My fellow white bellydancers:
I am here to tell you that cultural appropriation exists. It is a real thing. It is not some term that those mean brown people made up so that they can "play the race card." There is an entire field of sociological study and race theory that deals with issues of appropriation. It is not fucking Santa Claus.
Likewise, "cultural appropriation" does not mean that you should not like Japanese food or listen to rap or enjoy Bollywood films or take salsa lessons, or any number of things that those minorities share with us in the US.
What it means is that we should think about how we enjoy things of cultures not our own, and how we present those things if we perform them.
It means that we should not feel entitled to cherry pick from another culture. It means that we should listen if someone from that culture criticizes how we are presenting those things from their culture.
And not everyone from that culture is going to say the same thing. I have heard Indian women criticize white women wearing bindis in any context. For them, it galls to see a white woman praised as ~worldly and ~cultural for playing dress-up with a bindi, while they themselves receive racist hate when they wear an article from their own culture. And I absolutely understand that.
I have also been given bindis by Indian women to wear in performance.
Here's the thing: neither perspective is more valid. Neither is invalid. Both are valid responses to their own lived experience within their culture. Minorities are not a monolith, and I don't believe it's fair or right to write off a perspective simply because it makes me uncomfortable, or forces me to examine an aspect of my behavior, or clarify if/why wearing a bindi is important to my performance. (For those not in the know, bindis are a pretty standard costume element in ATS, which is a fusion bellydance that fuses Middle Eastern, Turkish, and Indian folk dances with flamenco and modern improv.)
What this means is that with each voice, I add another layer of understanding. I refine my idea of when and where it is appropriate for me to wear a bindi. (For example, now I will wear one within the context of a strongly Indian-influenced fusion piece, which is pretty rare. I will not wear one if I am doing more generally fusion dance. I will never wear one for just fashion.) This is a sensitive issue, and not everybody is going to have the same data or conclusions. But I do think it's one that needs to be more closely examined by our community.
So, in short: you are not a terrible person for genuinely liking, learning, and performing bellydance. But you do have the added responsibility of constantly thinking about how you are presenting cultures that are not your own when you use elements of those cultures in your artistic performance, and adjust your presentation accordingly.
I know there are many professional dancers who do this regularly-- they are scholars of Middle Eastern & Turkish cultures. Who have lived and practiced their art in Egypt. Who have spent years or decades studying those cultures because they understand that you cannot decontextualize bellydance from the cultures from which it comes. For those people, I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir.
I am also tired of hearing that white women wearing articles of clothing from minority cultures (which may have religious meaning) is no different from Arab women wearing blue jeans. Cultural exchange is not evenly weighted on both ends. Institutional racism plays a HUGE role in what is appropriation and what isn't. Educate yourself and stop making these dishonest false equivalencies.
Look, I'm not perfect. There is no world in which I will ever BE perfect on this issue. But I do know that as a white woman who performs a dance that is fused from cultures not my own that appropriation is something I should always be grappling with, and if I'm not, then I'm doing it wrong. There are things I do that I know are problematic, and I'm still grappling with what parts of my dance are genuine love of culture and dance, and which may be appropriating parts of other cultures for the sake of my magpie nature. It's a thing. Pretending it's not is just... to be completely bereft of self-awareness.
Yeah, reading something like Randa Jarrar's article stung a bit, and yeah, that article was chockablock full of inaccuracies and fallacies of its own, both in regards to individual dancers and this history of bellydance. Here's what I know: we can critique that without ignoring the valid points because of her tone. We can not question if she's "brown enough" to talk about her culture because a Googled picture of her shows a woman with lighter skin. We can use more nuanced definitions of "racism" and "prejudice" that include elements of institutional power when we have these sticky discussions so that we don't make false equivalencies. We can not say hateful things, even if we perceive her as having done so.
I also know this: this week's discussions on the topic of appropriation exposed a LOT of ugliness within the bellydance community. It didn't damage the community. It exposed the damage that was already there. And it's damage we need to fix. As long as there are new dancers and new developments to the form, this is a discussion we need to keep returning to. We all need to keep learning and keep listening. Not pretend that cultural appropriation is a term that minorities use to make us feel guilty for liking things.
I've defriended at least five people on facebook today for acting like appropriation is the goddamn tooth fairy. I've BEEN defriended for clarifying terminology. I've cringed in shame at supposed teachers within our community. Can we please stop showing our asses now?
As a result of the discussion, a Decolonizing Bellydance group was founded for those of us who don't want to roll our eyes at the topic. Who want to look at bellydance and issues of Orientalism and appropriation and learn. There's also a Tumblr. I am really glad this is happening. I have a lot to learn.
Likewise, "cultural appropriation" does not mean that you should not like Japanese food or listen to rap or enjoy Bollywood films or take salsa lessons, or any number of things that those minorities share with us in the US.
What it means is that we should think about how we enjoy things of cultures not our own, and how we present those things if we perform them.
It means that we should not feel entitled to cherry pick from another culture. It means that we should listen if someone from that culture criticizes how we are presenting those things from their culture.
And not everyone from that culture is going to say the same thing. I have heard Indian women criticize white women wearing bindis in any context. For them, it galls to see a white woman praised as ~worldly and ~cultural for playing dress-up with a bindi, while they themselves receive racist hate when they wear an article from their own culture. And I absolutely understand that.
I have also been given bindis by Indian women to wear in performance.
Here's the thing: neither perspective is more valid. Neither is invalid. Both are valid responses to their own lived experience within their culture. Minorities are not a monolith, and I don't believe it's fair or right to write off a perspective simply because it makes me uncomfortable, or forces me to examine an aspect of my behavior, or clarify if/why wearing a bindi is important to my performance. (For those not in the know, bindis are a pretty standard costume element in ATS, which is a fusion bellydance that fuses Middle Eastern, Turkish, and Indian folk dances with flamenco and modern improv.)
What this means is that with each voice, I add another layer of understanding. I refine my idea of when and where it is appropriate for me to wear a bindi. (For example, now I will wear one within the context of a strongly Indian-influenced fusion piece, which is pretty rare. I will not wear one if I am doing more generally fusion dance. I will never wear one for just fashion.) This is a sensitive issue, and not everybody is going to have the same data or conclusions. But I do think it's one that needs to be more closely examined by our community.
So, in short: you are not a terrible person for genuinely liking, learning, and performing bellydance. But you do have the added responsibility of constantly thinking about how you are presenting cultures that are not your own when you use elements of those cultures in your artistic performance, and adjust your presentation accordingly.
I know there are many professional dancers who do this regularly-- they are scholars of Middle Eastern & Turkish cultures. Who have lived and practiced their art in Egypt. Who have spent years or decades studying those cultures because they understand that you cannot decontextualize bellydance from the cultures from which it comes. For those people, I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir.
I am also tired of hearing that white women wearing articles of clothing from minority cultures (which may have religious meaning) is no different from Arab women wearing blue jeans. Cultural exchange is not evenly weighted on both ends. Institutional racism plays a HUGE role in what is appropriation and what isn't. Educate yourself and stop making these dishonest false equivalencies.
Look, I'm not perfect. There is no world in which I will ever BE perfect on this issue. But I do know that as a white woman who performs a dance that is fused from cultures not my own that appropriation is something I should always be grappling with, and if I'm not, then I'm doing it wrong. There are things I do that I know are problematic, and I'm still grappling with what parts of my dance are genuine love of culture and dance, and which may be appropriating parts of other cultures for the sake of my magpie nature. It's a thing. Pretending it's not is just... to be completely bereft of self-awareness.
Yeah, reading something like Randa Jarrar's article stung a bit, and yeah, that article was chockablock full of inaccuracies and fallacies of its own, both in regards to individual dancers and this history of bellydance. Here's what I know: we can critique that without ignoring the valid points because of her tone. We can not question if she's "brown enough" to talk about her culture because a Googled picture of her shows a woman with lighter skin. We can use more nuanced definitions of "racism" and "prejudice" that include elements of institutional power when we have these sticky discussions so that we don't make false equivalencies. We can not say hateful things, even if we perceive her as having done so.
I also know this: this week's discussions on the topic of appropriation exposed a LOT of ugliness within the bellydance community. It didn't damage the community. It exposed the damage that was already there. And it's damage we need to fix. As long as there are new dancers and new developments to the form, this is a discussion we need to keep returning to. We all need to keep learning and keep listening. Not pretend that cultural appropriation is a term that minorities use to make us feel guilty for liking things.
I've defriended at least five people on facebook today for acting like appropriation is the goddamn tooth fairy. I've BEEN defriended for clarifying terminology. I've cringed in shame at supposed teachers within our community. Can we please stop showing our asses now?
As a result of the discussion, a Decolonizing Bellydance group was founded for those of us who don't want to roll our eyes at the topic. Who want to look at bellydance and issues of Orientalism and appropriation and learn. There's also a Tumblr. I am really glad this is happening. I have a lot to learn.