Belly dancing

[JessinAvalon]

I don't want to start a raging debate about this but I am hoping that some on here may be able to settle a difference in opinion between me and a friend.

She thinks (after seeing a belly dancer perform at a feminist arts event in Bristol) that it's anything but feminist and thinks it's not that different to lapdancing (titillating, revealing costumes etc).

I don't see it like that. I do Bollywood dancing (which is very hard!) and have come across belly dancers through my dancing but they were all older, larger ladies (am I allowed to say that?!) and, to me, the belly dancers I saw were celebrating their form, celebrating the dance and generally having fun.

Admittedly though I don't know much about it. Does anyone have any views/experience/knowledge that would help the debate?

thanks, SGM i might look at that.
(btw, i was imagining soliders from the crusade period, being 's as that was the original argument - the men in there were brainwashed by the church, mainly, and were largely uneducated, and of course, were under the control of their "masters", so did as they were told. They were led from a young age to be servile, and that's brainwashing, too)

thanks Goblin .

dittany - i don't normally "do" apologies (prefer to believe that explanation should suffice) but. I am sorry that i misinterpreted your comments and i'm sorry i upset you.

If you read the book SGM recommended, make sure you also tackle the one written to refute his argument, Hitler's Willing Executioners by Daniel Goldhagen.

that's exactly what i was trying to say SGM
i think i'll employ you as my official interpreter.

Ever seen a dandelion crack concrete SGM?
Apologies to the original, I've given one of my favourite quotes a sex change but...

'?All women dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous women, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.?

because i don't believe i invented that.
it might not be what you said, but it's what is constantly implied on this board.
and SGM worded it so much better than me at 14:39:11

I went through a period last summer of reading a lot on the Jewish resistance movement, both during and after the war. Interesting to see the role women played in many of the groups, and the influence that had on the development of Isreal after the war and into the 70s.
I agree, there is a lot of badly written nonsense based on poor scholarship and agenda-driven without analytical thought. But if you read the crap, you can see how to dismantle it better.

yup.
and i'm not.
i'm not passive-aggressive.

i meant inferred - not implied, i'm the one that implying it

my interpretation.

i refer you now to SGM, who will interpret what I said.
oh! she already did that! see the post directly below my infer/imply post.

Please pm SGM, I started decades ago with the Holocaust and then became interested in the background and consequences.
Took me back to the Middle Ages and forwards to Israel.

belly dancing isn't a form of titillation for men.

and anyone who thinks it is, canot seriously be a feminist.
or they're missing the whole fucking point