RoboHo,Cyberfeminism...Basically women dorning robowear in pop culture

Okay so something that I've noticed is robotic imagery being used by certain female singers and in the case of one entertainer(because she is not great singer but the girl can definitely put on a show or at least I enjoy the DVD of her concert). Let me break it down - the evolution of robot imagery as used by female singers . First, Bjork - does anyone remember her video's for Hunter and then All is full of love. Then before you know it Al Sharpton is going on TV talking about Beyonce's "RoboHo" outfit as seen in the last bit of Sweet Dreams/Beautiful Nightmare video. Here we are in 2010 and two new female artist are yet again being inspired by robot imagery and using that image . There's Christina Aguilera as "Bionic Woman"





image via www.dlisted.com

And now Erykah Badu with her "New Amerykah Part 2" album cover , is this supposed to be roboshewarrior in the post Apocalypse era? (I bought "New Ameryah Part 1" , overall it wasn't her best album but I'm excited for New Amerykah after hearing two tracks)




image via www.rap-up.com

Why are these women in the mainstream using the bionic women/robot image? As for now I've been really thinking about it especially since I've been wanting to re-read Donna Haraway's "Cyber-feminism:A manifesto" but I think this is an interesting route being taken by certain female artist in popular culture...

nail art, what's the deal?

As mentioned before I'm currently living in Japan and Japanese women are well known for their love of fashion , labels , accessories, cuteness and beauty/cosmetics. Something I've noticed here in Japan is women here are really into nail art. Okay, so I come from South Africa where nail art basically just involves getting a basic french manicure ; which is considered "classy" (even my own mother utters such a sentiment) but as for me I've always associated nail art with women who don't work and there's nothing I detest more then I woman who doesn't work - it doesn't matter what kind of work you doing , as long as you working, you cool with me (this includes housewives-well kind off...)I remember a while ago back in South Africa seeing a women who was struggling to type because of her false french manicured hands , so that's basically the impression I had of nail art and women who are into nail art. However I started thinking back of Lauryn Hill and she had a line in that track "everything is everything" about getting nails done by Koreans. Judging from my last trip to Korea , Korean women are also into nail art and they good at doing it to but then again according to the Korean lady who was putting my weave in (yeah I had one , I said it) "Korean women are good with their hands, we can sew , do all types of hair and do nails" (from that statement alone I could get into a whole rant about the 'division of labour') And then when I was in New York , I couldn't help but notice all the African American and Hispanic women with very well decorated nails. So is the nail art trend something that only women of colour are into? I've yet to encounter a white woman with her nails done/nails did, every Caucasian women I know has basic colour or clear nail polish.I just find it funny that Asian women are into nail art since it something that I (and surely I'm not alone in this thinking) clearly associate with black and Hispanic women because from what I know and see here in Asia whiteness is the height of beauty and whatever is associated with white beauty and femininity is something that women here gladly follow and nail art is something I just don't see white girls into... I got to find a book or something to explain this to me because I just don't understand it...To see what I'm talking about this link clearly shows you how popular nail art is here in Japan

Am I a woman?Yes. Am I a feminist? Um , I don't know...

I said I would be back trying to get my blogging on. I'm not giving up. So I've been thinking what am I about and what this blog should be about? Many people would say I'm a feminist and I will admit I'm one of those women very weary of using that label on myself (but then again aren't most women of colour? and why is that , please don't blame it on white liberal feminists or maybe I gotta accept they are to blame...)Anyways so I've often been called a feminist or as one guy/or was it a girl? said "you one of them activist sista's huh?" My response would be "um , I don't think so #and do a kanye shrug#" I don't think of myself as any kind of activist because as much as I've got concerns and opinions , I don't go mouthing them at every opportunity (even more so know since I think I've co-opted Japanese ethics on cooperation and creating a "smooth atmosphere") plus you won't see me marching and rallying just because I've got a fear of being arrested every since watching my father getting in the back of a police van at a tender age ...So , why do people have this impression that I'm some sort of activist feminist maybe its because one of my major's at university was Gender Studies. Yep, I did Gender Studies at U.C.T under the guidance of some white liberal lecturer called Jane (who insisted of using this fictional girl called Thandi every time she used an example of gender when it came to black women in South Africa, but then again I got this theory that all white liberals in South Africa love the name Thandi , seriously - I think I know like two black girls adopted by white families and both are named Thandi and I'm sure there is more...) Oh and how can I forget the fiery coloured women named Ellen , I really liked her she seemed she was once one of those women who was once an activist but somehow got burned out because she always seemed tired during lectures and then there was Amina Mama the head of the department whose daughter I went to school with. Gender Studies was good for me seriously , it was probably the only department where A)I passed all the courses and B) I got to really explore certain interests of mine using academic lingo and the readings were awesome. So where am I going with all this reminiscing , well I figured that although I'm not an outright feminist (maybe a womanist you know the saying "womanism to feminism is purple to lilac" and I forgot who said that, damn me and my foggy memory) I'm going to dedicated a part of this blog airing my thoughts on "womenism" , or basically being a black women who is rightfully concerned about being a black women and the experiences or thoughts of other women whom I find interesting or somewhat inspirational. I'm going to primarily feature sisters of the same hues(catch my drift..."black , brown and yellow we are the majority"according to a t-shirt a friend of mine owned) but I now I got to put the spotlight on "sisters doing it for themselves"

F the first attempt I'm doing this !

Last week, I thought that I'm going to give up on blogging since I wasn't pleased with what I first came up with in terms of my first posts. I know that I need to do this, perhaps for my own sanity - joking . I just know I want to create and maintain a blog for the time being. So a little time has passed and during this time . I've been perusing the Internet as per usual. One of my first stops being twitter, although I have an account I'll be honest and admit , I don't like twitter and find it too constraining however I do follow certain people on twitter. I'm always entertained by the mc C RAYZ WALZ tweets , I think he's kinda crazy but I find his tweets funny nonetheless , a while back he tweeted about this female MC called Dessa. I don't want to get into some long sch peel about female MC's/ femcees because I find it tiring...Anyways he tweeted about Dessa being like Jean Grae when she was rapping under the moniker MC WHAT WHAT. I got to say I'm a big Jean Grae fan , I think she is JEANIUS so I had to check out this Dessa chick. She is certainly different , but Jean Grae she is not - and I don't think she is trying to be either because there is only one Jean. I have to give props to Dessa though for her one track called "Dixon's Girl",I've been listening to it quite a lot plus I dig the video


I definitely relate to the lines "back to the wall/back to the ball/back to the drawing board again..." That's what I need to be doing right now with my life and with this blog

blogging failure/blogging inferiority

As I have said this is my first foray into blogging and I really don't expect anyone to read my blog , this is just for me. So I've been thinking is a blog the wrong medium? should I instead join something like livejournal , would it be more appropriate? I think these thoughts came about from firstly reading a blog created by a former varsity classmate and secondly the blog not turning out to what I imagined it would be like. So far I think my post have been very self-involved and even though this blog is about me , I wanted to showcase things I find interesting and ponder about. I love reading blog posts which are like essays , which discuss contemporary issues or even posting a cool video. I know I can do that , I know thats what I should be doing , but why am I not doing it?

I've decided that I'm going to rethink this blogging thing and see what I can create which will be a more honest reflection of who I am. Until then , sayonara!

Sofia Maldonado

Sofia Maldonado , is a woman who has a lot of people talking about her murals in N.Y. This morning when I went to a certain "african-american" site, they had a post entitled"
: http://bossip.com/227726/does-this-offend-you-mural-in-nyc-getting-a-lot-of-heat-for-portraying-black-and-latina-women-in-a-negative-light/#more-227726 and me being me , I obviously had to read the post , comments and all...First of all I love the fact that her work has people talking . As to what I think of her work , it reminds me alot of what Fafi does but unlike Fafi its gritty, Fafi's work has alot of attitude but its become too cutesy for my liking.Not that I mind cute since living in Japan has made me accept all that is cute. I googled Maldonado and found this gem of a video via http://vimeo.com. What really got me laughing though was some dude I think around 0:33 mark , he says something along the lines of "this is nasty , this is not right, we don't treat females like this..." Wow , really dude in which planet don't they treat women like that , but anyways I'm looking forward to what Maldonado is going to come up with next

"42nd Street Mural" - NY reactions from Mykwain Gainey on Vimeo.

I really do hope she doesn't become one of those artists we hear about and then forget later. It seems like such a common occurance especially with female artists and especially those in a male dominated medium such as graffiti.

What is Bushi's do and Who is bsama

The name of my blog is bushi'sdo and in the following post I'm going to briefly explain and reveal a little of myself. So at the moment I'm living in Japan (which is a somewhat long story that I will divulge one of these days) and my name is Busi , in Japan when my name is written in katakana its often pronounced as Bushi. This then reminds most Japanese people of Bushido which in translation means the way of the warrior / or way of the samurai.Secondly since my name is pronounced Bushi and do means "the way" the title of my blog could basically be understood as Busi's way...So that's that about the title of my blog

Well about me , you can check out my profIle if you want to know some arbitary things about who I am but I'm also willing to say a bit more about myself in this post. My name is "Busi" (not really is was a moniker given by my white friends because they couldn't pronounce my real name and it was a name I later identified with because it became a connection to my mother's ethnicity). I am currently 24 years old , I live in Japan and I have a job which I will talk about once and when I leave Japan. I am originally from South Africa even though I cringe at calling myself a South African because I feel I dont know what that really means even though I know what it entails (but thats for another discussion on nationality and so forth) I think I'm done for now

So why blog...?

Okay so this is my foray into blogging and I am still trying to figure out what drew me to bloggersphere. Well I will admit I have been a fan /cruiser of blogs since I first found out about them and I have been a dedicated follower of some blogs. In fact , I have even been inspired by some blogs. As for why I am doing this , first of all I'm not looking to became any sort of internet celeb or internet flameball. I've come to a point in my life where I needed a place to express who I am in term of my interests and opinions. I could have easily bought a journal like we used too back in the days but to tell you the truth after many futile attempts I now know I'm not a journaler (is that even a word?) so I've decided to try something new. I don't expect any followers or people to be even interest in this personal project of mine (this blog) I'm just doing this for me. Maybe its a way for me to valify my existence or better yet to make my own space in this virtual space