on Mon, 19 Jun, 2023
There is an article every woke person is reading these days to suppress belly dance. If you are going to read these articles, please read the other two articles first--even if you want to read the spicy, angry, subversive one first!-- because they set up a much better understanding of the cultural history. The fact is, the angry one has been around for years and is nothing new. In fact, it is such old news, it is really out of date, but it still gets everyone’s harem pants in a twist.
A Great Article on the Patriarchy and Colonialism of Belly Dance—and why it is harmful to use a generic term like belly dance but why we don’t have a better term:
https://www.sharqidance.com/blog/bellydance-history-baggage
In Egypt, Foreigners Dominate Belly Dancing
Yielding to religious conservatism and other trends, the native stars have ceded the stage to immigrants
https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/in-egypt-foreigners-dominate-belly-dancing/
Why I can't stand white belly dancers
Whether they know it or not, white women who practice belly dance are engaging in appropriation
https://www.salon.com/2014/03/04/why_i_cant_stand_white_belly_dancers/
I am going to critique this point by point, so even if you don’t read the article, you will still understand are arguments.
Be aware, this is a negative article by a woman putting down other women. Randa Jarrar is as much a product of patriarchal suppression as the colonialism she detests. She has some good points about dancers adopting Middle Eastern names and fake tans being cultural appropriation, which is something belly dancers have moved away from in the last ten years. However, her article is outdated. I can’t tell how much of her article is intended to get a rise out of people because versus how much she is trying to slander the belly dance community because she has a chip on her shoulder.
The most important point that the author is in denial that the conservative “Islamic Brotherhood,” as she calls them, created a culture that made belly dancing impossible for women who are Middle Eastern. In my article for the Chronicle below, the Arabic studies professor, an Arabic woman from Egypt explained that woman from Egypt can’t dance in public due to their religion. This does exclude the secular population but because of the religion, women are still looked down upon in that culture for those reasons. Please see that article here: https://www.bellydanceeugene.com/blog/entry/article-in-the-chronicle-examining-appreciation-versus-appropriation-in-bel
Randa Jarrar blames the colonialization and the west on sexualizing Arab women in bellydance, but she doesn’t report the history that Arabic culture also created their own cabaret style with Raqs Sharqi in Egypt to sexualize belly dance and stereotypes this as something only white women have done.
The article is full of biases and inaccuracies. “The Arab Face” that she claims to be a modern style of white women appropriating Arabian women is a style of makeup and equating it to stealing her culture. Although I do think there were some extreme examples of this in the past with women darkening their skin or wearing extreme Cleopatra style makeup, for the most part, what people wear is stage make up. I see influences from Indo-European cultures like India, but suspect this culture has a greater influence than the makeup of the current Middle East. Other extremes of makeup can be seen in the 1920s and stage makeup in general. I think I have seen heavier eye make up on grunge teenagers in the 90s than belly dancers.
However, in the article, Jarrar equates this “Arab face” by asking:
“Would you wear a dashiki and rock waspafarian dreads and take up African dance publicly? Wait,” we’d probably say, “don’t answer that.”
First, for a moment, let’s ignore the fact that this hyper woke extremist has put down people of African descent by calling their hair “dreads” or “dreadlocks” when that is a culturally insensitive term. And let’s dismiss the notion that there are cultures in Europe as well as other places in the world where this style of locs have been worn and have been depicted in ancient art. She probably has not educated herself on either topic.
The costumes of modern day belly dancers in Egypt are an American and European invention and influence created by colonialism. It is unfortunate folkloric dance was sexualized for the entertainment of men, and used to objectify women, but that is one of the ways the artform survived. I hate that the demand for sex created this supply and demand, but that past can’t be changed. And as long as belly dance is used as male entertainment, it will continue to be perpetuated that way in the cabaret style. Jarrar sees this as a racial problem. I don’t disagree. But I think it is a bigger feminist problem. Since I do not dance cabaret, there isn’t a lot I can do to influence cabaret costumes. I dance fusion, which draws from a combination of Eastern European folkloric roots as well as modern roots with other world roots.
This author makes a lot of assumptions without examining the gray areas. The world is black and white for this author, and there is no exploration of racial identity or how that might influence a dancer. There are dancers with African heritage who might perform in traditional garb who won’t look African enough to fit her definition to be acceptable, that she would exclude from African dance.
There are also belly dancers like students in my classes and in my troupe who are representing the cultures they grew up in, that they have heritage in. And some who get to learn about other cultures look beautiful while learning a new skill. I am so glad they have found this beautiful art form to do so.
Often when we perform, venues just want us to dance and watch. But when we are given the opportunity to read our bios and talk about the music we select, the cultures we are representing, and the cultures we come from, we love to get to share that with the audience as well.