Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 at the age of 49, Bowie was most widely known for his strange yet talented performances and highly grossing career as a singer, songwriter, and overall famous musician, that being said he was so much more than that. Throughout the earliest years of his musical career he was seen in outrageous and complex costumes both in photoshoots, album covers, and live shows. Given as this was in 1969 when “American morals and values” were the most important facet of day to day life there was a huge culture shock surrounding the man in tights and a full face of makeup.

David Bowie was definitely the pioneer for outwardly queer men and the concept of androgyny in American culture. Given as he would go out into the world appearing to be stereotypically feminine or just not masculine donning his alien alter ego and stage persona Ziggy Stardust, during a time when gender roles and stereotypes were a huge deal. Now thankfully for timing women were at this time around the early 70’s starting to fight for equality and the concept of not being straight and not fitting into the heteronormative boxes laid out at birth based off sex was easy to run with.

“Bowie meant so much to so many, but for a number of people who have fought to subvert gender binaries and resist labels in a world that demands them, he made self-acceptance fashionable.” After the original culture shock of his appearance and persona Bowie’s very presence influenced many people to be comfortable in their skin, regardless of how you express yourself and whatever you decided to wear. Arguably paving the way for modern style icons like Jeffree Star, a makeup and style icon who gained popularity on the internet, openly gay and proud of his androgyny, openly praised Bowie in a tribute, for allowing people to be fearless and be themselves, “...thinking of how many doors this one man had opened for people like me. THANK YOU David Bowie for being the definition of "fearless" and making it OK for people like me to express themselves, and be happy”.

Sources:

Biography.com Editors. "David Bowie." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

http://www.biography.com/people/david-bowie-9222045

Segal, Corrine. "David Bowie Made Androgyny Cool, and It Was about Time." PBS. PBS, 11 Jan. 2016. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/david-bowie-made-androgyny-cool-and-it-was-about-time/

Jeffree, Star. "David Bowie “ZIGGY STARDUST" Makeup Tutorial." YouTube. YouTube, 13 Jan. 2016. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsYgeXaqWKI

Timeline of David Bowie’s Life Events

• Jan. 8, 1947 Birth. Originally named David Robert Hayward-Jones

• 1962 David Robert Hayward-Jones starts his musical carrer with his first band, the Konrads.

• 1966 David Robert Hayward-Jones officially and legally changes his name to David Bowie.

• June 1967 Bowie releases his first album. Self titled, David Bowie.

• July 1969 Space Oddity Is released, soon to reach the top 5 most played in the United Kingdom.  

• March 1970, Bowie marries actress and model Angela Barnett, his first wife.

• November 1970, The Man Who Sold the World is released, Bowie’s first fully realized album. Also, begin the first appearances of his Androgynous pop/rock persona Ziggy Stardust.

• May 30 1971, Bowie’s son Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones is born.

• June 1972 The Rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is released. This album was known as being a full concept album, leaning more towards a glam rock sound and image (Ziggy Stardust).

• May 1974 Release of Diamond Dogs, another concept album based off a George Orwell novel.

• March 1975 Young Americans, an album featuring John Lennon on the single, Fame. This single would soon be his first number 1 single in the United States.

• May 1976 Bowie stars in a sci-fi movie, The Man who fell to Earth and releases his album Station to Station.

• November 1975 Guest star appearance on the television show, Soul Train.

• September 1980 Bowie moves into the Broadway scene, working on the production of The Elephant Man.

• 1981 Bowie collaborates with Freddy Mercury and accompanying band Queen to produce the single, Under Pressure soon to be recognized as number one in the U.K (Bowie’s third recognition on the top charts of the United Kingdom.)

• 1984, David Bowie receives his first ever Grammy for his short film Jazzin for Blue Jean, which is actually a music video, not a film.

• June 1986 Bowie stars in a leading role in the movie Labyrinth.

• 1996 Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

• February 2006, Awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

• January 8 2013, The release of Bowie’s first studio decade in years, The Next Day.

• January 8 2016, Bowie releases Blackstar, his 25th album.

• January 10 2016, Death.

Sources:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2016/01/11/timeline-david-bowie-career-highlights/78617968/

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03550/bowie1_3550765b.jpg

http://img.cdandlp.com/2013/03/imgL/115908378.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81GaOhfPyFL._SL1300_.jpg

http://cbsnews2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2016/01/12/da0d14be-b560-4f2a-acea-7a9b3d3795b3/resize/620x465/b8abc2cc12af3f10d2e72130fc3d3753/ap9205030126.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/610V%2B0qBQrL.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/08/08/article-1205175-05E5BD2C000005DC-672_468x308.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/01/ZiggyStardust.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1f/Diamond_dogs.jpg

http://beforeitsnews.com/contributor/upload/30080/images/famedavid.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71AMEK3oV1L._SL1500_.jpg

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OehLJcjFrAk/maxresdefault.jpg

http://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/01/RIP-david-bowie-4.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/David_Bowie_-_The_Next_Day.png

https://bumshaketherum.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/blackstar.jpg

Informational Article

The person I will be observing during this project is Mary Church Terrell. She was a charter member of the NAACP and an early advocate for civil rights and the suffrage movement. Born on September 23, 1863, in Memphis, Tennessee, Mary was the daughter of small-business owners who were former slaves. Terrell was a suffragist and the first president of the National Association of Colored Women. Terrell and her brother were raised and taught to be hardworking and ambitious. In 1884, she became one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree from Oberlin College in Ohio. She earned her master’s degree in education four years later, which was very rare during this time period. In 1891, Mary married Robert Heberton Terrell who would eventually become Washington D.C’s first black municipal judge.

With Terrell having a new life in D.C., she was very involved in different movements, but the women’s rights movement in particular caught the majority of her attention. Her main focus, though, was the right to vote. Although the goal was to have equal rights and opportunities for all women, African-American women were often excluded from different plans that were executed. So, this lead to the creation of, with the help of fellow activist, The National Association of Colored Women in 1896. She was instantly named the organization's first president, and used this position to advance educational reform. Years later, she became a charter member of the NAACP, and combined her women’s right activism with her civil rights activism. Mary died on July 24, 1954.

Timeline

The person, activists I’ve choose that made an impact of gender equity is Beyonce.  Many people may share different views, but I personally think she is the perfect spokesperson for gender equality. For those who don’t know Beyonce Giselle Knowles-Carter is a singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, mom and a wife. She hole many titles as you can see. She was born in raised in Houston, Texas and worked her way up to the top of the charts.  

As a young girl Beyonce experienced depression. After all the struggles of switching companies and her parents getting a divorce. Her breaking point was when a friend and also member of the group, LeToya Luckett decided to leave the group because she was unhappy. Beyonce was devastated and fell into depression which led to her boyfriends leaving her. She stayed for days at a time. Beyonce spoke that it was her mother that helped her through it. Having a strong figure, especially that figure being your mother can make someone be an even better woman and mother. She saw woman as strong creatures and wanted to let them know that.

She addressed gender inequality by calling herself a “modern day feminist”. Many people threw salt on her for that saying she shouldn’t call herself that when she exposes her body in her performances and in her videos. How can one say that when she creates song that are for girl empowerment. She literally have a song titles “Run the World.” It’s sending a message about females that have their own life. That are independent and how we should be more confident in ourselves. Now it wasn’t to put males down or make them feel less about their self. It’s just that people are always coming at females. I know males that also love the song.

Beyonce know the true meaning of being a feminist. And it means believing in equal rights for men and woman. She understands that telling your daughter to be vulnerable and not your son is problem. She understand that a woman making 75 cents to a dollar is a problem.  

TIMELINE

2015 Beyonce and Michelle Obama calls for Gender Equality

2015 The conversation is popular – and yes, mostly thanks to Beyonce.

2014 From dancing in front of bright “FEMINIST” lights at the Superbowl (reaching an audience of approximately 140 million), to featuring the very definition of feminism read by novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie smack in the middle of a hit single, Beyonce has put her starpower to use for gender equality.

Now, popularizing the conversation doesn’t mean that feminism itself is popular. We certainly have a ways to go on that front. But I am encouraged by the frequency with which the topic appears in the mainstream media and everyday conversation.

Men and women are uniting behind gender equality

Speaking at Georgetown University’s Own It Summit this past weekend, I couldn’t help but notice the men who had been involved in not only attending the summit, but actually organizing and staffing it.

Women are supporting women

Tearing down other women in the workplace is about as en vogue as shoulder pads. In today’s socially-networked workplace especially, we recognize that the success of our fellow ladies is only good for us.

Intersectionality is everything

As the conversation around gender equality becomes more popular, so too have voices fighting for equality along racial, social, sexual, and economic lines as well. We still have a long ways to go in solving feminism’s white woman problem, but I see more feminists working together across what used to be boundaries.

It’s no longer acceptable to have a conversation about gender inequality without discussing other forms of discrimination as well. And that’s damn encouraging.

Corporate America has bought in

Love her or hate her, the 1%-er perspective of Sheryl Sandberg was exactly what the 1%-er leaders across corporate America needed to hear to get on board with gender equality. Lean In absolutely made the business case for unleashing women’s full potential in the workplace, and since then we’ve seen many of the largest American companies – led by Facebook – instituting policies designed to attract, retain, and develop women leaders.

For all these reasons and more I’m optimistic about the direction we’re heading, though it’s clear huge challenges remain. For starters, it’s time for our government institutions to catch up with these new realities and provide for sane parental leave policies that help women (and men!) lead full lives at home and work.

2014 Beyonce and Hillary “Race is everybody's issue”

2014 Gender Equality is a myth

2014 Flawless song release

2011 Run the World song release

2009 Single Ladies song release

2008 Diva release

1998 She found her real power when she became her own songwriter and she became successful even after her own company didn’t believe in her.

1996 Overcame depression

When discussing the arts and where they stand in the world, one cannot deny how much of an impact they have made throughout the history of humanity. It can has helped to bring about the change that needs to happen in the world. There are many figures that stand out in this field of work. One of them being the late poet and activist Maya Angelou. She has become one of the most famous women of this time period. Maya Angelou obtained about over 50 honorary doctorate degrees. She was also respected as an memoirist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, and filmmaker, actually becoming one of the first African American female directors. Her beautiful, elegant pieces of work, and her views on fighting for the rights of equality for all races, and gender has touched the hearts of so many, and she  has become an inspirational icon for the world, and still is today.

Maya Angelou was born as Marguerite Johnson April 4th, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. She would later be raised in a small in Arkansas called Stamp along with her brother by their grandmother, Annie Henderson, after their parents split. Maya was born during the time period where the rights of African Americans were not given, and Jim Crow was very much alive. So, throughout her time in Stamp, Maya faced many forms of discrimination, and racial prejudice. However, despite these challenges, Maya still grew up in a family that nurtured her with the strong values that would later inform her through her life as well as her career later on.

Maya struggles would continue however, throughout her childhood, where it was during that time she became a victim of rape at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend. After her uncle murdered him for doing this to her, Maya thought that it was her words that caused his death. As a result, she became silent for about 5 years.  When she was around 13 years old, Maya started to speak again. Her love for words, and language by then had only grown. She had started to read books from very well known black authors like Langston Hughes, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Paul Lawrence Dunbar, as well as classical works from Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and Edgar Allen Poe. Mrs. Flowers, an intellectual African American woman who was also responsible for helping Maya to start speaking again, had been one of the most influential figures in Maya’s life that taught her how vital education was, and was one of the reason Maya came to truly love poetry.

Maya and her brother would go to San Francisco to go and live their mother. There, she attended high school where she also received a scholarship to study dance and drama. Maya would later drop out of high school and would become the first African American female car conductor for San Francisco. She would later go back and finish, and give birth to her son Guy. She later on married a Greek sailor named Tosh Angelos, in 1950, but they would later separate. She would continue her work as a performer by touring Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess in 1954 and 1955. Maya also decided to study modern dance with Martha Graham, she then started dancing with Alvin Ailey on television variety shows, and recorded her first record album, Calypso Lady in 1957.

Maya Angelou then started singing in the West Coast and Hawaiian nightclubs during the late 1950s. After that, Angelou would go to New York to continue her stage career. It was also during this time that Maya joined the Harlem Writer’s Guild while under the guidance of her close friend James Baldwin. Here, Maya had the opportunity to hear Martin Luther King speak which prompted her to join the civil rights movement. From there, She was then offered a position to be the northern coordinator for Dr. King's SCLC. After that, Maya would then move to Cairo with her son, and, later on, to Ghana in West Africa in 1962. She pursued the career of  a freelance writer and had even become a  feature editor at the African Review. During the mid-60s Maya had returned to the U.S. She was then pushed by her friend James Baldwin, as well as Robert Loomis, to write her own autobiography. Although she had declined multiple times at first, it was in 1970 where Maya angelou published her critically acclaimed novel I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, was one of the six autobiographies produced by Angelou. It became an immediate success, and was nominated for the a National Book award. Her later works included  Gather Together in My Name (1974),  The Heart of a Woman (1981),  All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), and her final volume, A Song Flung up to Heaven (2002). Which took about 15 years to make. She also became a very well known poet as well. In the early 1990s, President Bill Clinton invited her to write and read the first ever inaugural poem. Americans all across the country listened to her speak and call for peace, racial and religious harmony, and social justice for people of different origins, incomes, genders, and sexual orientations.

It was in 2013, that Maya Angelou was given the Literarian Award, which is an honorary National Book Award given to people who make contributions to the literary community. She later died in 2014 at the age of 86. But her teachings, and words still reside with us to this day

Maya Angelou Timeline:

Sources:

06." Caged Bird Legacy. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

"Maya Angelou." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, 2014. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

"Maya Angelou Biography." -- Academy of Achievement. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

Marie Curie was born in 1867 as Maria Salomea Sklodowska, in a Russian-controlled Warsaw. After her mother’s death, she went to a boarding school, and then left the boarding school for a prestigious, selective school, where she graduated as a top student. As there was no higher education for girls in Poland and no money in Curie’s family, Curie worked as a tutor and attended illegal, underground university lectures until she could afford schooling in Paris. She had to learn French very quickly in order to keep up with the classes at the Sorbonne, which was Paris’ top school. Eventually, she graduated top of her class in master's degree physics. After receiving research funding, she got a second master’s degree, this time in chemistry. When she tried to become a teacher in Poland, she learned that there were still no spaces for women at universities there, and so she returned to Paris. She married another famous scientist in her field, Pierre Curie, and her initial scientific discoveries were all completed with him.

In her work, she discovered that rays of energy cast from uranium allow air to conduct electricity, and that compounds like pitchblende, which make the air even more conductive than uranium, does must contain an element that was, at this point, undiscovered. Through this, she discovered Polonium and Radium. Through observations of the elements she had unearthed, she also discovered radioactivity, the reasons that these elements gave off heat. For the discovery of radioactivity, she shared a Nobel Prize in Physics with her partners, one of which was her husband. This made her the first woman to ever win a Nobel Prize, and she won it only six months after acquiring her Ph.D, in 1903.

When her husband was later killed in a vehicular accident, she was promoted to fill his position, as their Chair of Physics. Naturally, she was the first woman to fill this role. When she finally managed to isolate a sample of radium, she was awarded her second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry. In total, she became:

• The first woman to be a professor at the University of Paris

• The first woman to win a Nobel Prize

• The first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Physics

• The first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry

• One of six people/organizations to have won multiple Nobel Prizes

• The only person to have a Nobel Prize for both Chemistry and Physics

Her death, by aplastic anemia, in 1934, was almost certainly caused by the radioactivity she had exposed herself to in her studies. She was not only impressive for doing all this while being a woman, she is impressive because her scientific achievements have been bested by none. Because she was able to do this in an era where science was hardly open to women only accentuates her greatness. She opened the door for female scientists in the global community and remains one of the most recognized scientists in the world.

Listen to my music-thing, "Marie Curie," at https://www.soundtrap.com/play/3mjLmOfrRQuppItOf3eEig/marie-curie/.

Sources:

"Marie Curie." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 8 Sep. 2014. Web. 4/11/2016
<http://www.famousscientists.org/marie-curie/>.

"Marie Curie." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television. Web. 11 Apr. 2016 ,http://www.biography.com/people/marie-curie-9263538>.

Geena Davis was born on January 21, 1956, in Wareham, Massachusetts. She had worked as a model before becoming an actress, starting out with a small role in 1982 film Tootsie. She had also won an oscar and was a well known actress for what she starred in. Overtime Geena realized that movies can have huge impact on people after fans coming up to her stating things such as, “That movie changed my life. My friend and I call each other Thelma and Louise now.”

It was not long until her acting career was slowly gone. In, 2004, Geena Davis founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. It started off as doing research that then turned into extensive research into how women are portrayed in family films. A discovery was made that on average, there is only one female to every 2 male characters. Due to this discovery, Geena Davis and the organization are working on creating a balance in the content for children.

Geena Davis address this matter of women’s right or gender inequality from what she realize of what it’s like for women in films, and how films can affect people’s perspective on things. One of the thing being what women are like in the society. Even for someone famous, this gender inequality still follows that lives on in the society. Geena Davis is still acting in roles, but still continues to work on behalf of the institute’s belief and speaking out on the issue of how women are depicted in the media, and what are the ways or key concept in reducing that.