How the Mob Wife Aesthetic Can Help us Think About Latinidad
Originally Published by De Los Angeles Times on 2/27/24
I’m pleased to share some writing published by De Los Angeles Times earlier this week! Below is a brief excerpt but you can find the full piece here.
And if you want to delve a little more into Italinx (Italian American + Latinx) Intimacies, you should check this other thing I wrote a few weeks back.
New writing next week!
Besitos xx
Aneliza
A new trend has emerged on TikTok and Instagram as users have abandoned the minimalist “clean girl” aesthetic and are opting for the bold luxury of animal prints, statement-making gold jewelry, long acrylic nails and faux furs to achieve the “Mob Wife” aesthetic. Influencers are citing Carmela and Adriana from “The Sopranos” (played by Edie Falco and Drea de Matteo, respectively) along with women from the films “The Godfather” and “Scarface,” and VH1 reality series “Mob Wives” (R.I.P. Big Ang) as the blueprints for this look. For Latines, this aesthetic might be recognizable from the American mob movies we watched growing up and also from the women in our families and communities, if not ourselves.
It’s not a coincidence that there are resonances between Latine and Italian American aesthetics. Both groups immigrated to the U.S. and faced discrimination. Latines and Italians often still face racial discrimination, which impacts how people live, work, and are policed. Both groups have also been stereotypically assumed to have connections to organized crime, which the “Mob Wife” aesthetic makes direct reference to.