The (Sexist and Racist) Image of Isabel Preysler in the Spanish Media Coverage of Her Romantic Relationships

Abstract

The following research reviews articles in the press related to Isabel Preysler, a celebrity of Filipino origin in Spain, who was often covered by the Spanish media because of her romantic relationships: marrying the singer Julio Iglesias in the 1970s, remarrying twice in the following decade (to Hispanic aristocrat, Carlos Falcó, in 1980, and then to the politician Miguel Boyer in 1988), and starting a new relationship with the novelist Mario Vargas Llosa after becoming a widow in 2014. Through an analysis of issues related to racism and sexism in different press releases, the objective of this paper is to determine whether significant temporal and historical changes affected the way the articles about this celebrity were framed. The conclusions indicate that although there was an improvement in the news from the seventies and eighties (i.e., Preysler’s first marriages), the journalistic articles during the years of Preysler’s relationship with Vargas Llosa presented misogynist biases by characterizing Preysler as an attractive exotic woman because she is Asian.