Not Your Muse, Not Your Pawn, Not Your Babe

(Note: This post often addresses gender as a male-female binary, which is a wholly limited and incorrect scope of gender and I fully acknowledge that there are more than two genders; the gender binary is referenced here to address the ways in which much of the mainstream dance world addresses gender.)

Here’s what I’m tired of: gender roles in general but specifically at this moment, the male-centered narrative that allows men to wear women as their accessories, to see them as vessels to the man’s desired end.  You see this in movies, in how roles in a household are constructed, in the workplace, and, to my eternal disappointment, very blatantly in the dance world.  Many factions of the dance world, and particularly the mainstream dance world, love to care a whole lot about centering men.  And not just centering them, but idolizing them.  They are the creators, the curators, the writers of bodies.  And women are often, at best, resigned to being their muses. Continue reading “Not Your Muse, Not Your Pawn, Not Your Babe”

Hiding In the Light

I’m taking contact improv this semester, which is honestly one of my favorite things ever, BUT recently my professor had us do a series of exercises that involved A LOT of singing in A LOT of different capacities, notably including singing while dancing and staring at another person in the eyes with no affect in your face and singing directly at them.  I knew the minute he said we’d be doing anything with singing that I wouldn’t enjoy it at all (I hate singing) and I was right about that – I didn’t enjoy it.  But it certainly made me think. Continue reading “Hiding In the Light”

Welcome to my Ramblings

Hello world!  Welcome to my blog.  If you know me at all, you know that I have a proclivity for entering into long-form feminist rants and tangents about the things I love, most likely dance and sometimes science (and maybe coffee…I really love coffee).  So, I’ve created this as a place to store all the ramblings/rants since they’re not well-contained in the 140 character limit of Twitter. Continue reading “Welcome to my Ramblings”