Comments | playfulfordian: Thoughts on gender balancing and gendered dance in general

playfulfordian

Thoughts on gender balancing and gendered dance in general

Apr 15, 2010 17:38

The other day, I got a Facebook message promoting a dance event. The relevant bits are quoted here, "It is NOT too late to register for X and get the Early Registration Discount! We are about half way full - just a few weeks into Registration so ...Gentlemen, please register soon and take one of our wait-listed ladies out of suspense!! Couples: ( Read more... )

Comments 16

flammifera April 19 2010, 04:27:58 UTC

The only time I interact with gender-balanced events (except, as you say, events that used to be gender-balanced) is the Super Secret ECD Weekend. I can never tell whether it pisses me off more that it's gender-balanced, or that they don't know me (and therefore do not invite me). :-P

nullsurface April 20 2010, 03:34:53 UTC

Gender-balancing an invitation-only event isn't really the same thing.

flammifera April 21 2010, 13:46:50 UTC

Perhaps not completely, but it does limit who is invited!

(The comment has been removed)

flammifera April 21 2010, 13:52:17 UTC

Yeah, swing & blues use lead/follow language all the time. I don't do it regularly, but my swing-dancing friends never seem too obsessed with the 'power' words.

I like the idea of asking which role you prefer/dance.

I think about this occasionally, but I am also tired of figuring out what I think.

nullsurface April 20 2010, 04:29:32 UTC

It seems like the impulse to gender-balance a dance event comes from women who don't like dancing with other women. This is a weird impulse to me because, like a lot of people here, came from the Swarthmore/TriCo school of dance where the classes were 75% ladies and all the men there were either arhythmic nerds in it for the P.E. credit, guys who were dragged there by their female friends without really having a clue what they would be getting into, guys who only joined because they had a crush on someone else there, or some even freakier fourth category that's probably better left undescribed (disclaimer: I fall into at *least* one of those and anyone reading this is exempt). So it makes sense that the ladies there had no problem partnering with the other ladies. Thus that is totally normal to me ( ... )

phantomfiddler May 5 2010, 13:24:24 UTC

(Found this thread via Dave Casserly's Facebook note, where I commented at some length ( ... )

smithra March 12 2011, 00:40:22 UTC

I realize I'm a little late to the party, but I just want to say I think you make a lot of valid points.

As a guy, I've definitely encountered the whole "with all these ladies sitting around, you're dancing with each-other?" reactions, although haven't yet had anyone try to break us up.

I think one thing a lot of people miss is how much better a dancer you are once you really understand both the lead and the follow role. In fact, it was dancing the ladies part that really showed me that there was a lead/follow dynamic in contra, even if only a slight one.