles that are presumed to indicate sexual deviance. In Aesthetics of Excess Jillian Hernandez examines how middle-class discourses of aesthetic value racialize the bodies of women and girls of color. At the same time, their style can be a source of cultural capital when appropriated by the contemporary art scene. Drawing on her community arts work with Black and Latina girls in Miami, Hernandez analyzes the art and self-image of these girls alongside works produced by contemporary artists and pop musicians such as Wangechi Mutu, Kara Walker, and Nicki Minaj. Through these relational readings, Hernandez shows how notions of high and low culture are complicated when women and girls of color engage in cultural production and how they challenge the policing of their bodies and sexualities through artistic authorship.

About the Author
Jillian Hernandez is Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexualities, and Women's Studies at the University of Florida.

Reviews
"Aesthetics of Excess brings together culo, spandex, and style to make bold provocations on race, aesthetics, and embodiment. Making a sparkling intervention into conversations on racialized sexuality, Hernandez uses the "body narratives" we inherit to add fleshy substance to our understanding of how color, culture, and class shape how subjects traverse geographies of belonging." -- Juana Maria Rodriguez, author of * Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings *
"I am thrilled that Jillian Hernandez has found a thoughtful, thorough way to begin a conversation around the Latinx, academic, and institutional discomfort with what they perceive as young women's problematic, not-Latina-feminist-enough gender politics. What a joy it is to know that this highly original and downright necessary book is now in the world. Aesthetics of Excess makes an outstanding contribution to feminist scholarship." -- Maria Elena Buszek, author of * Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture *
"There's a real beauty to being able to own yourself and how you show up in the world; Aesthetics of Excess illuminates it." -- Evette Dionne * Bitch Media *
"Black and Latina aesthetic practices are carefully crafted and layered. Aesthetics of Excess treats these self-stylings with the nuance they deserve, understanding them as interventions in a visual landscape that surveilles excess as a way to continually police working-class women of color." -- Kristie Soares * Latino Studies *
"In a world that continually tells Black and Latina girls to take up less space, to be less visible, to do their work without comment, sigh, or sass, Hernandez and her team at WOTR celebrate the excess. . . . Hernandez deftly explores and theorizes the contours of blackness and latinidad in Miami." -- Aria S. Halliday * American Quarterly *
"Hernandez manages the difficult feat of crafting an approachable text that could be read by the young women she speaks with while remaining faithful to the demands of a scholarly monograph. . . . [The Aesthetics of Excess] is a thrilling work that never forgets that loving its subjects is essential to scholarly precision." -- Ivan Ramos * Lateral *
"The book's strength lies in Hernandez's sharp arguments and the theoretical threads she interweaves. Rather than considering Black and Latina body aesthetics against the implicit whiteness of categories deemed 'standard' or 'tasteful' in mainstream US culture, the book names them, claims them, and presents them in their own light." -- Alicia Eler * Hyperallergic *



Book Information
ISBN 9781478011101
Author Jillian Hernandez
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 612g