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Public Perceptions: A Double Standard - Page 2

© Shira

Now, I'm not complaining about the artistic decision to use such an openly sexual style of costuming and choreography. It was certainly appropriate to the "bad girl" image of the characters and the seamy world in which the story took place -- in one case, a decadent cabaret; in the other case, a jail. I actually enjoyed both shows very much. The music, story lines, costuming, and choreography all worked together very well.

My complaint is with the theater-going public: Why is it considered "good entertainment" and "artistic" when a woman clad in black leather bra, black French-cut briefs, and fishnet stockings straddles a chair and spreads her legs wide apart, but it's "poor taste" and "inappropriate" when the audience catches an oh-so-brief glimpse of a belly dancer's trunks during a spin?

Where Did It Come From?

I think there are several reasons for this:

Taint Of Scandal

Many people's opinions are still influenced by the scandal that tainted this dance form's reputation in the early 20th century. Any time we use Sol Bloom's term "belly dance" to refer to it, we conjure up all the baggage that goes with it. That's why many modern-day American dancers now prefer the terms "Oriental dance" or "Middle Eastern dance".

Harem Fantasies

Thanks to Orientalists and early Hollywood "harem" movies, the public links belly dancing with sensuous fantasies involving diaphanous fabric, naked women lolling around Turkish baths, skimpy clothing, seducing the Sultan, and sexual slavery. The public doesn't know and doesn't care that these images were largely created by Europeans and Americans.

So they start with the "knowledge", however wrong, that harems were gardens of earthly sexual delight. Then they add to that the belief that anyone representing "Middle Eastern dance" must be re-enacting the efforts of concubines to seduce the Sultan.

Salomé

Most of the "general public" don't realize that the notion of the "dance of the seven veils" was invented by 19th-century Europeans (Oscar Wilde and Richard Strauss). They think the notion of stripping one veil at a time until the dancer is nude is a "real" portrayal of Middle Eastern dance. The truth is that this was done for the first time in Strauss's opera "Salomé", which made its debut in the 19th century.

If you read the Biblical account of John the Baptist's death, you'll notice several interesting facts:

• The woman who danced is not identified by name.
• The account does not describe the kind of dance she did. It does not tell us whether the dance was sexual, acrobatic, spiritual, or just plain exciting choreography.

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