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Reclaiming the Feminine: Bellydancing as a Feminist Project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2013

Angela M. Moe
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Abstract

Bellydancing is largely misunderstood and stereotyped. Few realize that it is an expressive, ancient, and woman-centered genre of movement, rooted in Middle/Near Eastern folk tradition and culture. Not surprisingly, it has received scant scholarship despite its increasing popularity throughout the world. This paper offers a feminist critique of hegemonic understandings of bellydance, based upon ethnographic research on American women's experiences. Findings are organized along five themes: discovery (of the dance and of self); healing (repair and respite from illness, injury, and victimization); spirituality (connectivity to each other, a higher power, and divine femininity); sisterhood (community, specifically woman-space); and empowerment (omnipresent sense of pride and self-confidence). I argue that bellydance is too easily dismissed as a means through which women are objectified via patriarchal views of beauty, sexuality, and performativity. These may be understood as byproducts of Western Orientalist renderings of the Middle/Near East and contextualized within our contemporary antifeminist society.

Type
Research Article
Information
Congress on Research in Dance Conference Proceedings , Volume 40 , supplement S1: Dance Studies and Global Feminisms , 2008 , pp. 181 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2008

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