Author: Ryan Smith

Posted on

:)

By: Ryan Smith

From day to day out, women are being told to smile and look a “certain way” to appease men for their self-worth. But these opinions that men have about women are nothing but objective and disrespectful to the fullest. You see it happen on the streets, subways, stores and virtually anywhere people are interacting. This has been an ongoing issue that’s seen a worldwide pandemic within social change. 

This brings me to a brilliant social street artist by the name of Tatyana Fazlalizadeh. This movement started here in the ever-growing city of Brooklyn, New York in 2012. You’ll see portraits put up around various locations in the city of actual women that have been interviewed for this project with quotes such as “MY WORTH EXTENDS FAR BEYOND MY BODY”, “I AM NOT HERE FOR YOU” and “YO MEREZCO SER RESPETADA” which translates to “I Deserve To Be Respected”. By making her work in multiple languages she’s able to reach a larger audience of the general public and therefore get her voice out there. Behind each of these portraits has a larger story and their own experiences that each woman holds near to themselves. They shared what it’s like to have these daily experiences with harassment and how daunting it can take a toll on oneself.

After starting only 10 years ago this ever-growing social change has reached far-off places around our earth. These brave women’s stories are being told in New York, Berlin, France, Canada, Mexico, Trinidad, and the UK. It wasn’t until 2015, that Fazlalizadeh took this project to Mexico, making it international. It was the first step into bringing this movement worldwide and expanding her voice to the ends of the earth. Two years later she brought Stop Telling Women to Smile to her home state of Oklahoma, which is a primarily Republican state in wake of the 2016 election of Trump. The text read “America is black. It is Native. It wears hijab. It is Spanish speaking tongue. It is migrant. It is a woman. Has been here. And it’s not going anywhere.” That piece being in a republican state spoke volumes and raised an uproar, but she stuck to her guns and stood her ground. Her tenacity didn’t stop there, she brought in another groundbreaking movement in 2020 where her murals portraying exquisite portraits of Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, Tony McDade, and Nina pop in New York City. These portraits raised awareness addressing Racial and Transphobic violence happening today. 

That just goes to show how many social issues there are and how it affects so many people from so many different walks of life. It shines a spotlight on the fact that no matter where you reside, the similarities of harassment are jarring enough for women to all resonate with and have similar stories. There are countless individuals, including myself that have the utmost respect for Fazlalizadeh and the dedication it took for her to get her voice out there and help so many other women voice their opinion on what’s been happening. 

As the project is titled “Stop Telling Women To Smile”, it goes far beyond just that, but furthermore, it dives into the fact that just because a woman might wear a specific outfit that doesn’t give any man or person the right to an invitation to them or any unjust opinion. Women should be to wear and do anything in this world that they so do please without the constant harassment from men who seem to believe they have a right to voice their own opinion when in fact they should know their place and show these women the respect that they so rightfully deserve. From having countless women as friends, I’ve heard stories about how just walking from the train station to work here in New York City, they would get unnecessarily cat-called from men. The amount of disrespect and harassment that these women must feel daily is downright horrific and heartbreaking. No one should have to endure such an uncomfortable feeling when they are simply trying to go about their day. 

This movement not only shines a light upon this worldwide pandemic amongst women but also hopefully a step in the right direction as an entire society in the fact that we owe it to ourselves to treat women with more dignity and respect regardless of the circumstance. As men, we truly don’t understand the pain these women endure and have to face when out in public but what we can do is stand up for what’s right and lift women and give them the respect they deserve. 

Laura, 2014, Mexico City
Laura, 2014, Mexico City
Stephanie, 2012, Philadelphia
Nirali, 2013, New York City

Lee. R, Felicia. “An Artist Demands Civility on the Street With Grit and Buckets of Paste.” The New York Times, 9 Apr. 2014 https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/arts/design/tatyana-fazlalizadeh-takes-her-public-art-project-to-georgia.html

Fabulize Magazine, Contributor. “It’s Important For Men to Understand That They Need To Stop Telling Women to Smile.” 11 April. 2016 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/its-important-for-men-to-stop-telling-women-to-smile_b_9655246

Lambkin, Kelly and Cortland, Suny. “2 New York Artists Who Used Graffiti to Ignite Social Change.” 15 Nov. 2017 https://studybreaks.com/culture/graffiti-ignite-social-change-new-york/

Fazlalizadeh, Tatyana “Stop Telling Women to Smile.” www.tlynnfaz.com

Posted on

Unit 2 Proposal

For my unit 2 proposal, I’m diving into the movement “Stop Telling Women to Smile” by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh. It’s a street art project that refers to addressing the gender based street harassment that happens everyday over various places, happening to countless women. The Project started here in New York, primarily in Brooklyn in the fall of 2012. To this day its still considered an on-going project to raise awareness to this world wide conflict.

The project consists of various portraits made by Fazlalizadeh, that have displayed various women that she has sat down with and talked with about their own experiences with harassment and how it has affected them to this day. She uses many buildings and structures as her displays for her works of art to show all kinds of people the ongoing problem that happens within our society. She also is seen using not only English but Spanish as well on her portraits to hopefully reach people from other walks of life and to have her project reach more and more people.

Lambkin, Kelly and Cortland, Suny. “2 New York Artists Who Used Graffiti to Ignite Social Change.” 15 Nov. 2017.

2 New York Artists Who Used Graffiti to Ignite Social Change

Fazlalizadeh, Tatyana “Stop Telling Women to Smile.”

www.tlynnfaz.com

Fabulize Magazine, Contributor. “It’s Important For Men to Understand That They Need To Stop Telling Women to Smile.” 11 April. 2016

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/its-important-for-men-to-stop-telling-women-to-smile_b_9655246

Posted on

Stitched Together

By Ryan Smith

Watching these videos and reading these stories about these individuals is really heavy and really makes you be grateful for the modern medicine and advancements we have today. Ive always been aware of the AIDS pandemic and the history this country has with LGBTQ rights. It still shocks me that not too long ago it was a federal crime to be queer in this county. As some 30+ years has passed since this tragedy and the illegal precedent of being queer, it doesn’t seem we have made as much progress as a nation as we should have. It was only 7 years ago that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all state bans on same sex marriage, and legalizing all same sex marriages throughout the county.

Seeing these videos about how and why the quilt was made really opened my eyes on how such a deviating tragedy brought so many people together and make the worlds largest community arts project ever. It has 40,000+ individuals that lost their lives to this AIDS pandemic.

Back then there wasn’t much or if any information on sexual awareness and practicing safe sex. AIDS was something completely new back then and was at my understanding terrifying because no one knew anything about it and how to prevent it. Listening to these stories about how so many friends and family members were lost by the numbers and how much it would take its toll on you. The panels representing the size of a casket makes a bigger impact on the stories that want to be told, and these innocent lives will not be forgotten.

Posted on

Statues: Bring Them Down

By Ryan Smith

Looking back on these past two years I remember seeing people tearing down these statues or what some would call “monuments”. There was a lot of uproar about it when these statues would get ripped down because people thought they were a part of American history and somehow be celebrated. While you cannot argue that these statues are yes a part of The United States of Americas history, that doesn’t mean we need to have them up on display and celebrate them.

People nowadays are becoming more aware of the disgusting and horrific things these people have done and been made out to be statues. Theres no reason we need to have these Confederate leaders on display after the treacherous things they’ve done in the past to fellow human beings. This country has a deep history and rooted in so much racism so back then when the statues were put up people didn’t have a way to express their voices as much as they do now. With social media and more outlets for people to show their opinions on these topics I think it really opens a lot of peoples eyes and shows them why what’s being done is done.

I think these people should be learned about in school still, because people need to know how this country came to be and what truly happened back then. But to have their statues and monuments up is way over the line and they all need to be taken down immediately. It’s almost as if the people are taking back what’s right and standing up for themselves which is a very beautiful thing.

Posted on

Vogue

Ryan Smith

The Queer community has always found solace within itself and among its peers, therefore queer language was born. This language trickles down from various communities but the one with the biggest impact is the Black Community but more so the Black Queer Community. Queer people have taken these ideas and phrases, and brought them into a different light shared amongst the world.

There are limitless phrases and words that live within these communities that the Hetero community wouldn’t understand or resonate with. These phrases and words are ever changing in addition to evolving with newer generations and influences adding to the mix. As we use these words and phrases, we need to be mindful and be respectful about where they came from. One of the most famous sources for this is the film Paris is Burning. A film documenting the lives of Black and Latin queer individuals living in New York City during the 1980’s. Its primary focus is the “Ball Culture” but also dictates many words and phrases that are used today by so many different people. Nowadays there are many renditions of specific words, nevertheless they all share one quality and that’s they all stemmed from one place of origin.

The “Ball Culture” stemming from the very beginning of the 1920’s was a way for Black and Latino Queer people to showcase talents and “looks” within what they would refer to as their “Houses”. Houses were a family like group of individuals that have found shelter within each other. They would often compete amongst one another in these “Balls” turning looks and striking poses to earn trophies and a name for themselves. New York City was seen as the epicenter of the Ball room scene and still to this day it’s still unmatched. This culture and world caught the attention of many faces who were in the mainstream media at the time of the late 1980’s to early 1990’s. That’s when the world really saw the endless talent of this Queer Community. Arguably the biggest artist at the time was Madonna who really put the spotlight on Ball scene with her hit classic Vogue. The song starts off with the quotes “What are you looking at? Strike a pose, Strike a pose Vogue (vogue, vogue) Vogue (vogue, vogue)”. As familiar as those words are now, the term “Vogueing” simply states: To walk or dance in such a way that you imitate characteristic poses from a model on a catwalk. During her many performances she showed the world what it meant to “Vogue” by showcasing the talents of these artists in her shows who’ve directly come from the Ball Room scene for instance Luis Xtravaganza Camacho and Jose Gutierez Xtravaganza, both from the Legendary House of Xtravaganza.

This can all be seen as a direct relation to the famous essay “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What is? Written by James Baldwin. In the essay he states how “Black English” isn’t shown as a reputable language in terms of white people. Yet people are ever taking words and phrases from the Black Community, yet they put down their trying efforts and make it seem as if their language and words aren’t as valid as the ones used by white people. Baldwin states that white people belittle the Black Community with the language used but by no effort try to understand and respect the chosen language used but instead they look down upon it. To this very day it happens with Black and Queer language. Some saw Madonna as someone who’s white, essentially stole this culture from The Black and Latino Queer community with her hit single Vogue. But with further discussion she paid respects to the ones whose very life she showed the world. We must always remember where these words and phrases originated from and to be used with the upmost respect.

Language isn’t just words thrown together piece by piece, but instead is a beautiful work of art. It has history, culture, pain, and love. It’s all things that make it unique to people from all walks of life. These languages are deep rooted in so many different communities from all over the world and it’s what makes the human experience immeasurable. With each passing day we see these ideas and words develop into something original and innovative. Within the queer community there’s so many diverse groups but the one thing that seems to be unbounded is the language spoken. It’s a rare and beautiful thing to be a part of and should be celebrated in such a way.

 

Works Cited: 

Baldwin, James. “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” 

                     The New York Times. 29 July 1979, 

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-english.html?,%2522%2520&st=cse

Posted on

Janelle Monae

While reading the lyrics and listening to Janelle Monaes song Q.U.E.E.N. The first quote that stuck out to me was “They call us dirty ’cause we break all your rules down. And we just came to act a fool, is that alright? (Girl, that’s alright).” I was instantly reminded of the essay by Hadiya Roderique The Case for Black Joy. Both are referring to how as black people that being able to express joy and livelihood is somewhat looked down upon and having being constantly judged.

She also has another lyric in the song where she states: “Hey sister am I good enough for your Heaven? Say will your God accept me in my black and white? Will he approve the way I’m made? Or should I reprogram, deprogram and get down?” What I gathered from this was she was referring to herself being a queer individual and saying she isn’t “good” enough to fit into their mold of how someone should be. Yet she still stays true to herself because at the end of day her own happiness is what truly matters and not the opinion of others.

I’m posting a couple of remixed songs of Janelle Monaes that I’ve had in my playlists for a while now that are really good so I figured I’d share them and give you all a listen, The first one is a remix of her hit Q.U.E.E.N. and the other is Make Me Feel. Enjoy!