Meet New Bitch Flicks Writer Janyce Denise Glasper

Hello everyone!

My name is Janyce Denise Glasper, a little quirky artist, writer, vegan, calico mommy, animal rights, and feminist activist currently residing in Dayton, Ohio soon to be transitioning to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to attend Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art’s Post Baccalaureate Program. I’m so thrilled to be upgraded to a Bitch Flicks weekly contributor and have much to bring to this very diverse roundtable!

While undergraduate studying at the Art Academy of Cincinnati (where I met BF co-founder, Amber Leab and have a BFA in drawing!), I had taken Art of Film and enjoyed watching films and reviewing them. Each analysis really started to garner my interest and appreciation for the entire film experience. Now I never leave a theater until the credits are finished rolling!

Bitch Flicks then influenced what I really wanted to write about – a feminine point of view!

Heavily reminiscent of the Guerrilla Girls agenda – these strong, brave activists asserting ways of getting more women artists of past and present recognition, Bitch Flicks, a forum passionately setting out to exploit the wrongness of media’s perceptions of women and highlighting valuable pros that empower the fight is a beautiful war that deserves to be commended. Hollywood is still an ugly, brutal place, objectifying our “weak” gender, baring our mighty breasts to the audacious male ego, making us crave hungrily for valiant, fiery roles on and behind camera, but BF strives to bring forth a change by attacking that system with an army of writers using their words as mighty swords. It is such a humbling honor to be a part of waving the victory flag.

“I wish you talked more,” Amber had written on my final in the Artist as Writer class. I was a very quiet, inner being, but now I realize more that writing is another way to scream of injustice and inequality.

In art, my portraiture work focuses primarily on illustrating identity – being an African American woman growing up in American society and weaving roots of past and future into a profound connection while also adding in pop culture influence such as soap operas and romance novels. It correlates well into my film interests because I enjoy screenplays showcasing African American females as intelligent, uplifting, spiritually enlightened, who are considered beautiful, influential characters.

As for television, Mindy Kaling is a pretty awesome hoot! I just long for the days of strong, close knit female relationships and diversity in a place where men aren’t always the catalyst for ice cream binging and tears. Women are a vivacious, independent, and crafty lot and can be written to be so! It’s the 21^stcentury!  

Excitingly enough, Lunafest is this coming Sunday at my local art house and I have already bought my ticket, and it makes me happy to learn that all proceeds go toward Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio Region. If you’ve never heard of Lunafest – it’s a film festival of shorts for women by women, and it’s from 3PM-12AM, the longest time I will have ever spent at a movie theater! Looking forward to sharing the experience with BF readers!  I’m bound to see women being displayed at their thoughtful best here. 

Alas, I must say that I am also a big time Joss Whedon fan and that Buffy the Vampire Slayer, though a blonde heroine, got me through high school. I identified with her being labeled “different” and a social outcast because at my school there was something wrong with wearing hair naturally. Perms and relaxers reigned supreme. It was considered boyish and African to not fall into the European tresses mode. Yes. African American students of today think any association with Africa is an ugly, shameful ideology and I think media plays a horrid manipulation on our sensibilities as a race. I’ll have to write about that sometime…

I am proud to be a geek and refuse to hide in any closet. I wear my purple rimmed glasses, character t-shirts, and afrocentric braids with pride and cherish the helluva of my vast collection of Buffy and Angel comic books and action figures. I’ve been to Wizard World Philadelphia once and Chicago 3 times, shaking James Marsters’ hand and taking a picture with Emma Caulfield – Spike and Anya respectively on Buffy. Those are just some of the perks of working as an assistant to an eBay action figure and comic book retailer! Ha ha!

My other loves include Sugarygingersnap, a blog highlighting my art work progression, local art events, and some film reviews, and AfroVeganChick, which centers my vegan and natural hair journeys with delicious food recipes for the belly as well as hair, skin, and face. In my spare time, I enjoy reading, kitty snuggling, thrift shopping, Wii Fit, belly dancing, riding buses at random, collecting rubber ducks, Days of Our Lives, and summer picnics at my little duck-filled pond.