The Consequences of “Fitting in”… an updated version of “No longer a silent minority”

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In becoming a social normality, an idea, a product, or even a person loses its essence of being unique. What was once rare, weird, and strange to society, now becomes simply ordinary and understood. Although social acceptance is normally what people desire, they fail to realize what they are losing in the process of becoming just another average Joe: individuality.

Similar to the civil rights movement and women’s suffrage, the gay right’s movement is a certain group of people’s fight to gain their inherent freedoms and rights. Forced for years to stay hidden, unable to fully express themselves for fear of persecution and hate, the LGBTQA community has emerged from the darkness and is now out, proud and louder than ever before. Years of protests, campaigns, speeches, and law suits have allowed this group to finally have a voice in the nation they call home. However, as seen in Erik Piepenburg’s article, “Gay Theaters Now Struggle to Evolve”, the theaters which were once the only places willing to represent their unique identities and struggles, are now losing business because of the LGBTQ community’s integration and acceptance into society. 

In his article, Piepenburg describes how the About Face Theater, a celebrated center for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and allied community located in Chicago, is now struggling to find innovate, “fresh” story lines for their performances because the “old white gay coming-out story” isn’t interesting enough for its audiences anymore. Although this is a colossal move in the positive direction for the gay community, it is literally killing business for the theater. Audiences have become so accustomed to gay culture- a culture they previously found repulsive- that they now consider it normal and uninteresting. These people want more. They’re tired of the same song and dance about a married man coming out of the closest. They no longer see the beauty of the LGBTQ community.

This is the problem with things becoming mainstream; society gets tired of it…and quickly. Because society is becoming more accepting of the previously unaccepted gay community, theaters are more willing to perform plays about them. Eighteen years ago, when the About Face Theater was first opened, no one would have believed a gay musical would be on Broadway or that a gay musical would be a Pulitzer Prize winner. This small theater was able to preform for their targeted audience an amazing show that they could not see anywhere else. However, that is now not the case. The once prosperous theater is currently scrambling to “right-size the budget” in response to lack of donations, in other words, lack of interests from their once loyal following.

Piepenburg describes how the new art director, Andrew Volkoff, is trying his best to develop a way to make the theater special again; to attract a broader audience.  Although competition from large theaters is making this a difficult task, Volkoff is remaining confident. This confidence is seen in his statement, “There may be elements of gay experience, no matter how integrated gay people get, that remain different, that don’t have enough mainstream appeal to be programmed at regular nonprofit theaters.”

Despite Volkoff’s optimism, the aspects of the LGBTQ community that have yet to be explored will most likely be portrayed in a larger theater. The question is whether or not audiences will find any of these unchartered territories enjoyable or entertaining.

Link

http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/theater/gay-theaters-now-struggle-to-evolve.html?ref=theater&_r=0

Bibliography

Piepenburg, Erik. “Gay Theaters Now Struggle to Evolve.” – NYTimes.com. New York Times, 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 19 Sept. 2013.

Cheng Dong – New York Time Art Post

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This Tuesday, September 17th, might have been an ordinary day for everyone, but it was made special by a event. The official release of Grand Theft Auto V, the newest member of the sixteen year old GTA series. Looking back at the first GTA game release over a decade ago we can still remember the controversies it has brought up with its extreme contents. Today with the culture of violence come to be more accepted by the rising youth, who are under excessive amount of social pressure, these criticisms has become weak and pale. Just as Chris Sullentrop, in his article, describes the controversies surrounding the GTA games to be “sepia-toned oddities from another age”.

As the pressure from our daily life builds higher and heavier on our shoulders, everyone sought ways to relieve ourselves of some pressure. To those who found their way in videogames, the news of the release of “Grand Theft Auto V” this Tuesday would have been a blessing. Thanks to the efforts of the game designers and the continuing development of technologies; the improvements in both storylines and 3D graphics of GTA series makes players more readily implant themselves into the game characters. Like the game character Michael said in the game “I’ve got an imbalance, one minute I’m one person, and the next minute I’m another person”. Player become a group of totally different people while engaged in the world of Grand Theft Auto; the other person that Michael states he become is not the players themselves, but a third person created unconsciously in response to the weight of everyday life.

Through the channel of game characters the players are able to unleash their suppressed personality in a series of violent actions that does not hurt the world around them. There are controversies as to how GTA series could lead players to violence, but people sometimes fail to see from another perspective to how many players may end up releasing their violence into the real world had the fictitious world of GTA not taken its place. Of course video games will always be a beautiful lie to the players that can almost certainly never become real, but don’t we all wish that we get a good dream that we could fall back into after a hard day in life?

Bibliography:

Suellentrop, Chris. “Grand Theft Auto V Is a Return to the Comedy of Violence.” New York Times 16 Sep 2013, n. pag. Web. 20 Sep. 2013

New York Times Arts Review

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Art means never doing the same thing twice. It is innovation and originality and weirdness. All we need to do as appreciators of art is have an open mind. I will be the first to admit that this is not my strongest attribute. Aside from the arts I use logic and facts to make my decisions. But when I watch a movie or look at a painting I usually judge things too quickly based on how they make me feel.

When I was choosing an article to review I wanted to pick something I knew I could write about, something that provoked emotion. So when I saw the headline “An Opera Plot Ripped From the Tabloids” I assumed it would be interesting. I read the quick summary before I clicked on the article and saw that it was a review of the opera based on the life of deceased Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith.

I immediately thought that the review would be very critical. Due to a lack of funding the Anna Nicole Smith opera could be the only opera put on by the New York City Opera this season. The first few sentences of the article discussed how much this upset opera fans. How they expected something more sophisticated than a story about a Barbie doll turned drug addict. And honestly that is how I felt as well. I thought that the review would be trashing the vulgar costumes and the director’s classless subject choice.

annanicolesmith2

 

At first the reviewer, Anthony Tommasini, seemed to be of the same opinion. He, like me and many New York Opera fans, heard about the ‘Anna Nicole Smith’ opera and was predisposed to be negative. He believed that it would be a shallow rendition of the reality star’s life; the New York Opera’s attempt to attract a younger, less cultured audience.

But instead he spent the next eleven paragraphs talking about how it defied his expectations. Tommasini asserted that the opera isn’t at all like the MTV musical many people thought it would be. According to him it offers a completely different perspective of Anna Nicole Smith’s life. We aren’t shown a Playboy gold-digger, instead the director shows us a poor young woman who does whatever is in her power to escape a bad situation.

I haven’t seen the opera yet so I can’t say whether or not this review is accurate. But what I did realize over the course of the article is that I was much too quick to judge the performance. Having never seen the opera and knowing very little about Anna Nicole Smith’s life I had already made up my mind that the show would be ridiculous.

The reviewer Tommasini didn’t persuade me that the opera is as amazing as he believes it to be. But he did persuade me to give it a chance and soon I hope to go to the New York City opera and see it for myself. And if I do I will go with an open mind.

annanicolesmith

 

Link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/19/arts/music/a-bittersweet-opening-for-anna-nicole-and-city-opera.html?ref=arts&_r=0

All pictures were taken from the New York Times article

From Tradition to Transition: A Rockette’s Story

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Born and raised in the New York City area, I always looked forward to the holiday season in November and December. From school days off to celebrating with the family, I had many reasons to enjoy the season. In New York City, the holiday season is particularly special because the entire city brightens up with decorations, lights, and excited people all looking forward to the various holidays to celebrate. One of the main venues that attract the most attention is the Radio City Music Hall that hosts the Christmas Spectacular for about 3 months. The stars of the show are the Rockettes, known for their perfect alignment and traditional kick line.

In Gia Kourlas’ article, What, No Kick Line? A Novelty From the Rockettes, she explains how the new spring production, featuring the Rockettes, plans on changing up the tradition and removing the kick line dance technique. By explaining what the director of the production has in mind and tracing the tradition back to the beginning of the Rockettes, Kourlas sheds light on the fact that our modern world is changing quickly and those old traditions are becoming a thing of the past and not the present.

rockettes

Introducing this new style will show viewers of the show that the Rockettes are more than just a Christmas “Spectacular”, they are genuine dancers. The director is quoted in the article to have said, “This is not a book musical, and it’s not a revue…It’s like its own animal.” By calling it an “animal”, she shows that ferocity the Rockettes have in their dance performances, but she wants to take it to another step. Even though this may be seen as risky, I find this change very refreshing. Personally, I don’t always like to follow tradition; I like to experience change, whether it’s slow or sudden. The director is being inspirational and I hope other productions follow suit.

Ms. Haberman, the director, states that she doesn’t think she is breaking tradition, but the fact the Rockettes are starring in a spring show does imply they are. Kourlas’s view sounds indifferent to the article and I think everyone should be somewhat indifferent as well because it clears their mind of any bias and they can watch the production with an open mind. Living in New York City requires people to adapt to drastic change, such as a subway line suddenly discontinuing for a period of time. If we were to automatically think the director is doing a foul move, then we would all not want to see the spring show, just continue to watch the traditional Radio City one. The kick line might be the best technique by the Rockettes, but in reality it’s their whole dance that embodies their nature. The Rockettes don’t merely symbolize Christmas in New York City, they symbolize New York City itself, and that’s what Haberman is trying to show.

Source:

Kourlas, Gia. “What, No Kick Line? A Novelty From The Rockettes” New York Times. 17 September 2013. Web. 17 September 2013.

Grand Theft Auto V: Controversy to Come?

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The arts, often times, can be a reflection of culture and society.  It’s games like those in the Grand Theft Auto series that not only echo culture, but satirize it and bring to the forefront issues that are controversial.  Because of the interaction nature of video games, the games themselves often become a matter of controversy – the Grand Theft Auto games are notorious for this.  However, according to Chris Suellentrop in his review of Grand Theft Auto V, “The controversies that once surrounded the Grand Theft Auto games have begun to seem like sepia-toned oddities from another age.”  To Americans, this may be.  However, if history repeats itself, I believe that the game will come under greater scrutiny.

This isn’t to say that I agree with the past censorship of Grand Theft Auto games – I’m a huge supporter of games developer’s abilities to expand the medium of gaming and push boundaries.  And looking at the past, controversy over games doesn’t always ignite immediately after their initial announcement or even their release.  I’m looking specifically at Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, at the notorious “Hot Coffee mod” incident of 2005 in which a software patch was released which allowed a player to watch their in-game avatar have sexual intercourse with their in-game girlfriend.  American politicians were up in arms against the game and the game industry as a whole, and as a result, Rockstar ceased production of that version of the game.

Many who examine the San Andreas controversy point out that the violent content in the game, while still controversial, was not under as much scrutiny as the sexual content.  Indeed, this mirrors the perception that American popular culture is much more accepting of violence than it is of sexual content.  Other cultures have had problems with not only Grand Theft Auto, but other games too.  For instance, Australia banned and then later released a censored version of Fallout 3, another open world game in which drug use was a feature.  The player could visibly inject morphine into the avatar’s arm, and Australia found this offensive because of its country wide problem with drug use.  Japan banned Fallout 3 as well for the ability of the player to blow up a city with a nuclear weapon.  Both the Fallout series and the Grand Theft Auto series are open-world games, meaning that the player mostly has a high degree of control over the action his/her in-game avatar takes.

Fallout 3’s Nuclear Bombing Content

While Grand Theft Auto V hasn’t been brought under the magnifying glass quite yet, there are some in-game features ripe with the possibility for controversy.  Suellentrop, in his article, acknowledges one of the touchier features of the game in which the player is required to torture somebody, though he associates it with political commentary rather than a controversial feature.  Indeed, part of Grand Theft Auto V’s unique appeal is its ability to satirize politics and culture, however, this particular feature of the game could easily generate controversy because of the player’s direct involvement in the action of torturing someone.  I’m not saying that I find it offensive, but others might.  And like the San Andreas incident, in which the sexual content was not discovered until later, there may yet be other potentially offensive content hidden within the game.

Despite Suellentrop’s article being a review, opening by reminding the reader of past controversies rang a bell with me as a gamer.  I will say that the game looks excellent, despite potential public outcry – as Grand Theft Auto games time and time again prove.

Works Cited:

Suellentrop, Chris. “Grand Theft Auto V Is a Return to the Comedy of Violence.” New York Times 16 Sep 2013, n. pag. Web. 19 Sep. 2013.

The Sound of Silence

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Silence is golden—at least, that’s what the proverb says. But a different kind of silence can be even more valuable and beautiful: a silence filled with the echoes of a single chord(D major)’s dying breath, as imagined in Yves Klein’s “Monotone-Silence Symphony”. The theoretical birth of the Monotone-Silence Symphony began with Klein’s work in the field of the visual arts, according to “A Sound, Then Silence (Try Not to Breathe)” by Randy Kennedy. Because of his work in the visual arts, Klein began to wonder if the images could be somehow translated into sounds. The primary assumed question: could visuals truly be translated adequately into audio? Kennedy and the people he quoted in his article seem to think so. I personally agree, but it irks me that the people quoted in the article are all completely biased in favor of the concept of the symphony.

The one thought that kept cycling through my mind while reading this article was “That’s great, but where are the people who think this piece is absolutely ridiculous?” It’s doubtful that everyone agrees this is a beautiful piece of art—people don’t agree on what art means to begin with, let alone the value of it. When it comes to articles, both sides of the story need to be presented to try to avoid taking on a slant. As a result, the article comes off as overenthusiastic, to the point where doubt begins to take over regarding the performance. In theory, the symphony sounds like experiencing it would be magnificent, especially dressed up as it is with the descriptive language Kennedy uses. But would it translate into a performance as impressive as it looks on paper? According to the overseer of Yves Klein’s archive and estate, Daniel Moquay, who has seen several performances of the symphony, it doesn’t always work—that does bring a different perspective to the execution of the piece, but not to its concept.

Though the article itself has done a poor job of providing a different perspective, I have to say that the concept of the Monotone-Silence Symphony sounds amazing: one has to only imagine the correlation between Klein’s visually monotone pieces and his theoretical translation into sound to understand how fantastic it is that one could translate visual into musical art. Klein’s Monotone-Silence Symphony uses juxtaposition between sound and silence in the same way as someone would create a visual piece in black and white to offer a glimpse into how two completely different objects can work together to create a harmonious piece that can be analyzed and admired.

However, as I brought up earlier, people generally seldom agree on art’s meaning and value to society, and there must, logically, be people who think that the concept of twenty minutes of one chord continuously playing at a very loud volume followed by twenty minutes of absolute silence is utter nonsense. They would not understand why anyone would pay money to go experience sound and silence, when sound and silence are present in everyday life. Perhaps they would have a point: sound and silence are present in everyday life. But is that art? Is that the same as walking into a manufactured piece of strategically placed sound, followed by strategically placed silence, where the audience actually participates in this strategy and must play along to achieve the desired effect of the piece? I would argue that it is not the same, because art is a manufactured manifestation, and can we truly call everyday life a manufactured manifestation?

On another note, perhaps those dissenters would even ask about how accurate these translations can be, and how colors in visual art would translate into sound; if sound and silence are black and white, then what corresponds to the rest of the spectrum? Perhaps it has to do with the level of the volume, so that it is not sound and silence but rather loudness and silence. I have a question of my own: why D major? Perhaps it corresponds to Klein’s monochrome paintings—they’re not black and white, but the same shade of blue, over and over again. Does this represent anything? Or is it just a feeling brought to life? Maybe we’ll never know.

Kennedy, Randy. “Yves Klein’s ‘Monotone-Silence’ Symphony Comes to Manhattan.” New York Times. New York Times, 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 18 Sept. 2013.

Interpreting Reviews: Grand Theft Auto V

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The most in demand and raved about new release, perhaps even more so than the iphone 5, is the release of the new Grand Theft Auto V. Scrolling through instagram, I couldn’t help but notice that practically every other picture was related to the game. Its popularity is overwhelming. I’ve never actually played the game but have heard it raved about time and time again. Chris Suellentrop offers his opinion of the game in his article “Grand Theft Auto V is a Return to the Comedy of Violence”.

Suellentrop introduces his article by discussing the diminishing controversy over the game. He states that the controversy over Grand Theft Auto games have “begun to seem like sepia-toned oddities from another age”.  Suellentrop seems indifferent to the violence and sexual content of the game, aside from his statement about how “disturbing” it is to witness the game being given to preteens. But he seems to have no problems with it in general. His opinion about the game is overwhelmingly positive. He is brutally honest and does not undermine the aspects of the game which used to stir up so much controversy. Based on his declaration that “while the franchise has lost the ability to shock, it remains the most immersive spectacle in interactive entertainment”  I gathered that he views the game as one of the best out there based on its genre and is obviously very impressed by it. He acknowledges the fact that society has become accustomed to the specific “type” of game that is Grand Theft Auto.

Grand_Theft_Auto_V

The article maintains an enthusiastic and admirable tone. A direct statement Suellentrop makes about the game is that it is “the best plotted, most playable, character-driven, fictionally coherent entry in this 16-year-old series.” The article continues with a more in-depth description of the game. Everything that’s said has an underlying tone of positivity. Other than the bluntness of the former controversial issues (use of drugs, the criminal occupation of characters) this article parallels a successful advertisement.

The concluding paragraph says, “Video games tell their own lies to their players: you’re powerful, you’re smart, you’re important, your problems can be solved if you just keep trying. And Grand Theft Auto V is one of the most beautiful, seductive lies yet uttered by our youngest creative medium.” (I would just like to comment that one of the things we mentioned when naming types of arts was “lies”)

I would say I’m a bit wary about this article. It praises the game constantly and as I read it I feel like I’m being sold the idea of Grand Theft Auto V. BUT. Knowing how highly others have talked about the game I’m not that skeptical. Of course, it is written from the point of view of a male and the target audience of the game is teenage to adult males. So a women would’ve possibly had a different opinion and may have focused solely on how demeaning they believe the game is and how it reflects badly upon society. Unlike Suellentrop who focuses on the dynamics of the game, the story line, and all things that make it interesting. I believe this article reflects Suellentrops true personal opinon about the game.

Works Cited:

Suellentrop, Chris. “Grand Theft Auto V is a Return to the Comedy of Violence” New York Times. 16 September 2013. Web. 19 September 2013.

NY Times Blog – Minecraft Used as an Educational Resource

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Technology is undoubtedly an integral part of the world around us, more so with every passing Apple product. Yet despite the massive role it plays in our lives, one area it seems to never fully overshadow is the classroom. Oh sure, we can use technology such as Smart Boards and videos on a projector screen, but when it comes to students having full control over such technology, it is strictly “lids down and phones away” in all levels of education. But what if we began to use the “distraction” of technology, often considered evil in the classroom, for good, even as an enhancer of our educational experience? Such is the case in the schools presented in the New York Times article “Disruptions: Minecraft, an Obsession and an Educational Tool” by Nick Bilton. Teachers across the world, from Switzerland to California, have recently united in a pursuit to use the video game Minecraft to capture the attention of students and teach them a wide range of topics including physics, history, ethical behavior, future planning, problem solving, environmental issues… even an assistance in language learning! History teachers, for example, have used presets of the game (called “mods”) to take their students on a virtual tour of cities such as Rome (shown below).

So why Minecraft? Empirical evidence within the article states that video games in general are already proven to “raise cognitive learning for students by as much as 12 percent and improve hand-eye coordination, problem-solving ability and memory.” But Minecraft takes these skills deeper and incorporates more areas of learning in that it has very few, if any rules. Players use “16-bit” character “skins,” which Bilton simplifies by comparing them to Legos that look something like this:

Though the digital graphics are far from superb, the limitlessness of the game makes this fact irrelevant. You basically plan and produce your own universe, using problem solving to create building tools from the environment around you. In certain modes you can create something as complex as the ancient Roman city pictured above. In other words, Minecraft can be suited to any curriculum, because its objective is to do whatever you want in whatever type of world you choose to create.

Furthermore, this distraction-turned-educational tool can teach younger children how to correctly function and behave in the unavoidable world of the web, specifically social media sites. Minecraft’s multiplayer option allows conversation between students and collaboration in building. One source Bilton quoted, the cofounder of a company that teaches teachers how to use Minecraft with students, said “Kids are getting into middle school and high school and having some ugly experiences on Facebook and other social networks without an understanding of how to interact with people online.” You could say that this lesson has nothing to do with schooling, but isn’t an education’s function to equip us with skills to adapt in the real world? Well, today’s modern earth has now been split into two respective realities: the real world and the virtual world of social media, both with different sets of rules and norms.  It is crucial that children learn how to use social media correctly so that it can serve its original beneficial purpose. Additionally, managing social media has become a crucial skill for many professional positions!

What better way for teachers and professors to take a stab at the technology that has hindered them from reaching the minds of their students for so long, than to mold it to their own purposes? This would be defeating the arch nemesis of the teacher, while simultaneously defeating a students’ arch-nemesis of boredom and inability to relate to subject matter presented in the classroom. I always get excited if we watch a movie in class, even if it is one I would not have watched on my own, because of the simple fact that technology is stimulating! Minecraft, differing from a movie in that it is interactive, takes that excitement to another level, as it does the learning experience. Students would be better able to learn and reinforce a concept by putting it into application in Minecraft. It is one thing to read about gravity in a textbook, and another to see it in action. I believe that the latter is what makes the former truly stick in a students mind. The device that once isolated students from their instructors can now bring them together in a mutually satisfying learning experience.

Bilton, Nicholas. “Disruptions: Minecraft, an Obsession and an Educational Tool.” Bits Disruptions Minecraft an Obsession and an Educational Tool Comments. New York Times, 15 Sept. 2013. Web. 18 Sept. 2013.

Can a saxophone ever be relevant in classical music?

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 Since its creation in 1846, the saxophone has been one of the most obscure instruments in the classical world.  You guys might wonder how can this be possible: the saxophone is such a popular instrument in the world of jazz and contemporary music.  Famous composers such as Hector Berlioz advocated the use of saxophones in the orchestra, but classical purists have kept it from doing so.  Without much support for the instrument in the classical world, the saxophone found its way into prominence from military bands and of course jazz.  Today, the lack of great works for classical saxophone has allowed this trend to continue.  William Robin, a writer for the New York Times, makes the point that there are numerous pieces by composers for saxophone; symphony orchestras, the focal point of spreading new music into the word, rarely play them.  Even the most famous classical saxophone pieces are composed by rather obscure composers.

 Meet John Adams, an acclaimed composer who is premiering his new saxophone concerto this Friday at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall of Baltimore.  John Adams is not alien to classical saxophone; he composed a famous saxophone quartet for his opera “Nixon in China”.  Timothy McAllister, a saxophone virtuoso and a professor at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern, will be the star of Friday’s saxophone concerto.  He describes  Adams’ composition to be “some of the hardest music I have ever played” (Robin).  William Robin also describes in the article how the concerto will test the skills that McAllister has in playing the saxophone.  John Adams thought of the idea of making such a concerto from listening to Sam Getz’s album Focus and Charlie Parker With Strings.  He claims to be in love with the sound of the saxophone with strings.  John Adams points this out when he says: “The sound of the saxophone with the orchestra, particularly with the string orchestra, is just magical,” (Robin).  He hopes that his concerto will help boost the saxophone’s popularity in the classical world and will be as brilliant as a concerto by Mozart.

I, like John Adams, hope that the saxophone will become a more involved part of the orchestra.  Coming from a performing arts high school, the chances for a saxophone to be in an orchestra are small.  My school’s orchestra used a saxophone only once in all of my four years at high school; the role of the saxophone, however, was minuscule at best.  Many of my friends played saxophone in bands and in jazz, but they never seemed to have a chance in playing it in classical music.  Composer of the past avoided scoring a piece with saxophone for the most part, so the repertoire we played would not include a saxophone.  I would love to see more diversity in instrumentation in classical music and I think that the saxophone deserves to be in an orchestra.  It is a beautiful instrument that has appeared to make it in all other genres of music except for classical.

In case anyone is curious about the saxophone and how it sounds with strings, here are some links to some music:

“Her” From Sam Getz’s “Focus”

Charlie Parker With Strings

Concertina da Camera by Jaques Ibert (Saxophone Concerto)

Saxophone Concerto in E Flat, Op. 109 by Alexander Glazunov

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/arts/music/classical-saxophone-an-outlier-is-anointed-by-john-adams-concerto.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ref=arts

New York Blog Post

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Hip hop is a dance form that originates from the streets. It is an elaborate form of dancing (break dancing) and rapping words rhythmically that can be culturally tied to street gangs and the hip hop subculture consisting of graffiti and other forms of expression. It was a way for people that spent immense amounts of their time and energy out on the streets to relax and have fun, all the while still competing to show one another who is the best.

As a result, generally hip hop is considered a dance/ music form that is connected to “tough” guys. We have rappers and break dancers, and somehow these figure-heads in the hip hop industry are perceived as tougher than in other genres of music. We have  Eminem, Two chainz, Macklemore, and several others that I personally cannot name due to my lack of familiarity with rap music. However, what caught my attention was an article in the New York Times: Homophobia and Hip-Hop: A Confession Breaks a Barrier by Jon Caramanica.

It is common knowledge that in the American culture, and in several other cultures throughout the world, homophobia is omnipresent. Being a homosexual is often looked upon as a weakness. As a result, homosexuality cannot be linked to the hip-hop world in many people’s minds, as in the hip-hop world, you have to be tough, and respected. And who can respect a homosexual? Many people generally find it hard to look upon someone with a different sexual orientation as normal, and strong.

Personally, I find it sad that people perceive others with different desires as weak. And what  I generally find disturbing is the extent to which homosexuality is degraded, especially in the hip-hop world. In several other art forms, homosexuality has become something that can be accepted, and yet when it comes to the rap industry, it is still frowned upon. It is due to this reason that Mister Cee retired from the hip-hop station Hot 97 Early Thursday morning, September 12th, 2013.

While I am not familiar with rappers, as it is not the music that I generally listen to, I find it disturbing that such a sense of homophobia is still present in the industry. Mister Cee reportedly said that “he thought the two parts of himself — his sexual identity and his hip-hop celebrity — couldn’t coexist” (Caramaniza, Homophobia and Hip-Hop: A Confession Breaks a Barrier).

Reportedly, Mister Cee has been playing songs in order to encourage people to feel better about their identities. Songs that displayed that someone cared, that someone was there to support them, no matter what they identify themselves as. And yet, when it came to the surface that Mister Cee was in fact a homosexual, he was forced to retire from the industry in order to avoid the shame. His notion that homosexuality and hip-hop don’t mix comes from somewhere. And I believe that we have to change these notions about sexuality and hip-hop.

I believe that everyone has a right to be whomever they wish, and correct me if I’m wrong, but I also believe that that should apply to anyone working in any industry.

Luckily, there have been strives to bring attention to how oppressed these people must feel working in their own industries. Kanye West supposedly announced that he supports gay marriage, and Macklemore has produced a hit song that entails that love is love no matter what called Same Love. In the song, even Macklemore provides a line that hits close to the idea of the article “If I was gay, I would think that Hip-Hop hates me”.

I thoroughly hope that one day these distinctions will not be made. I hope that one day, everyone will be able to choose the industry and career path that they desire, without having to consider their sexuality as a factor.

-Alexandra Szilagyi

Works Cited:

Caramanica, Jon. “Hip-Hop, Tolerance and a D.J.’s Bared Soul: He’s Tired of Denial.”New York Times. N.p., 12 Sept. 2013. Web. 12 Sept. 2013.