All Articles by truth

Theresa Ruth Howard Dancer/Writer/Teacher Theresa Ruth Howard began her professional dance career with the Philadelphia Civic Ballet Company at the age of twelve. Later she joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem where she had the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Africa. She has worked with choreographer Donald Byrd as a soloist in his staging of New York City Opera's Carmina Burana, his critically acclaimed Harlem Nutcracker, as well as the controversial domestic violence work The Beast. She was invited to be a guest artist with Complexions: A Concept in their 10th anniversary season. In 2004 she became a founding member of Armitage Gone! Dance. As a writer Ms. Howard has contributed to Russell Simmons’ One World magazine (art), and The Source (social politics), as well as Pointe and Dance Magazine. While teaching in Italy for the International Dance Association she was asked to become a contributor for the premiere Italian dance magazine Expressions. Her engaging, no nonsense writing style caught the eye of both the readers of Dance Magazine and its Editor in Chief who not only made her a contributing editor and has collaborated with Ms. Howard in See and Say Web-reviews. Her articles about body image prompted her to develop a workshop for young adult (dancers and non-dancers) My Body My Image that addresses their perceptions both positive and negative about their bodies and endeavoring to bring them closer to a place of Acceptance and Appreciation. She recently launched a blog by the same name to reach a broader audience (mybodymyimage.com) As a teacher Ms. Howard has been an Artist in Residence at Hollins University in and New Haven University in addition to teaching at Sarah Lawrence College, Marymount, Shenandoah, and Radford Universities, and the historical American Dance Festival. As a result of her work at ADF Ms. Howard was invited to Sochi, Russia to adjudicate the arts competition Expectations of Europe and teach master classes, and in Burundi, Africa where she coached and taught the Burundi Dance Company. Currently she on faculty at The Ailey School but also extensively throughout Italy and Canada. Ms. Howard's belief in the development, and nurturing of children lead her to work with at risk youth. At the Jacob Riis Settlement House in Queensbridge New York, she founded S.I.S.T.A (Socially Intelligent Sisters Taking Action) a mentoring program for teen-age girls where she worked to empower them to become the creators of their destinies. In addition she developed a dance program, which lead to an exchange with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Through her teaching and travels Ms. Howard began to observe a universal disenchantment and disconnection in teenagers that disturbed her, thus she set out to address it. Combining her philosophies of life and teaching, with the skills she garnered through outreach programs with diverse communities, she developed the personal development workshop Principles of Engagement: Connecting Youth to the Infinite Possibilities Within which gives teens a set of workable tools to increase their levels of success at tasks, and goals not only in dance, and all aspect of their lives. Theresa Ruth Howard is certainly diverse and multifaceted as an artist, and is moved to both write and create work; however she sees every student she encounters as a work in progress, and the potential to change the world one person at a time. The only was to make this world a better place it to be better people in it!

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Pic of Peeking Pubes banned form Instagram, but Why?

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What exactly makes this photo is so offensive, gross? What would make this woman’s account to be deleted from a social media site? I mean it’s just hair….

Well that is exactly what happened to artist, photographer Petra Collins when she posted this up on Instagram. Now the 1970’s full on bush may be a little Linda Lovelace and retro what makes it so offensive, it is the way most women (and men’s) unaltered pubic areas look like. When did we all become so Chaetophobic? Why is looking like an adult (with pubic hair) offensive and looking like a 7 year old, hairless, (where by the by you can actually see the labia- which could be seen as offensive) accepted, even expected? What struck me about this photo is that the Bikini bottom is very conservative, it offers her a great deal of coverage, perhaps not enough to cover her pubes but, it is not a string, a T-back or thong…

miley-cyrus-photographed-by-terry-richardson-in-new-york-10I bet this Terry Richards photo of Miley Cyrus can be found on Instagram…

Personally I am offended by this, it is more explicit, but then again she is hairless so I guess that makes it okay huh?


Looking at these two photos, which one is more “gross” to you? and why? why would a woman’s visible pubic hair be banned but exposed breasts ass and crotch are all okay, (think Kim Kardashian and Coco T. ).  Well Petra wrote a wonderful piece about how she feels about the deletion of her account on Huffington Post:

Why Instagram Censored My Body

Posted: 10/17/2013 7:01 pm

I wasn’t shocked at the reaction I received from my t-shirt. I’m used to being told by society that I must regulate my body to fit the norm. I’m used to the fact that images of unaltered women are seen as unacceptable. I’ve taught myself to ignore it (as much as I can) and through the Internet (via sites like ROOKIE) and social media platforms (like Instagram and Facebook) I’ve been able to freely share images and start discussions about these issues. Recently, I had my Instagram account deleted. I did nothing that violated the terms of use. No nudity, violence, pornography, unlawful, hateful or infringing imagery. What I did have was an image of MY body that didn’t meet society’s standard of “femininity.” The image I posted was from the waist down wearing a bathing suit bottom in front of a sparkly backdrop. Unlike the 5,883,628 (this is how many images are tagged #bikini) bathing suit images on Instagram (see here and here) mine depicted my own unaltered state — an unshaven bikini line. Up until this moment, I had obviously seen and felt the pressure to regulate my body, but never thought I would literally experience it.

I’m used to seeing female bodies perfected and aspects concealed in the media (i.e., in hair removal ads for women, hair is NEVER shown). I wasn’t surprised when TMZ requested to interview me about my t-shirt, but then cancelled because the image was “too explicit for television” — whereas during Rihanna’s abuse scandal, her beaten face was broadcasted hundreds of times. I’m used to seeing women being degraded, slut shamed, harassed for what they look like. Even the most powerful women in the world are measured by their appearance and constantly ridiculed for it. I’m used to one of the biggest media outlets calling a 9-year old girl a “cunt” (with the intention of being “satirical”). I’m used to hearing the top played songs on the radio tell me “I know you want it — just let me liberate you,” “You don’t know you’re beautiful, that’s what makes you beautiful,” “Put molly all in her champagne/ She ain’t even know it / I took her home and I enjoyed that/ She ain’t even know it.” I’m used to seeing blockbuster movies get a rating of NC-17 because a woman is shown receiving pleasure — while movies that feature men receiving pleasure get ratings as low as PG.

I’m used to seeing cover after cover featuring stories about a popular celebrity being fat-shamed during pregnancy. I’m used to seeing reviews of an award show performance that critiques a female singer for being “slutty,” but then fails to even mention the older male behind her. I’m used to reading articles about whole towns harassing a rape victim until she’s forced to leave. I don’t want to be used to this. I don’t want to have to see the same thing constantly. I don’t want to be desensitized to what’s happening around me all.the.time. I consider myself endlessly lucky to have access to the Internet and technology. Through it I’ve found myself and have been able to join a new discourse of females young and old who strive to change the way we look and treat ourselves. I know having a social media profile removed is a 21st century privileged problem — but it is the way a lot of us live. These profiles mimic our physical selves and a lot of the time are even more important. They are ways to connect with an audience, to start discussion, and to create change. Through this removal, I really felt how strong of a distrust and hate we have towards female bodies. The deletion of my account felt like a physical act, like the public coming at me with a razor, sticking their finger down my throat, forcing me to cover up, forcing me to succumb to society’s image of beauty. That these very real pressures we face everyday can turn into literal censorship.

If the Internet mimics real life, then there is no doubt that real life can mimic it. That if we allow ourselves to be silenced or censored, it can happen in real life too. That if an online society of people can censor your body, what stops them from doing so in real life? This is already happening, you experience this every day. When someone catcalls at you, yells “SLUT,” comments on all your Facebook photos calling you “disgusting,” tries to physically violate you, spreads private nude images of you to a mass amount of people via text, calls you ugly, tells you to change your body, tells you are not perfect, this cannot continue to be our reality. To all the young girls and women, do not let this discourage you, do not let anyone tell you what you should look like, tell you how to be, tell you that you do not own your body. Even if society tries to silence you keep on going, keep moving forward, keep creating revolutionary work, and keep this discourse alive. To those who reported me, to those who are disgusted by my body, to those who commented “horrible” or “disgusting” on an image of ME, I want you to thoughtfully dissect your own reaction to these things, please think about WHY you felt this way, WHY this image was so shocking, WHY you have no tolerance for it. Hopefully you will come to understand that it might not be you thinking these things but society telling you how to think.

Petra Collins is a Toronto-born artist, photographer and writer. She is the founder and curator of The Ardorous, an online art collective showcasing works of emerging female artists. Visit her website: petracollins.com.

 

TWERKing To the Classics!!! (High-larious)

Miley- take a seat….

 

This is like my open post to Miley Cyrus the non ass having Twerking fiend! I am perplexed at how the thing formerly known as Ass Shaking as been renamed and somehow sublimated. And speaking of sublimation, this woman has taken the ass pumping skill to a whole new level. It was so funny, and amazing (as well as musical, some of my students could take note) She is like the Dita Von Tesse of Twerking…

Check it out!!!

Child Star Charlotte Church weighs in on Miley AND Rihanna, and coming of age in the industry

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In the States we all remember Charlotte Church as the cherub faced girl with the voice of an angel.  Where her popularity might have fallen off in the US, she has enjoyed a very successful career in the UK including recording and hosting her own variety show. Recently she spoke out on Miley Cyrus, Rihanna and many other young ladies who she feels have become victims of the music industry!

Charlotte is finding it hard to see how today’s musicians are being portrayed in such an overtly sexual manner especially since she herself has walked a mile in their stilettos and she admitted:
“What this industry seems to want of its women increasingly is sex objects that appear childlike. Take your clothes off, show you’re an adult … There was a big clamor to cover my breasts as they wanted to keep me as young as possible. Then it became, ‘You should definitely get them out, they look great’ … Whilst I can’t defer all the blame away from myself, I was barely out of my teenage years, and the consequence of this portrayal of me is that now I am frequently abused on social media. Now I find it difficult to promote my music where it would be best suited.” –

While talking about RiRi’s Pour It Up, she said:

“You only have to look at the online response to see that it is only a matter of time until the public turns on an artist for pushing it too far. But the single, like all [of] Rihanna’s other provocative hits, will make her male writers, producers and record label guys a ton of money.”

What do you think? I think that she does have a point, and there is clearly a methodology, a system the music and entertainment industry has to maturing female artists, and to a certain degree I think that we are starting to see male artists coming of age a particular way…(think Justin Beiber and his pot smoking wilding out antic of late). The hyper sexual manner in which young girls are ushered into womanhood has become par for the course, it always includes less clothes, photo shoot with legs spread and asses out, risque public behavior and some sketchy dating- oh add in some drunken drugged out antics. And somehow all of this is supposed to  translate into “I am an adult and I and my art should be taken seriously”. I think Church’s point is that where all of the letting your rack hang and your ass hang out, and all of the bad girl behavior make (yes you) and other people a lot of money yet they get to cash the checks and walk away while you have to live with stigma and the stain of those years of “becoming”…..

Florida School’s “FAT” Letters… Based on BMI (Body Mass Index)

BMI letter

Collier County Health Department

 

Florida mom Kristen Grasso received a “fat letter” from her child’s school letting her know that her athletic daughter — who at 5 feet 3 inches tall weighed 124 pounds was at risk of being overweight.

This mom spoke out and prompted a greater conversation about BMI testing at school.

Childhood weight issues are a difficult subject. With no distinct lines between normal body diversity and obesity that puts children at risk of serious health issues, how do we keep kids healthy without damaging them emotionally? We asked parents to chime in on the school system’s role in monitoring weight and health.

How do “fat letters” affect kids?

In Kristen Grasso’s case, a sealed health letter was sent home in her 11-year-old daughter’s backpack. Kids are kids. It isn’t reasonable to send sensitive information home with a child — especially when that information could prompt serious problems with body image and eating habits. Though a quick BMI test might not directly increase bullying, it certainly causes distress in kids who are already concerned about weight and body image. Shouldn’t these screenings and reports be conducted with greater sensitivity and a focus on mental health as well as physical health? Read More here

 

This is how a seemingly good thing goes bad, primarily because of application and language. The letter in and of itself is not a bad idea. *The data comes from a regular screening process that occurs when students in are kindergarten, first, third, and sixth grades. Florida is one of 21 states that have laws requiring BMI screenings. Millsap said the health department is currently in the middle of screenings for this school year, but last year the department tested 13,454 children. About 25 percent had possible vision issues, less than 1 percent had possible hearing problems, 2 percent had scoliosis, and 43 percent had BMI issues, either above or below normal numbers. Parents can opt out of the screening for their children.

The problem is the way that Body Mass Index is calculated, it does not differentiate between fat and muscle- and muscle weight MORE than fat!!! So you could have a fit child who is mainly muscle, and possibly on the short side, appear to be what is considered obese on the charts. Sending letters home to parents, (they are also handed out to the children in school) can be irresponsible without taking an actual LOOK at the child in question. I can definitely see how such letters can potentially cause a great deal of distress, and even become the seedling for eating disorders, low self esteem and even bullying however I do think that Florida’s heart is in the right place. We in this country are greatly undereducated when it comes to health and nutrition—-WAIT let me take that back, we have a lot of information but at the same time our culture encourages us to be indulgent and dismissive about proper diet and health. I think that this sort of “check up” is not a bad thing, I recall our annual hearing and eye tests in school, it was helpful especially since it was there that they discovered that I needed glasses. I think the way the information is given, and the language used needs to be tweaked. Perhaps parents should have been brought in and asked how they would like to receive that sort of information about their child. It is very sensitive, and personal data, and even if it just a black and white fact on paper- your weight, height, BMI it feels like someone is judging you and that is never nice, nor is it helpful it shuts people down.

Perhaps the the BMI should not be included or the test should be more personalized and take into account body type as well. I also think that it might be interesting to have the First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign be somehow involved, so that  it ties this information about their bodies into educating the children and their parents on ways to be more healthy over all. As we all know though obesity can be a factor in bad health being thin does not mean that you are healthy!

 

 

Video: Florida state laws mandating health screenings at school are sparking controversy after an athletic sixth-grader was sent home with a letter saying she had an “at-risk” body mass index and therefore was overweight.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

* more here

On Miley Cyrus, Ratchet Culture and Accessorizing With Black People

Via: Jezebel

by Dodai Stewart


A lesson from Miley Cyrus’s new video: If you want to look “cool” and “edgy” and “tough,” just steal the styles and dance moves of black people.

Miley Cyrus, twerking, in a unicorn onesie. Because this is America. Read…

The new pseudo-thugged out Miley has been percolating for a while; from her twerking unicorn suit video to her appearance on stage at a Juicy J show, the former Disney darling seems drawn to specific elements of a specific form of hip-hop. Not socially-conscious hip-hop. Dirty South/crunk hip-hop associated with strip clubs, pimps and drug dealers. Juicy J is formerly of Three 6 Mafia, a group who rose to fame with hits like “Slob On My Knob” and “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp.” The track Miley popped her ass to at his show, “Bandz a Make Her Dance,” is specifically about hanging out in the company of strippers. Some key lyrics:

Start twerking when she hear her song, stripper pole her income

We get trippy and then some, so nasty when she rollin’

She put that ass up in my hands, I remote control it

[…]

You say no to ratchet pussy; Juicy J can’t

Racks er’where, they showin’ racks, I’m throwing racks

In the VIP, rubber on I’m stretching that

Rich niggas tippin, broke niggas lookin

And it ain’t a strip club if they ain’t showin pussy

[…]

She make that ass clap, dancin’ like she on a dick

Bring it back I threw a stack, that’s one lucky bitch

Up and down she’s going she’s sliding on that pole

Making money, stacking them honey, shawty go

Miley seems to delight in dancing much like these strippers do: Twerking, popping the ass, bending at the waist and shaking her rump in the air. Fun. But basically, she, as a rich white woman, is “playing” at being a minority specifically from a lower socio-economic level. Along with the gold grill and some hand gestures, Miley straight-up appropriates the accoutrements associated with certain black people on the fringes of society. (See: “Ratchet Girl Anthem.”)

On Miley Cyrus, Ratchet Culture and Accessorizing With Black People

In the video, Miley is seen with her “friends”: Mostly skinny white boys and girls who appear to be models. But in a few scenes, she’s seen twerking with three black women. Are they also her friends? Or is she just hoping for street cred? Note that she is wearing white, in the spotlight, the star of the video — and they are treated as props, a background for her to shine in front of. We’ve tackled the use of people of color in the background before; it’s a theme that persists, but remains wrong. In a white-centric world, putting white women quite literally in the center of the frame while women of color are off to the side is a powerful, disrespectful visual message, and it really must be said: Human beings are not accessories. These women might be her friends, but the general dynamic created is that she is in charge and they are in service to her. Not so far off from Paula Deen’s dream dinner party. Remember when Gwen Stefani surrounded herself with Harajuku girls? Margaret Cho, at the time, labeled it a minstrel show. A really on-the-nose choice of words, since white people have been mimicking black people for fun and profit from Al Jolson to Amos n’ Andy to Elvis. Now we have Ke$ha (seen below) and Miley dressing up like they live in the hood. (Do not forget that thanks to her father being a huge star and her time at Disney, Miley has been wealthy for her entire life.)

On Miley Cyrus, Ratchet Culture and Accessorizing With Black People

There was a time, just over a decade ago, that “ghetto” took off: Everyone was using the word “ghetto,” talking about being “ghetto fabulous,” and even Carrie on Sex And The City was wearing gold nameplate necklaces and earrings of the sort made popular by black women. Now we’re seeing the word “ratchet” get tossed around the same way, and the gear associated with “ratchet culture” — gold grills, extensions, long, intricate fingernails, contorting fingers into gang signs — is hip and cool and edgy. (Here is a good piece explaining how “ratchet” went from an insult to a compliment.)

On Miley Cyrus, Ratchet Culture and Accessorizing With Black People

Let’s not get it twisted: The exchange and flow of ideas between cultures can be a beautiful thing. I believe in cross-pollination and being inspired by those whose experience is not like your own. If Miley is inspired by gold teeth and bounce music and has friends who are rappers, that’s not a problem. But when she uses these things to re-style her own image, she veers into dangerous territory. If she didn’t have the grill, if the black women were integrated throughout the video instead of being segregated to one weird scene, if she hadn’t worn that headband… This clip might not have been so problematic.

As Tamara Winfrey Harris of What Tami Said once wrote:

A Japanese teen wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the logo of a big American company is not the same as Madonna sporting a bindi as part of her latest reinvention. The difference is history and power. Colonization has made Western Anglo culture supreme–powerful and coveted. It is understood in its diversity and nuance as other cultures can only hope to be. Ignorance of culture that is a burden to Asians, African and indigenous peoples, is unknown to most European descendants or at least lacks the same negative impact.

It matters who is doing the appropriating. If a dominant culture fancies some random element (a mode of dress, a manner of speaking, a style of music) of my culture interesting or exotic, but otherwise disdains my being and seeks to marginalize me, it is surely an insult.

Think of Derelicte, or of dressing kids up as “homeless” for Halloween. Inappropriate. Wearing a gold chain isn’t blackface, just like buying a turquoise ring in Arizona is not offensive like calling your panties “Navajo” or modeling lingerie in a Native American headdress. But it’s important to understand that Miley is very privileged to be able to play dress up and adorn herself with the trappings of an oppressed/minority culture. She can play at blackness without being burdened by the reality of it. A new piece for Newsweek reports:

there are more African-Americans in the corrections system today—in prison or on probation or parole—than there were enslaved in 1850.

Miley and her ilk need to be reminded that the stuff they think is cool, the accoutrements they’re borrowing, have been birthed in an environment where people are underprivileged, undereducated, oppressed, underrepresented, disenfranchised, systemically discriminated against and struggling in a system set up to insure that they fail. As Sesali Bowen wrote for Feministing in March:

But being ratchet is only cool when you do it for fun, not if those are valid practices from your lived experiences […] Folks with certain privilege are willing and able to float in and out of ratchet at will […]

…Pop culture trends like twerking, “aint nobody got time for that,” or even just using the word ratchet to define the wild things that happened at last night’s party are all rooted in someone’s lived experience. Sometimes it’s your lived experience, but if it’s not, please stop for a moment to consider your privilege and what role you may be playing in the appropriation of someone else’s exploitation.

It’s worth noting this track — which is chiefly about the joys of dancing like a stripper and doing lines in the bathroom— was written by two men, producers Rock City and Mike WiLL Made It and originally intended for Rihanna. (True story: Miley said to them: “I just want something that just feels Black.”) But blackness is not a piece of jewelry you can slip on when you want a confidence booster or a cool look. And playing at being poor — while earning a profit by doing so — is just distasteful.

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Nina Davuluri Is Miss America 2014 Oh yeah and she is Indian…

Miss America winner Nina Davuluri

It still amazes me that as a country are so quick and proud to say that we are “The Land of the free and the home of the brave” we are a melting pot, the land of opportunity, a country of immigrants and yet when someone that does not look like what the media has marketed as “American” people lose there minds. Nina Davuluri is the first Miss American of Indian decent to ever be crowned. It is a milestone, as was the first African American, Asian or Latina woman to hold that title. In fact it is almost a milestone when a brown person from anywhere other than Texas can claim that title!!! What is disturbing (but I hate to say no surprising is the hate and ignorance poured out towards this young woman, who is am American born and raised, who is just as proud of her country as anyone of us- so much so that she desires to represent her/out nation by wearing that crown. For people to  call her a terrorist, saying her crowning was a slap in the face to the memory of  9/11 and calling her Miss. Al Qaeda.

It so incredibly ignorant and asinine Americana a famous for being bad a geography but come on- India is in no sense in the Middle East!!! it is not Iraq, Iran, or Afghanistan.  Did they mistake her Bollywood dancing as belly dancing… or did they just see her brownness, her features and profile her through fear and bigotry?

By the way she was born in Syracuse, New York and having lived in Oklahoma and Michigan, Nina Davuluri is the first ever Indian American crowned Miss America.

She is Beautiful, Intelligent and Talented and represents America far better then some of her country men represent her!!!

Walk and Wave girl Walk and Wave!!!

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