ABSTRACT
In this chapter we follow Galician's media literacy work on Hollywood's constructions of coupleship by revealing selected mass media myths stereotypes of sex, love, and romance as well as providing prescriptive discussion of more realistic ways to view Maid in Manhattan. In this 21st century rendition, the urbanized chambermaid is updated as a woman of color a Latina. Maid in Manhattan is the story of a New York Latina hotel maid, Marisa Ventura, who is mistaken for a rich jet-set occupant of a luxurious hotel suite by an actual hotel guest. True to formula, audience members expect to see how Marisa Ventura of Maid in Manhattan escapes her social class and 'moves up' through marriage, thus fulfilling what our society calls 'The American Dream'. This movie supports the social mythology of 'rags to riches', lending evidence that such is reasonably attainable and that a woman can and should use a superior man to do this.
