why are people so wierded out by people bellydancing?

Question

i told my friends i belly dance and theyre like...whats that? that sounds really freaky....


i <3 it

could it also be that theyve never seen it before?

Answer 1

There are alot of reasons and you could write whole books on various factors that play into this but the main contributing factors are these...
1. Orientalism: The Western world has had a long held fascination with the middle east but for ost prople the ideas they get about the middle east and middle eastern dances are based on media. For earlier generation this was largely through writings and through paintings. However, when someone from the west wrote about the middle east they generally were very biased and described things in ways that may not fully represent the actual truth. French painter's like Jean Leon Gerome and many others of the Orientalist movement in painting traveled to the middle east and painted wonderful scenes. However because muslim societies would never allow strange men to see their women uncovered or enter the women's quarters (i.e. the Harem, note this is women's quarters not a sex chamber or women who are sex slaves, simply the women's area of the home including mothers, daughters, aunts, grandmothers, cousins, female servents, and young children of both sexes). Since they could not see these things for themselves the painters used their imagination and came up with naked women lounging, dancing, eating, etc...
2. Sol Bloom, Mata Hari, and Salome: Orientalism led to a rise in interest of anything to do with the middle east. Mata Hari was a javanese dancer not even close to middle eastern dance. But, she also added stripping into her show. People of the time were not very politically correct and I would say that most of them had very low cultural IQs. Diversity in the western world at that time was more like a protestant living near a catholic. However ata Hari's role is more or less that she peaked more interest in the "exotic" and "new". Curiosities that were not familiar to westerners. Sol Bloom cashed in on this interst as well. He brought actual middle eastern dancers to the chicago world's fair. He labeled them as a curiosity called "belly dancers." This was not because they actually dance using their belly since their dance was largely based in hip work. The reason he labeled them that was that it was too taboo, too risque, to mention a womans hips in those times. The lowest he could go without getting into too much trouble was to mention the belly. Even the belly of a woman was a little risque to the people of that era. It caused much comotion and led to peaked interest in the dancers. In addition, opera's such as Salome featured Salome in colthing often siilar to what you ight expect on MAta Hari. The clothing was nothing like what might be worn by a bellydancer in biblical times. It's not even certain what kind of dancing the real Salome did. All of these things started to create the western perception of the middle east and "bellydance"
3. Hollywood: All of the above mentioned gave way to hollywood's interpetaion of the dance as well. Middle Eastern women were shown by hollywood to be voluptous women who danced for their sultans and lived only to pleasure them. Early silent films feature the theme as well as many later works such as I dream of jeanie all of which played into and perpetuated this stereotype. Because of it being so different than western dances such as ballet the dance was seen as exotic, sensual, and too often overtly sexual. Salome removeing her seven veils is also quite pervasive in Hollywood and is one of the biggest factors that lead to the association of bellydancer and stripper.

Because of all of these factors coming into play people still have negative sterotypes of bellydancing and continue to associate it with sex and stripping. Others, because of the mis-nomer "belly" dance, assue that the dance is some pervassive show of enormous bellies jiggling around. Belly dance is not exactly mainstream although many popular singers and actors have peaked a public interest in it (such as Shakira, Pamela Anderson, and others who have found it to be not only great exercise but good clean fun as well). Too many people still hold negative stereotypes about bellydancing and bellydancers thinking them to be some sort of sexual slave. They likely think your getting into stripping or prostitution or assume you want to jiggle around a large belly. So, like I said you could write books about the subject but this is a condensed overview for you from the historical perspective of how we arrived at today's view by the general public. Hope it helps.

Answer 2

Probably because they have no idea what it is. When I first heard the term bellydancing (I was about 10 years old) I imagined that it the whole human isn't dancing but taking a nap or something like that and it is only the belly that's dancing. Now that's a weird and disturbing picture. LOL. Once I found out what it is i thought it is really cool and sexy. I really wanted to dance like that.

Most people I know are not weirded out by it when they know what it is.

Answer 3

I think its because belly dancing isn't really in mainstream U.S. culture. Most peple have maybe only seen it in a movie and got the perception that it's very sexual in nature.

I took belly dancing classes for about 6 months and it was great! We worked muscles I didn't know I had and I also got to work on my coordination. Try to educate your friends, maybe invite them to a class, or if there are any Arabic restaurants in your area that have belly dancinng, invite them all out to dinner, it should be a fun tome and they'll learn something too!

Answer 4

"This is the way it was explained to me. Tribal belly dance recreates what might have been. But there were many different tribes, mostly nomadic, and there is no documentation (no photographs or paintings or even much written) as to what really existed. So you take your best guess and play around with that. It has ethnic elements, certainly, but there just isn't enough real information to recreate exactly what went on in many diverse tribes throughout the middle-east/northern africa/mediterranian areas.

.... It's middle eastern style that gives the appearance of being ethnic, without necessarily attempting to be "authentic". Costumes are "inspired by" middle eastern ethnic costumes, without needing to be 100% accurate. "American tribal" can be part Turkish, part gypsy, part Tunisian, part Moroccan, part Egyptian, part Algerian, or whatever else inspires. A little bit of this, a little of that... no need to try to be perfectly authentic. --Sherezzah
"Costumes are not necessarily authentic because to a large extent no one knows what tribal women were wearing. And because the nomadic tribes often covered a large area, each tribe would have "borrowed" elements of clothing styles or dance styles from other cultures that they came in contact with. So these guesses and mixing of styles are appropriate to the genre. Probably the women of these many tribes were influenced by other cultures that they came in contact with during their nomadic travels. Again, there isn't really much in the way of documentation, so all you can do is guess.
I really like the tribal style of costuming and dance. At this point a good portion of what is in my costume closet could be used in a tribal costume. I made many of these costume elements, designing and sewing on the fly, in styles that I imagine might have been popular among tribal women somewhere and somewhen. I even have one dress sewn completely by hand because the fabric was too delicate to use my machine. I couldn't recreate it if my life depended on it, because I never used a pattern and did some custom fitting of sleeves.

FatChance is, in a word, mesmerizing. Their movements are almost achingly slow and (deceptively) simple, but so well performed and done in such elegant unison, that the overall effect is (to use a hackneyed term) magical. When we saw them at Rakkasah for the first time, we sat wide-eyed and speechless in amazement. We had never seen anything like it before. The dancers just exuded confidence and poise and pulled us right into it.
Habhi Ru, on the other hand, struck me as sheer exuberance and fun. We were also "pulled in" with them, but were clapping and zagareeting almost from the get-go. They seemed to be having a grand time throughout the show (despite the fact that, given this was at a RenFaire, they had probably performed the same dances several dozen times at least!). I particularly liked the dancers singing along with the music. Now, that's endurance.

The only similarities I can see between the two groups is the polish of their performances and their use of more "folkloric" dance styles, though they are very different styles. (I think I am using that word correctly, according to a definition given on this list recently.) Also, they both portray a strong image of dancing among a community of dancers, and exhibit the ability to make each audience member feel a part of that community. (Habhi Ru is particularly good at that.) So perhaps that, in a very longwinded way (sorry, folks), is what appeals to me in the tribal style--which, I suppose, is implied in the name itself. --Amanda
"One of the beauties of the tribal style is the latitude you have in picking and chosing the costuming elements that suit you. FatChanceBellyDance is a very different "tribe" than Habhi Ru, so of course the style of costuming and dance is different. Each different tribe would have had it's own style, and even within one tribe this would change over time. There is some documentation about some tribes at some specific time period, so you take what little you do know for certain about that tribe at that time, and go from there. The one common element among the tribes would have been a feeling of community among the tribe."

Answer 5

Same thing happened to me when I tell people that I belly dance. Most people started comparing me to Shakira, which got kind of annoying.
I think its mostly because it's not a very common thing. But I think it actually is becoming more popular.

Answer 6

Really....belly dancing is awesome, i go to this restaurant that has belly dancing its the best, ppl are so unaccepting of other cultures

Answer 7

I dunno, maybe they think it's too "dirty" (although it's not dirty, especially compared to the way some people dance today) or maybe they don't know what it is. Maybe they think you rub your belly against a guy??? Or maybe they're jealous that you know how to belly dance.

Personally I think belly dancing is VERY cool, and it looks really hard to learn. Does it require a lot of control of your belly muscles? I've always wanted to learn how to belly dance...

Answer 8

really, i think its cool. I have been thinking about taking lessons from a girl who works at a local moroccan restaurant. I bet you have great abs and they are just jealous... They probably think it is like stripping or something. You should bring them somewhere so they can see how friggen cool it is.

Answer 9

Most likely self-esteem issues!!! I mean I am a female and I think that belly dancers look very good

Answer 10

Probably because they are ignorant? Belly dancing is awesome :-) I wish I knew how to do it!

Answer 11

Belly dancing is a great form of exercise plus it is also erotic.