Our country is obsessed with weight. Yes, it’s true, we are fatter than we have ever been, but particular emphasis is placed on female thinness. From our youth, young girls are bombarded with images of thin women as beautiful, and heavy women as ugly, even unlovable. Hollywood, the media, and even some segments of organized religion repeat the theme ad nauseam: women must be thin to be loveable, respected, or marriage material. In the bellydance community, things are different, however, because it’s there where women of all shapes, sizes, and ages can find acceptance and are encouraged to get up and dance. That’s what their websites say, so it must be true, right? Unfortunately, this is not always the case, as the real answer is; it depends. Though many teachers personally embrace dancers of all shapes and sizes to come and learn with them, and will allow them certain performance opportunities where the “frump factor” (a derogatory term akin to a racial epithet used to describe bellydance troupes that have anything but young, thin, pretty dancers) is acceptable, many of these same teachers lack the courage of their convictions and will not later give those same dancers, regardless of talent or experience, key performance opportunities because they have in reality bought into the stereotypes of the greater culture. In other words, though pretending to be above it, and embrace all who grace their dance studios, even stating it on their websites as a “studio mission” or “motto” to encourage those of all sizes to attend, even touting self-esteem improvement of women as one of their top priorities (in order to gain students = revenue), when it comes to the bottom line of making money and getting gigs, they’ll send their thinnest dancer with just passable dance ability over someone who is a passionate, talented, confident dancer yet has “extra” weight on her. Moreover, if this dancer of “extra” weight isn’t aware of her place in this secret hierarchy of dancers and in her naiveté questions why she is not allowed certain performance opportunities or access to more advanced troupes, she will quickly be dismissed, given pat answers, and encouraged to let it go and accept her place. If she refuses to do this, she risks being black-listed by the bellydance studio, teacher, or community in which she resides.
Fortunately, there are bellydancers out there who have flourished, despite the stereotypes. Magidah (http://www.bellynet.net/) of Portland, OR, and Maya Gaorry (http://www.mayagaorry.com/) of Italy are two. These ladies embody the very deep sensual spirit of the dance and blow out of the water the idea that women have to be super thin to be beautiful, let alone sexy, talented bellydancers. Also, the website www.adiosbarbie.com, founded by Ophira Edut, is a site whose sole purpose is encouraging women to have a healthy body image, and that to do that women must focus on being healthy, both emotionally and physically, over skinny.
It should go without saying that by giving in to the stereotypes in our greater society, bellydancers, bellydance teachers, and studios are perpetuating them, and sadly enough they are the very attitudes they purport to be against. It’s a shame on the bellydance community at large and a shame on any dance teacher who secretly does this. It is no wonder that bellydancers still get associated with strippers. If we as a community of bellydancers, and as women, truly wish to rise above this stereotype of only thin as beautiful, and only thin women are worth watching dance, than we must all be on the same page when it comes to this issue. We must promote and embrace the truth as our ideal, that all women are beautiful, sensual creatures. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it; united we stand, divided we fall.
Note: Please see this link http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/10/25/disney-princesses-deconstructed/ from The Society Pages, the source of the Disney myth picture attached to this article, for more on this subject.
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