Belly dancing

.... and there is a wonderful side affect .
When you belly -dance ,you embrace yourself.
You cant shimmy if your a size 0 . Its very anti -thin-like-a-twig.

When your are bombarded by mags/tv that thin is sexy/attractive/normal/acceptable eventually it starts to eat at your self worth. Belly-dancing reinforces good thoughts about being in your own skin.

It tells us that women are supposed to have a little jiggle about ourselves, we are not men ,and shouldnt strive for hard bodies like them.

That its ok to be a woman , when the media want us to be almost like pubesent girls.

I do not think belly dancing is anti-feminist . (For the reasons i stated earlier in thread).
I have not posted in feminism before , but as belly-dancing is one of my great loves i thought i should argue for its defence.

Belly -dancing although mainly performed by women , is a form of dance that is also done by men. So i suppose its not feminist either, but feminine.

What i have noticed is a vast difference between feminine and feminist .

Men can do horrible , awful things , (like dittany brought up , rape murder ect).The oppression of one human being by another is truly the most vile thing, and should always be fought against.
However , women also do horrible things , in history there have been women murderers , women spouse abusers, women child abusers... we can be as bad as men.There are also male rape victims, male domestic violence sufferers and men who are oppressed by other men. Humans as a species can be evil .

If there is such a thing as true equality within the sexes , and a lack of psycotic or disordered personalities , mutual respect for another human being ,then there would be no call for feminism as we know it.

Is it not equality that we should strive for ?

Equality that means the freedom to express ourselves regardless of gender,race ,religion, sexuality or size. Freedom to do this without fear of ridicule or comments that slur. Without fear of others thinking the worst or predudice.

Dance of all types is a form of expression. It can be quite breathtaking to watch someone dance. The human body is a beautiful tool a dancer uses to convey a message to his/her audiance.
The same way a poet uses words , or a painter , oils on his canvas.
I am agast that belly-dancers are seen as sleezy titalation , that some actually think they dance in seedy/dirty clubs for dirty old men...nothing could be further from the truth.Nor is it like burlesque or pole dancing...You do not remove your clothes !!!!.

The countries in which belly dancing has a long history ( its "new" to the uk), the dancers are highly valued and revired like prima-ballerinas . Often elevated to superstar status.
It is seen for what it is ...a highly skilled art.

Cake will make things better. Take it from a larger lady.

I was a bit startled because you are a regular here, so you might have predicted what was going to happen.

belly dancing as empowering rather than a display of sexual subordinance to the Lusts Of Menz.

I was referring the goblin's reference which I took to mean the thread in general, e.g. posted a hot topic that generated a lot of responses and a row. I was then being tongue in cheek.

It isn't done mainly by women of a larger size, nor is being of a larger size something that makes it better. If you want to throw a grenade and run, post that in a belly dance forum. You would be the equivalent of an MRA here

It is indeed accepting (in the main) of women of a variety of sizes and ages.

You threw in a grenade and left?
Did you bring cake to effect a reconciliation?

Unruly - no kettling where I was - just a happy well-behaved stroll full of lots of people who ordinarily I would assume to be Tory voters. I took DS (2) and he had a good time. Had his own whistle (3rd march so he's now a veteran). I haven't seen any coverage to the contrary yet - I hear that it got a bit tasty outside Topshop.

Link for anyone interested in reading some good stuff on BD

Dittany - I hear you on the imperialist stuff. There has been a history of really not engaging with that stuff. People do more so now though. But it isn't just about prostituted women. That exists. But it is also about very wealthy women, everyday women. It's so broad. I'm trying to think of a parallel but we don't really have one. Maybe just dancing as a whole - 'bellydancing' is a western term for a massive range of dancing. So some of it occurs in exploitative contexts and is one style (e.g prostituted women), some of it occurs in a context that is more complex in terms of whether it is exploitative and is another style (e.g. very well paid in top hotel shows), and some occurs in a non-exploitative context and is another style (e.g families dancing together). (And then there are western styles that appropriate the other styles and create a western version)

Oooh Tondelayo how was it? I wanted to go but dh convinced me that being kettled would be v bad for dd who is only tiny :(

It was me dancing in the privacy of my own home or with friends.
I like being out of the sexual politics and display category. It's much more relaxing to be of a certain age and confident about being me.

Anyone heard of Rogue Morris?
Female Morris dancers upsetting the Folkdance world by dancing traditionally male dances.
Maypoles are phallic symbols too, but at least that's a mixed sex activity.
Neither poles or burlesque or ballroom or disco appeal to me.
All require dressing up, making up and displaying to an audience.

Blimey it's all going on here.

And Mom and Mom are fighting :(

It seems a bit redundant now to explain to David why I'm cross. I'll wait for the promised 'What's wrong with objectification' thread and spend the in between time sharpening my scimitar.

but i was just curious that the same arguments that someone (goblin?) used earlier, about it being something she did at home on her own, or with a group of women, never for an audience, are the saem ads those used on the many many 'i want a pole in my basement' threads... which i hate.

Yeah GC but maybe that's where pole dancing should be considered - you need to be pretty strong & muscular to do it properly with thighs like nutcrackers - you need to be almost "masculine" in other words.

oops, x posted hugely and got to the 're' bit all on my lonesome.

so, why wouldn't 'claiming' instead of reclaiming be more powerful?

from a feminist pov?

we're claiming equality.

not reclaiming it.

have we just not got to the point where it is possible yet?

exaclty - you can't "reclaim" something that you never owned.
you can "claim" it, but who would want to claim poledancing?

Reclaim pole dancing?
I suppose one of the obvious difficulties that occurs to me is that most of us empowered Earth Mother Nanny Ogg types that are comfortable with our own sexuality and womanhood are just not built for doing the splits upside down whilst clutching a phallic pole.