Inaccessability is not an excuse…

I was reading USA Today this morning when I came across their “50 states in 50 days” section, in which they cover one state’s political leanings and trends every day. They also include key demographics about each state. Needless to say I was happily surprised that my very own little corner of the world, Maine, was featured this morning. I read the article about our beloved senator Susan Collins, whom nobody can seem to beat, but I was drawn to the demographics section. Maine, according to USA Today is 96.5% white.

Not that this surprised me…I mean, I did spend all but 6 months of my life in a tiny town in said state, it just made me think. So many times I’ve heard excuse after excuse for being ignorant ring of “I’ve just never been around [insert racial/ethnic group of your choosing] people before.” Or “My hometown didn’t have this kind of diversity.” Inaccessability is not an excuse! Movers and shakers of the world on an international and personal level have come from areas with no diversity. It’s not about who you’re around, it’s about your mindset and your ability to think for yourself, form opinions regardless of media or popular culture influence, and generally have the decency to interact politely and engagingly with other people. It doesn’t matter if your (or their) skin is white, brown, black, purple, green, or pink, what matters is that we are all people, with interesting stories to tell and experiences to share. What if you never became friends with someone at college because, say, they play rugby and, well, you just didn’t have rugby in your hometown?!

Sexuality in hip hop dance

Hey everybody, Mandie here!

So I spent my summer at the Hip Hop Dance Conservatory in New York City, training all day every day for two months. It was incredible and amazing and one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. A big part of HDC’s methodology involves contextual classes (read: lectures, etc.) and we had a huge, over-arching project called the “What Is Hip Hop?” Project. We took over New York City, hit every borough and hundreds of neighborhoods, asking people what they thought about hip hop dance and culture. My group and I were assigned the difficult task of addressing the issue of sexuality in hip hop dance. We focused on the portrayals of sex in hip hop dance (i.e. many people we interviewed said that hip hop dance was all about “grinding”, “booty shaking”, “video hos”, etc.). However, we got some interesting responses to one particular question we asked:

“Do you think hip hop dance is a comfortable environment for people of all sexualities?”

We asked two distinct groups of people, “Average Joes” and “Dancer Joes”. Our “Dancer Joes” answered that hip hop dance was such an open and free art form that it is comfortable for anyone of any sexual preference. However, “Average Joes” (people with little to no dance training or experience) thought differently. “You can’t be gay and be in hip hop” was the overwhelming response from people on the street.

Why is this? How has our media so distorted the origins of hip hop dance and not other art forms? Or has it distorted other art forms as well, but they are not so prominent in our cultural landscape that we haven’t taken as much notice? And lastly, if hip hop (as portrayed in current popular culture) IS so misogynistic and homophobic–how has it managed to become such an enduring culture in our world?

I don’t necessarily have answers, I have opinions, but I was just thinking I’d put a little food for thought out there…

 

xx

Mandie