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Recently, the question was asked about why is the USA is not producing elite “world class” competitive bgirls at the rate that Europe and especially Asia has in the last decade. The Bgirl scene has grown tremendously worldwide, but the USA seems to be falling far behind.
This blog will be a 5 piece series featuring many of the opinions of the top bgirls in the USA. Today’s blog features none other than Jeskilz. As the founder of Cypher Adikts, Skilz has taken a major leadership role through her work with the Cypher Adikts movement.
Been asking myself the same question. As of right now my only answer is this (might piss my fellow american off but don’t really care) i personally think its a cultural thing. I’ve noticed that in many other countries they have a very “prideful mentality” of producing hight performance and quality in everything they do and truly live by the words “no easy props”. Out here it feels like bboys & bgirls are spoiled still acting like they’re doing it better than everyone else because that’s were Hip Hop comes from. I also think bgirls and women in general out here are not used to standing on their own and maybe men have a part to play in that i don’t know but from what i’ve witness in the past 15 years of living in the US they either need to be under the umbrella of men or feel the need to join forces to prove a point. No one is really marching on their own or trying to set higher goals for themselves, the scene or the community which also reflects on the dance itself. One thing i would say though, there might not be as many dope bgirls in the US compared to like Europe or Asia BUT everyone out here looks like themselves you may see where the inspiration comes from but there s variety. I see lots of clones overseas from the way they look to the way they dress, dance and even carry themselves… This is what i’ve come up with so far i may be wrong but would love to hear what everyone else has to say” – Jeskilz, Cypher Adikts
I think one thing that may be worth looking at is how we foster talent and how we encourage the current and next generation. We have TONS of women dancing in the states and I totally agree with Jeskilz…so much variety. But what I’ve noticed is that they are relegated to joining up with “all girl crews,” participating in bgirl only battles [which I think is great because they absolutely need that platform]. I can’t speak on infighting, women in the shadow of men, but what I can speak on is men not seeing women being JUST AS valuable as their bboy peers.
If we’re lucky enough to find bboys who aren’t hanging around bgirls just to get in their pants [just being honest], even outside of that, they don’t see them as equals or someone worth building with to be better.
So as much as I want to say bgirls need to work harder and perform at a higher level. To even get to an elite level, men need to see them as equals. When that happens you’ll see men take battling with and against women more seriously. Until then I’ll just go ahead and apologize. A great deal of bboys have let the women in this culture down in a major way. I’m sorry we let you down, but I think women [especially US women] are headed in the right direction … wish I could say the same for men.
I’m Canadian, so I can’t speak for the US, but bgirls are ridiculously outnumbered here too. All I can say is, this is a very complicated topic, and there are as many reasons systematically as individually. As in, the problem comes from within, from us ourselves as bgirls, as individuals and as a group, and also comes from society.
Probably any reason you can think of could be true. But this reason would be true for certain bgirls, but not all bgirls. If that makes sense.
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