Yale has had a student belly dance society since 2003.
In Salon, Randa Jarrar inveighs against Western Imperialist appropriation of belly dancing which she regards as a kind of cultural property to which only Arab women of color are entitled.
Arab women are not vessels for white women to pour themselves and lose themselves in; we are not bangles or eyeliner or tiny bells on hips. We are human beings. This dance form is originally ours, and does not exist so that white women can have a better sense of community; can gain a deeper sense of sisterhood with each other; can reclaim their bodies; can celebrate their sexualities; can perform for the female gaze. Just because a white woman doesn’t profit from her performance doesn’t mean she’s not appropriating a culture. And, ultimately, the question is this: Why does a white woman’s sisterhood, her self-reclamation, her celebration, have to happen on Arab women’s backs?
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Eugene Volokh responds by wondering aloud: What would Salon think of an article called, ‘Why I can’t stand Asian musicians who play Beethoven’?
cactusjack
She has a point. We’ll make our wimmins stop bellydancing and the Arabs can stop using the internet, going to our universities and writing idiotic articles for western magazines.
James
“Asia is the continent rhythm forgot” P J O’Rourke.
GoneWithTheWind
Wait. Did she write that in English? The Imperialist Arab woman of color bitch! What right does she have to our culture and language. I assume she shuns all of our Westernmedication and wealth. Surely she embraces her own culture of near slavery for all women. She doesn’t think all those belly dances were for Art does she? Bwahahaha.
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