As I was researching Alternative media on women, I
found a magazine called “ BUST”. This
magazine was found in New York City in 1993 by Stoller, Henzel, and Marcelle Karp. Debbi Stoller was a
graduate of Yale University and Parsons School of Design, out of
dissatisfaction with women’s magazines. The purpose of publishing Bust magazine was to inspire women to
speak out in women issues and think positive of themselves instead of feeling guilty being a women and facing gender issues in
this generation, where women are still being neglected in many gender
issues. Stoller states, “was to start a
magazine that would be a real alternative to Vogue, Cosmo, Mademoiselle,
and Glamour, something that was as fierce and as funny and as pro-female
as the women we knew"( wiki). As we recognize how mainstream Vogue, Cosmo,
Mademoiselle and Glamour magazines contains
artificial body images, beauty and
style, so Bust is something different that no women would be brainwashed and
influenced to become like someone else who they are not. They name the magazine
BUST, because it represents “provocative,
funny, and also sexy”(Wiki).
Bust is not like the other magazines that you can
find it anywhere; readers can only find Bust through Barnes &
Noble, Borders Books, Tower Records, or subscription. The average reader is
most likely between the ages of 18-30. As I was looking through this magazine
on online, in each issue there are news,
popular culture, crafts, humor, personal narratives and scholarly essays. Bust
magazine is for the women who are tired of reading about women being
stereotype, this magazine is meant to be for the “real” women, who are
positive. This magazine is unlike the
other young women’s magazine, it do not give advice about men or products need
to use to become more beautiful or lose weight. Bust is about other women and issues related to women. It signifies
women who are independent, young and sexually liberated. The magazine targets
for younger women with an interest in feminism.
She wrote a grant proposal to the Ford Foundation to
fund this series of discussions called “The B Girl Sitdowns”. In 2006 she
curated a six city series of discussions and activities that would be organized
and hosted by female street dancers in their own cities, outspreading an
invitation to all Hip Hop artists, male and female alike. The archival film
began to grow a story of its own and so began the search to produce a
documentary about the journey of B Girls. Full Circle has recently received a
film production grant from Bronx Council on the Arts. According to the reading Women Make Movies Debra states, “ The development of multi-media
technologies, including the internet, and the growth of the new cable channels
have opened new doors”( Zimmerman, 265).
The reason we know about Rocafella is because of the internet and other Alternative
media sources that shares inspiring
stories about real people that we don’t watch continually on ads and media mainstream.
B Girl Rocafella directed a documentary film call “ All
The ladies Say”. In this documentary she
brings all the women and men who are break dancers. Rocafella’s story is very inspiring, because
lot of women even today do not feel comfortable saying they break dance. Most
of the movies that we watch men are always doing breaking dance, when female
are just dancing “sexy hip-pop dance”, now that Rocafella has shared her story
of being female break dancer it should motivate other female break dancers to
really go out there and battle with the men.
http://alltheladiessay.com/blog/
Interesting piece. I love to watch the show "So you think you can dance" when I have time which these days is hardly ever. However, they have had some female breakers, they have also had female krumpers. I think that through that show they are very accepting of any style of dance. The have choreographers work with these dancers in so many different genres trying not to discriminate with race or gender.
ReplyDeleteI think this woman B Girl Rockafella is amazing from what you say. I think her love for the art of breaking and her desire to make it acceptable for woman to partake in can only do good. It is not about being a man or a woman it is about being a dancer, an artist, to her.