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Hands Off My Hips, White Girl!
Earlier this month, there was this big dust-up at Salon over white girls who belly dance. To whitesplain for a moment (if palefaces like me are even allowed to whitesplain): for white girls to do a brown girl’s dance is an act of cultural appropriation, and therefore imperialism. More generally, for Westerners to focus on any one aspect of a non-Western culture is to demean the entire culture with our shallow, Westernized understanding.
I have to give the readers of Salon credit: most of them sensibly saw right through this supposed outrage, judging by the comments they left (or humorous responses they wrote). But it did get me thinking a bit about what it is that makes something “exotic”, and why “the exotic” appeals to people, especially Westerners.
Having had an anime-addicted roommate in college, I’ve noticed that finding other cultures exotic isn’t limited to Western culture. The Japanese, for instance, seem fascinated by the symbolic trappings of Christianity in some of their cartoons – without, it seems, having much clue as to what those symbols mean. Western culture is hardly alone in showing enthusiasm for the “exotic” trappings of other cultures without really bothering to understand the cultures themselves.
I do wonder, though, whether Western culture is exceptional in the curiosity it shows towards other cultures, and whether perhaps this is part of Western culture’s strength. I don’t mean the self-loathing “curiosity” some heirs of Western culture cultivate, which consists of rejecting Western culture as “inauthentic” compared to all other cultures. I mean the curiosity that even a jingoist like Rudyard Kipling had – and had to have, to write a story as moving and perceptive as Kim. Though Kipling clearly thought West was Best, he found the whole world good and worthy of study.
So is this curiosity exceptional? And if so, where does it come from?
Does it come from a religious worldview that sees all things as part of God’s good creation? Does it pre-date that and go back to the Greek philosophers? Does it come later, from Enlightenment thinking? Or is Western curiosity about “the exotic” merely a byproduct of Western commercial and political success, as those who cry “cultural imperialism!” might claim? Not that this would make it a bad thing:
Curiosity for its own sake is something of a luxury good, not something the barely-surviving can afford. Or perhaps it’s better to call it a luxury investment, since curiosity indulged for its own sake sometimes pays unexpectedly large dividends later.
As the story goes, what got Einstein started on relativity wasn’t discrepancies between existing theory and data, but a daydream born out of boyish curiosity: what would it be like to chase a beam of light? One flight of curiosity eventually led to another – first to special relativity, then general relativity – with Einstein caring little for the practical consequences. But now we have a practical reason to care: GPS technology.
Or so I have been told. As someone who only took two years of college physics, my understanding of these theories is laughably shallow compared to the experts’. Which brings me back to belly dancing.
Yes, I’m sure white girls who belly dance often have a shallow, romanticized vision of the dance in its original cultural context(s). But then, it’s not surprising when most people’s curiosity about anything leads to only a shallow understanding: it’s the natural result of human limitations. It takes years of focused study to become an expert in another culture, just as it takes years of focused study to become an expert in physics. That not all of us pursue our curiosity to the point of such expertise doesn’t make the curiosity itself bad. Nor is it necessarily bad to have a romanticized, “exotic” vision of what we don’t fully understand, for the romance helps to entice us to further understanding.
When Tennyson wrote that “all experience is an arch wherethro’ / Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades / For ever and forever when I move,” he was writing about the romance of what isn’t fully known. And perhaps he felt that romance so deeply because he came from a culture that could afford the luxury of curiosity for its own sake. As Tennyson was a man – moreover, a Western man – it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if what he saw gleaming through that arch included the sinuous motions of girls dressed in luminous silks and exotic jewelry.
If you’ve gotten this far, you’re probably wondering where the dancing girls are. Well, the woman who started the kerfuffle at Slate claimed that the woman in this video was one of her favorite “authentic dancers”. Note the Western-style evening gown worn in this authentic performance, a cabaret clearly designed to appeal to Westerners:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0VCc38kDKs
Here is a dancer in more, um… (since I’m not sure I can say “traditional”)… jingly attire:
(Let’s see if this last re-edit restores the videos…)
Published in General
In college, I had to take a “Non-Western Cultures” class to fulfill my general education requirement (no doubt, because my economics major would have left me insufficiently multicultural).
I took a class in “Native American and Aboriginal Religion,” primarily because it fit into my drinking schedule. One of the requirements for the class was each student had to do a presentation on an aspect of the religion or culture of a Native American or Aboriginal people. One girl in my class went to great lengths to learn to play the didgeridoo (or maybe not, I’ve no way of differentiating competent didgeridooing from incompetent didgeridooing, but I’ll take her word for it).
The professor failed her because traditionally women are prohibited from playing the didgeridoo and disregarding that prohibition was apparently unforgivable western arrogance and cultural imperialism. The girl appealed the grade on grounds of gender discrimination. I’m not sure how it turned out ultimately, or how this story relates to the post, but I felt like sharing.
White men can’t jump. White socks can’t all be incredibly handsome.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting perhaps the first guy to ever construct a slide-didgeridoo that allows you to play any pitch.
I didn’t play his didgeridoo, though. So there’s at least one act of cultural imperialism I haven’t committed.
Actually, that’s a pretty awesome story to go with this post.
This comment immediately brought to mind something noted in the UN Arab Human Development Report:
The authors also describe a “severe shortage” of new writing and a dearth of translations of works from outside. “The whole Arab world translates about 330 books annually, one-fifth the number that Greece translates,” the report said. In the 1,000 years since the reign of the Caliph Mamoun, it concludes, the Arabs have translated as many books as Spain translates in just one year.
Would we not consider this a frailty in the Middle East? It seems to me something that goes both ways.
Yea, we’ve noticed…
Lovely to know that folks have the time to worry about this non-topic.
I prefer My dancers on a pole.
Very different, strange, unusual, introduced from another country, strikingly, excitingly or mysteriously different. These are some of the ways Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines exotic.
I’d say it would be culturally arrogant for me to disregard or ignore something unusual, rare and uncommon, whether it be belly dancing, an unfamiliar style of music, art, dance, clothing, food, or even a [gasp] different point of view!
I think it is human nature, not a nationalistic purpose, to be curious, to be inquisitive about unfamiliar things, and to want to explore experiences outside our immediate domain. How narrow and insular our lives [and world] would be if we only stuck with the ideas and activities of “our own kind.”
I also do not think a person needs to become an expert at anything to appreciate its inherent value.
&p>Double posted. Sorry.
Hulu Dancing used to be men only too.
People spend too much time and energy being offended.
No – fascination with people who are different from ourselves seems to be a universal human characteristic. (So, btw, is the tendency to see our own culture as unique because of a universal trait, but that’s jmho.)
Cultures which perceive themselves to be economically and socially strong are much more confident and proactive in their engagement and borrowing from other cultures, while cultures which feel themselves under siege are much more defensive about their borrowing (and lending).
To be honest you see this dynamic illustrated better within cultures – all parts of Western culture (for eg) are not equally open to the non-West – some parts feel free to engage with it and partake of it confidently – other parts not so much. In India (my other civilisation) it’s the social and economic elite that is most confident about borrowing from other cultures without any fear of losing itself (maybe like the belly dancing Arab lady in the Western dress?) – it’s the parts of society which lack or are losing social and economic influence which fear inundation and strive for some sort of cultural ‘purity’.
( I read that Salon article too – and opined that the biggest problem with whitegirls doing belly dancing was that they mostly were so tacky about it. Spangles and bikinis and Xena costumes. Feh. I admit this is contradictory coming from a child of Bollywood Nation, but there you go. At least we bowlderise ourselves, and we do it with some humour.)
Cultural imperialism . . . *squawk* *squawk* *squawk* . . . All cultures are EQUAL! . . . yack, yack, yack . . . It’s time to demand cultural justice!!!
The fact is that all cultures are not equal. Equality is the great myth of liberal ideology. I think the Balinese do a great job with drums and chimes, but it’s not Wagnerian opera. It takes a superior civilization to appreciate another superior civilization. You will notice that educated Asians have given up on the caterwauling of Chinese opera for stringed instruments and piano. White people don’t complain that Yo Yo Ma is the premier cellist on the planet! Have at it my Asian brothers and sisters. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The rest of the leftist cant, like so much else, is the desire of inferior peoples to feel superior. There, I said it. It’s about time somebody did.
I never knew you cared. I try to be humble but with compliments like this how can I be.
Recall the statement that, Imitiation is the most sincere form of flattery. That aside, let any of the “Brown Girls” match the art of Sally Rand. There was only one “Brown Girl” who danced famously across continents. (Never hear of her being called a Republican either)Name her and her unselfish devotions to improving the situation of others. The remainder are self interested proposed people that want to suck all the air out of the room to please themselves. This is getting old.
I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere near enough belly dancers to voice a relevant opinion on this. I think we need many more examples before we can truly talk about this.
Just gut instinct? or is some other reason you suspect this is true?
You can belittle it as mere commercialism, but the fascination with foreign cultures is the starting point of trade, where people from different cultures interact, after in some cases having travelled great distances to discover different people and cultures. This is going back before Greek civilization. Aristotle himself did not understand the nature of the extended order he lived in, why life was so good. He did not realize how civilization advanced. He took it for granted that it was always that way. This is the basis of the extended order of western civilization, which thrives on the diversity of the world’s peoples to find solutions that improve all of our lives. To admonish this kind of behavior is to prefer tribalism over the extended order. Cultures that prefer not to share and trade generally remain impoverished.
The kicker is that they then claim, when western civilization catapults beyond them, that they were somehow taken advantage of and ‘imperialized,’ by their own refusing to interact, for their own benefit. Nice try, but I have no sympathy for them.
(tongue planted firmly in cheek)
Isn’t that first video latin music? Could be the rhumba she’s doing. I don’t see that as belly dancing. Latin music was huge in the first half of the 20th century. Could be we’ve forgotten a lot of it. Did Salon really think this was belly dancing music?
This point of view is not only to keep the westerner out, it is to prevent the non-westerner from exploring other cultures and in so doing, contribute to impurity in his or her own culture. Because it emphasizes the unachievable goal which very few in the native culture can hope to achieve, and then only with something approaching single-mindedness.
Witness the near impossibility of becoming a True Japanese.
I agree.
Rereading what I wrote, I see that I had tacitly assumed, but never explicitly stated, that all human beings are curious. Being curious isn’t a nationalistic purpose. Sorry I didn’t make that clear.
I do think, though, that it’s possible that the relative success of Western culture may have given Westerners more luxury to indulge their curiosity.
Thank you for commenting, Zafar. I was hoping you would.
I agree fascination with people different from ourselves is a universal characteristic. Witness the fascination most men have with women :-)
I think that’s sort of what I was trying to get at when I described how success makes it easier to be curious. Perhaps I put it badly. Anyhow, would you agree that more powerful cultures have the luxury of indulging their curiosity more?
I found the genre of the first video immensely confusing, too. But the dancer is Hind Rostom, and Randa Jarrar (the author of the Salon pieces) named Hind Rostom, along with Tahia Karioca and Fifi Abdo, as exemplifying her ideal of belly dancers.
Shrug?
Your post got me thinking, and that means…hyperlinks.
Western curiosity that wasn’t curious enough:
Eastern curiousity that wasn’t curious enough:
I didn’t read Kim forty years ago, when I was 17, because the kind of college educated people in their twenties I admired then conveyed by their attitude that Kipling had been wrong thinking, and his books were boring and imperialistic.
Now, from page 74….
“The morning mist swept off in a whorl of silver,the parrots shot away to some distant river in shrieking green hosts: all the well-wheels within earshot went to work. India was awake,and Kim was in the middle of it, more awake and more excited than anyone, chewing on a twig that he would presently use as a toothbrush; for he borrowed right-and left-handedly from all the customs of the country he knew and loved…”
Hasn’t it always been true, whenever different groups of people come in contact, that they borrow, influence, and are influenced by each other’s customs, clothing, cooking, language, religious beliefs, music, dance and art? For instance, every year at a festival at a church near our house,I see something like that hip sash often worn by beautiful white girls dancing Greek folk dances. They wear it in a more modest way ,with blouses that cover their navels,but it’s pretty much the same sash.
I tried belly dancing once but a couple alka-seltzer took care of it.
I thought “pole dancing” meant the polka.
What does this mean, to “whitesplain”? I thought it was a city in New York.
“I wish I was a Negro, with lots of Negro soul/So I could stay true to my ethnic roots and still play rock-and-roll/If I was a funky Negro eating soul food barbecue/I wouldn’t have to sing the middle class liberal well-intentioned blues/Intentioned blues/Intentioned blues”
–Well-Intentioned Blues, National Lampoon Review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqr-fQf-CVE