Now that's just WRONG!
OK. Here’s what I’m talking about when it comes to the pressures women face about body image. I’m at dinner last night with my cousin (barely 105 soaking wet…love ya, babe!) at a Moroccan Restaurant, Taste of Morocco-downtown Silver Spring to be VERY exact! There’s a belly dancer there for entertainment and she was a lot of fun. (Side note: I am crazy about dance in all its forms and I am amazed at the body and how beautiful dance is, no matter the culture. And there’s so much overlap in steps among the styles.) Anyway, I digress.
My cous’ is all into belly dancing. She takes classes, yahdah, yahdah. I’m not diminishing her classes, but I don’t want that fact to add ANY validity to what comes next. After dinner we talked to our waiter about the dancer. He offers information about how to contact her for classes and how she could be a valuable resource to know how to do this professionally. (I should add that during her performance she dragged my cousin and me out onto the floor to dance with her. Minor detail.) Anyway as he’s explaining the merits of the profession, he gradually loses all eye contact with me. He glances at me a few times during the conversation to be polite, but it was clear that he had turned his focus to my cousin. When he was done with his pitch, he punctuated the whole ordeal with, “If you want a career in belly dancing, they make a lot of money, (turns back to Alexis and points right index finger square at the face of cousin) especially YOU,” the jerk says, “you should think about it.”
Now, that’s just WRONG! I could say more, but I’ll leave it at that. For now.
5 comments:
For the record, we did have fun and my cous' was a fabulous dancing partner as usual and I am 105 bone dry, if you will.
as for the body image thing - we all have it in different ways - I love to dance but I don't feel like I have the body for it - in fact I feel short and stumpy not long and lithe like that particular dancer and even she had a pooch.
It is frequently assumed that belly dancer have to be these super cut, skinny women. I can honestly say that that isn't always true. Belly dancers come in all shapes and sizes - the art form celebrates the woman's body(and its incredible function - giving life) and it has become twisted under our society's tendency to hyper-sexualize everything. Some of the most intriging belly dancers that I have had the pleasure of watching are not necessarily the society standard of thin.
So you,Ms. Blogger, and everyone else will know I love you as you are. I am proud of you for your confidence, elegance, and grace in all social situations. You have a smile that makes everyone feel included and want to be your best friend. I wouldn't have gotten up last night if it wasn't for sharing a bit of your confidence. When you have a body image moment -remember that.
FYI everyone else - after seeing our belly dancer get all those tips, our famous blogger was ready to do her own show :) Shimmy!!
C, now I see I need to mention you in the posts to get you to respond!
Regarding my readiness for my own show; she made a boat load of tips in an hour! I figured I probably wouldn't be hired directly to belly dance at a restaurant, but I sure could get my little outfit together and march into some unexpecting restaurant with my own portable strobe light (or smoke machine)and Arabic version of "I Will Survive" and at least make gas money!
I had a great time that night. The timing was just too perfect to resist posting it.
Hmmm..I always thought to be a belly dancer you'd have to have a sizble belly to flaunt. None of what i've seen on tv has been skinny girls. They've always been fairly hefty women, with not a hint of a six pack.
weird.
It's Americans. We screw up everything. Take something beautiful and woman honoring and turn it into another way to impose unrealistic ideals.
I like the Spanish word for belly, barriga, pronounced (bah-REE-gah). Sounds big and flabby and baby incubating! I'll call my show Barriga Dancing.
Lexi
Awwww, your cuz has such nice words for you, soooo tweeet. Lex, you should try out the reggae dancing us Jamaicans do if you like dance in all it's forms. That's fun man.
Re Waiter, the wretched man just doesn't know any better. Not everyone is blessed with tact, unfortunately.
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