Young men dance!

[Getdone]

I went to the pub last night to watch the football. A lively pub filled mostly with young people and more men than women, I guess because football. There as a tribute act and a DJ afterwards and we stayed until the early hours.

It was a lot of fun and it was really noticeable (to me) that loads of the young men (I'd say early 20s to early 30s) were having a great time on the dance floor, dancing with each other. Some were good, some were just having fun!

When I was young (late 80s, early 90s) almost no men danced and they would never have danced as a group of just men. When they did dance it was mostly to attract women. As I've got older, the same is true of the men I mix with, who will be the same generation as the ones who didn't dance when we were young.

It was lovely. Actually it was a very busy pub full of drunk football fans and even though England lost, the atmosphere was just really fun and happy. That wouldn't have happened when I was young either.

Anyway it was lovely to see, but got me thinking about what led to such a cultural change?

The changes in yourng men has been great. I remember being struck by public displays of affection between young male friends about 15 years ago, and I often hear young men nowadays talking about toxic masculinity. I've also noticed men my own age just being a lot softer. I'm heartened to see the changes.

In the early 90's there were young men happy to dance as a group. It was all about dancing, depending on where you went.

The same has happened with singing. I think that X factor etc has made people and particularly men far more comfortable with singing.

A lot of older men dance too. Usually not very well, but they try, and you get the odd stand out go for it bloke.

Nothing so boring as anyone too self-conscious to enjoy themselves.

I love a man that dances! My DS dances a lot at home and has great rhythm, so I'm hoping that he'll be a dancer when he's old enough to start going to clubs etc. he's at that awkward stage (13) right now, but I can get him dancing a bit when we go to gigs etc

I went nightclubbing as a teenager in the eighties and everyone make it female would rush to the dance floor if a banging tune came on.
Then there was the slow dance but before the lights came on <cringe>

I have an early twenties DS who loves to ‘dance’ (mainly leaping about and singing loudlyfrom what I can tell) and one older who would never ever set foot on the dance floor. 😄

And a lot of hugging goes on when they meet other male friends, and when they leave. That’s nice to see.

Late 80,s early 90's young men were always the majority on the dance floor or very few women in the era of grunge and or rave.

Nothing new in my experience

You just had a different tribe, my late 80s and early 90s were full of men dancing, whether at raves, soundsystems or indie nights. My now DH is a great dancer, we've been together since 92 and it was one of the things that caught my eye.

Yes it's a thing. I'm not in the UK but the spot I frequent every now and then has such a variety of ages, it's not a club but somewhere you can eat in the day and do a sport there too. Then night time the families with younger DC leave so then the dancing starts. There are always groups of 20something boys there that dance. I always thought that it was to pull the girls 😂 (and they do), but quite often we all join in together and they have a dance with us oldies. We speak another language as well as English and when that music comes on, people just couple up randomly and get going (quite a fast pace type of dance). I really love watching couples who have been together a while as they are so in sync with each other.

But the 80s music always attracts the younger crowd. A fair few were born after the 80s but most of them know plenty of it.

In the early 70s, the places I used to frequent didn't allow groups of men to dance together. Groups of girls did but boys were only allowed on if they were dancing with a girl. So pleased that has changed. (It wasn't surprising many places were called 'cattle markets'.)

Also, no jeans or trainers and they had to wear a tie.

DS went out clubbing last night in a hoody, jeans and high tops . That would never have been allowed back in my day. 👵🏻

Northern soul all nighters, style of dance dictated u danced on ur own. 😁