"I can't stand white belly dancers"

[Amanita]

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/04/why_...belly_dancers/

So I found this article the other day. It's a Middle Eastern woman going on about how much she hates white belly dancers. Now, I do think she makes a couple of good points- some western dancers come up with Arabic stage names for themselves, which don't make sense in Arabic. That points to a lack of doing one's homework- consult a native speaker, don't use google translate or its ilk.
And she mentions the male gaze, and the dance being sexualized in ways it wasn't meant to be.

But mostly I disagree. Can you imagine the outrage if somebody wrote an article saying "I can't stand black ballet dancers"? And why is she only attacking whites? What about people of other races who belly dance? Or do they get a pass?
I really disagree with what she has to say about Arabs who teach belly dance to white students. They're all just self-exploiting, according to her. Really? It couldn't possibly be that they love their art and want to share it with anyone who is interested. Or that they like seeing "outsiders" take an interest in, or develop an appreciation of their culture.

She's getting savaged in the comments, with people making some pretty good points from many angles.
Somebody pointed out that dancers are viewed as second or third class citizens in many of their home countries, and a rise in religious fundamentalism is doing great harm to the art form, driving it underground. There have even been cases of well known dancers being bribed with large sums of money to publicly "repent" and take up the veil. So belly dance being taught to people over here may help make sure that fundamentalists don't kill it off altogether.

What do you all make of this?

[Gravekeeper]

What I make of this is that this woman is kind of a self absorbed twat that needs to pick up a history book of her own culture. Raqs Sharqi was developed using western influence, not the other way around. The reason women danced for women ( and men for men ) was because this was Egypt and the dance was considered appalling and basically the dance of prostitutes. So genders were often segregated.

On top of that, her absolute favourite dancer, Fifi Abdou, was a Raqs Baladi dancer. Which is a traditional folk style that wears the longer "traditional" costume. Furthermore the "traditional" wear she speaks is the law for all dancers in Egypt. Egypt views belly dancing as basically erotic dancing and made it illegal for the dancers to expose their mid riff back in around the 40-50's. In Egypt, dancers are basically looked down on like strippers.

Finally, belly dancing is not unique to Egypt, there are several different styles from different regions and cultures. Arabs weren't the only people on the planet to figure out waggling your hips was sexy.

For that matter, whining that white women are belly dancing is idiotic seeing as western belly dancing is its own separate style from eastern. And if she wants white women to stop and give back belly dancing, then eastern women need to stop dancing Raqs Sharqi because it culturally appropriated ballet and salsa during its development. Then we can go through the utterly stupid process of divvying up cultural influences.

Also, this idiot IS a white woman. She was born in Chicago, moved to Egypt as a kid and moved back when she was 13. So this is like she's whining about black rappers because she went to middle school in the hood and thinks that gives her street cred.

[HYHYBT]

People will complain about anything, and if they run out, will invent more.

[patiokitty]

I'm not going to pretend that I know everything about the origins of belly-dance because then I'd come across as misinformed at the woman who wrote the article. I have taken belly-dance classes in the past because I always felt that it was a beautiful dance form. I am not one for the bra, skirt, and coin embellished waist scarf so when I have performed in public I go for more covered Ghawazi look - or basically what has become known as the tribal style of belly dance clothing. And I learned to dance to Baladi music with it's obviously strong rhythm. None of it was done in an attempt to appropriate a culture. If anything, I tried my best to figure out a way to preserve a culture even though I certainly was not born of said culture. And no, I do not have an 'Arabic' name that I perform under but if I did I would do research to ensure that I didn't come up with something that translated to gibberish.

Personally, I think that the writer of the article is a racist bitch and has no room to speak about 'appropriation' of culture. I have a feeling that she may have been spurred by those Halloween ads that you see concerning appropriation of culture - but white people belly dancing doesn't fit that whole idea. We aren't merely wearing a costume or mocking it (such as white-face) when we don our various belly-dancing gear - we are doing our best to embody that culture as we can, despite our skin colour or the culture we ourselves come from. I would never dress in American Indian garb as a costume, but I would certainly wear it if I were invited to a potluck (and I have, as a matter of fact, and I look pretty damn white). I have also worn an Indian sari to a friend's wedding - hell, it was actually one of hers!

I think the only time 'appropriation' is applicable is if it's obvious that the outfit is either only a costume or a mockery of a particular culture. But that is only my opinion...ymmv

[Nyoibo]

This just crossed my FB feed today

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/v...lay-beethoven/

I think it makes some valid points.

[siead_lietrathua]

i dunno, i'm kinda in a grey area on this one. i can see how strangers taking your culture and fucking around with it in the wrong way can be offensive.
at the same time, we're slowly moving towards a global community, where so many cultures are intermingling that it's inevitable that they will pick up traits from each other, including styles fo art and dance and music. and that's not always bad because it removes some of that "other-ness" that can cause conflict.

[Andara Bledin]

Volokh has it right.

Based on the woman's declaration of appropriateness based on race as opposed to, say, ethnicity is racist. And even the latter isn't cool.

I mean, can you imagine someone saying "how dare white people play blues music?" or "how dare Bollywood appropriate western musicals?" in this day and age and not get mauled for being a racist shithead?

All cultures get appropriated. If a group does something that other people think is awesome and it's not indivisibly tied to something unique to the culture, it's going to spread.

You might as well try to stop the tide from rising and falling as stop cultural appropriation.

[Gravekeeper]

Cultures have been influencing each other since the dawn of time. She's mistaking influence for misappropriation and seems to know jack about the subject matter she's whining about. >.>

"Arab Face" in particular is idiotic. The costume she's complaining about, aka the modern costume we associate with belly dancing, was devised in the 30's, along with modern belly dancing, by a Lebanese cabaret owner. As a stage costume.

Here's a commercial for her nightclub in Cairo. So yeah, very traditional. -.-

[Seshat]

I bellydance. Mostly Baledi, but I'll pick up any moves that seem useful and pretty.

I do it largely as physiotherapy. It's gentle, it uses my whole body, and if my legs are too cramped up for me to work them today I can still use my upper body. Or vice versa.

It also is REALLY good for the core muscles.


For my hands, I use Bollywood hand gestures/hand dancing. And chinese chiming balls.

Yes, I shamelessly appropriate from other cultures.

[Amanita]

And here's an article that a Belly Dance teacher of Persian descent wrote in response:
http://www.nwbellydance.com/a-brown-...belly-dancers/

[patiokitty]

Seshat, I think I love you. Why? Because you belly-dance for the same reasons I do, and even use Bollywood hand gestures too I think that a dancer who is not strictly traditional is a forward thinker because it is only a matter of time before borrowed movements find their way into what is considered 'traditional'.

And I really do need to get back into belly dancing again...it's amazing what it can do for my poor, fucked up body.

[Amanita]

And the author of that article is right back at it again:

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/18/i_st...belly_dancers/

[Nemesis44uk]

Gravekeeper explained this so very well. It's been a long time since I got this annoyed over a web opinion.

Of course, her mind is clamped shut to any idea that she might be wrong. Salon must be quite happy with all the click bait, so next she'll probably something outrageous about 9/11 next.