Veils
WARNING THIS POST MAY BE CONTROVERSIAL
In the Christmas 'Sharing' performance with Ludus this year the intermediate class will be performing a dance with veils. In my opinion it is a beautiful and elegant piece, but a number of the 'moves' have raised some interesting points about the way veils are used to present the self. I am certain everyone reading this is aware of how in europe there is an ongoing debate about the wearing of religious clothing by muslim women, from the headscarf to the burka, and the extent to which this should be 'acceptable' in secularized society. So I thought I'd have a little muse on the topic.
Firstly, the veil as we are using it in dance. Dance is a form of expression using the body, sound and assists; such as tap shoes, fans, other dancers, or in this case, a large piece of fabric. In dancing for an audience, there are ways of presenting the body to convey certain moods. You can dance for or with your audience. You can confront them, hide from them, flirt with them, and hypnotise them. You might show your body but conceal your face. You might smile or frown, perform in an open or closed position. However when you introduce a veil, this accentuates the aspect of revealing and concealing the body. There are parts of our proposed performance where we intentionally conceal ourselves from the audience to heighten anticipation by drawing attention to what is hidden.
Now, moving onto veils (and society) more generally, As I mentioned a little bit in a previous post on performing emotion in everyday life because of expectations (whether at work or other social situations), we are all adept at concealing or revealing certain manifestations of ourselves. To conceal something is to determine its manifest irrelevance to the current situation, while to ignore it is to accept this as socially understood. To present something is to perform an act that introduces something as relevant. As the yuletide season is upon us, consider gifts. To conceal an object that has been bought as a gift until you have time to wrap it is to determine the process of choosing and decorating a gift manifestly irrelevant to the act of gift-giving, where by manifestly irrelevant I here mean that all involved will actively pretend that the process did not happen, even though there may be some evidence that it did (We can see this most readily in children professing a belief in Santa even if there is evidence that the parents were behaving suspiciously). Wrapped presents under a christmas tree, however, will be understood as irrelevant to any other activities by family in the house until the time for the exchange of gifts is nearly upon us. The presentation of a gift will then draw attention to the process of gift giving, of wrapping and so on, on the beauty of which people may comment.
So....where am I going with this? Oh yes, instead of gifts, think of the self as the object we are discussing. Certain aspects of ourselves we present, others we conceal, a few we ignore. The rules of how this is done differ between the sexes (ideally, perhaps they shouldn't, but we are talking about the real world of empirical relations here, folks). In women's case, these rules (again in the Western world) strongly pertain to appearances, generally at minimum the appearance of having 'made an effort'. And the extent to which the individual has complied with this leads to perceived implications as regards their character and so on. In men's case these rules seem to differ, but not being a man, I don't feel I have the experience or qualifications to comment. However, I have noticed that my seminar pupils respond better if I am wearing office attire and a bit of lipstick, while most males in my experience of academia can get good responses from students even when wearing jeans and a polo shirt. Perhaps the proverbial 'strong voice, strong handshake' is more a means by which men are judged in social interaction. I can only guess.
So, to return to veils. I was struck by reading this news story earlier today http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8368242.stm
about saudi arabian women hosting a tv show in full niquab. I thought, in the west, terrible though the thought may be, a career in tv or film for women is strongly biased according to looks over talent. Then there is the accompanying cult of celebrity. Surely wearing a full body covering as these women do could only open up freedom of participation in this way, as they will not be judged on looks alone? I am not naive about this, the ladies concerned may well have got their positions through family connections, and the premise of wearing a full body covering because otherwise men simply can't be accountable for their actions is quite frankly appalling. Though as personally I do tend to have some bias towards the idea that many men are rather poorly equipped to determine their own actions I can to a degree see the sense in the suggestion. To return to the 'freedom' in concealing the details of the body though, I think there may be some argument for that, particularly as it allows for people to take longer periods of time before judging each others' worth. However, the associated religious argument is something I am not interested in, nor prepared to, discuss.
Comments and musings welcome.
In the Christmas 'Sharing' performance with Ludus this year the intermediate class will be performing a dance with veils. In my opinion it is a beautiful and elegant piece, but a number of the 'moves' have raised some interesting points about the way veils are used to present the self. I am certain everyone reading this is aware of how in europe there is an ongoing debate about the wearing of religious clothing by muslim women, from the headscarf to the burka, and the extent to which this should be 'acceptable' in secularized society. So I thought I'd have a little muse on the topic.
Firstly, the veil as we are using it in dance. Dance is a form of expression using the body, sound and assists; such as tap shoes, fans, other dancers, or in this case, a large piece of fabric. In dancing for an audience, there are ways of presenting the body to convey certain moods. You can dance for or with your audience. You can confront them, hide from them, flirt with them, and hypnotise them. You might show your body but conceal your face. You might smile or frown, perform in an open or closed position. However when you introduce a veil, this accentuates the aspect of revealing and concealing the body. There are parts of our proposed performance where we intentionally conceal ourselves from the audience to heighten anticipation by drawing attention to what is hidden.
Now, moving onto veils (and society) more generally, As I mentioned a little bit in a previous post on performing emotion in everyday life because of expectations (whether at work or other social situations), we are all adept at concealing or revealing certain manifestations of ourselves. To conceal something is to determine its manifest irrelevance to the current situation, while to ignore it is to accept this as socially understood. To present something is to perform an act that introduces something as relevant. As the yuletide season is upon us, consider gifts. To conceal an object that has been bought as a gift until you have time to wrap it is to determine the process of choosing and decorating a gift manifestly irrelevant to the act of gift-giving, where by manifestly irrelevant I here mean that all involved will actively pretend that the process did not happen, even though there may be some evidence that it did (We can see this most readily in children professing a belief in Santa even if there is evidence that the parents were behaving suspiciously). Wrapped presents under a christmas tree, however, will be understood as irrelevant to any other activities by family in the house until the time for the exchange of gifts is nearly upon us. The presentation of a gift will then draw attention to the process of gift giving, of wrapping and so on, on the beauty of which people may comment.
So....where am I going with this? Oh yes, instead of gifts, think of the self as the object we are discussing. Certain aspects of ourselves we present, others we conceal, a few we ignore. The rules of how this is done differ between the sexes (ideally, perhaps they shouldn't, but we are talking about the real world of empirical relations here, folks). In women's case, these rules (again in the Western world) strongly pertain to appearances, generally at minimum the appearance of having 'made an effort'. And the extent to which the individual has complied with this leads to perceived implications as regards their character and so on. In men's case these rules seem to differ, but not being a man, I don't feel I have the experience or qualifications to comment. However, I have noticed that my seminar pupils respond better if I am wearing office attire and a bit of lipstick, while most males in my experience of academia can get good responses from students even when wearing jeans and a polo shirt. Perhaps the proverbial 'strong voice, strong handshake' is more a means by which men are judged in social interaction. I can only guess.
So, to return to veils. I was struck by reading this news story earlier today http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8368242.stm
about saudi arabian women hosting a tv show in full niquab. I thought, in the west, terrible though the thought may be, a career in tv or film for women is strongly biased according to looks over talent. Then there is the accompanying cult of celebrity. Surely wearing a full body covering as these women do could only open up freedom of participation in this way, as they will not be judged on looks alone? I am not naive about this, the ladies concerned may well have got their positions through family connections, and the premise of wearing a full body covering because otherwise men simply can't be accountable for their actions is quite frankly appalling. Though as personally I do tend to have some bias towards the idea that many men are rather poorly equipped to determine their own actions I can to a degree see the sense in the suggestion. To return to the 'freedom' in concealing the details of the body though, I think there may be some argument for that, particularly as it allows for people to take longer periods of time before judging each others' worth. However, the associated religious argument is something I am not interested in, nor prepared to, discuss.
Comments and musings welcome.