Fighting Negative Stereotypes

This article was a really good example on how gender is still taken into consideration when it comes to competitions and social challenges. When researching #social action, it told of how a young girl, Ana “Rokafella” Garcia, who was inspired and driven to practice breakdancing all in the fight for women who were abused, neglected and treated badly by men. The only way she saw fit to relinquish the gender injustice that was always present around her was proving to the community that men were not the only ones that could break dance. Eventually she was recognized by a young woman after one of her shows, and was told that just by watching her perform, inspired her to do anything. Realizing what a huge impact she was having on other women, her goal changed. Instead of proving that women can do anything men can do but better, Ana’s goal was now to inspire women from all over the  city that they should be the best they can be for themselves and only themselves.

Ana made a huge difference in people’s lives. She eventually became a directory of a relating documentary and co-founded a nonprofit hip-hop dance company. For someone to have gone through all this trouble and responsibility just to make a social change really says something about her character. If today’s community would go out and make a difference in a social issue, there probably wouldn’t be any failing neighborhoods or run down rural areas. I myself have seen multiple examples where gender is an issue for whatever reason. For example, when applying for a job back home at a place that was hiring, I did not get the job because the business only hired women. This was not as big as what Ana did of course, but it was enough to see that the gender injustice still exists in our community today.

Ana made a huge social change when she started break-dancing for the purpose of proving people wrong, to making herself into an inspiring symbol. She might have done it for her own different and personal reasons at first, but it then grew to become the community’s inspiration toward a social change in gender. Overall I liked this article because it caught my attention with the gender injustice issue. Just because someone is a specific sex does not mean they are automatically fit for that job, skill, etc.  Everyone deserves a chance to experience new and different things, no matter what circumstances there may be.

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