Google the term “belly dance” and the first images the search engine offers are of white women in flowing, diaphanous skirts, playing at brownness. How did this become acceptable?

The term “belly dance” itself is a Western one. In Arabic, this kind of dance is called Raqs Sharqi, or Eastern dance. Belly dance, as it is known and practiced in the West, has its roots in, and a long history of, white appropriation of Eastern dance. As early as the 1890s in the U.S., white “side-show sheikhs” managed dance troupes of white women, who performed belly dance at world’s fairs (fun trivia: Mark Twain made a short film of a belly dancer at the 1893 fair). Many white women who presently practice belly dance are continuing this century-old tradition of appropriation, whether they are willing to view their practice this way or not.

Growing up in the Middle East, I saw women in my community do Raqs Sharqi at weddings and parties. Women often danced with other women, in private spaces, so that this dance was for each other. When they danced at house parties with men in attendance, the dynamic shifted. When women danced for women alone, there was a different kind of eroticism, perhaps more powerful, definitely more playful, or maybe that’s how it felt to me, as a child and teenager, wary of men’s intentions. At weddings the dancing was celebratory and flirty and beautiful, something a professional dancer would come in to do, and something that everyone else would continue engaging in. If there was a drummer present, all the better. At my wedding, I was my own dancer. I hired a band that specialized in Arabic music and danced with my family and friends, not all of whom were Arab.

One of the most awkward occurrences for me when I go out to an Arabic restaurant is the portion of the evening when the white belly dancer comes out. This usually happens on weekends, and I’ve learned to avoid those spaces then, but sometimes I forget. The last time I forgot, a white woman came out in Arab drag — because that’s what that is, when a person who’s not Arab wears genie pants and a bra and heavy eye makeup and Arabic jewelry, or jewelry that is meant to read as “Arabic” because it’s metallic and shiny and has squiggles of some kind — and began to belly-dance. She was not a terrible belly dancer. But she was incredibly thin and didn’t remind me, in any way, of Tahia Karioca or Hind Rostom or my absolute favorite Raqs Sharqi dancer, Fifi Abdo. Abdo used to dance in the expected bra and skirt but later danced mostly in robes that were somewhat shapeless and more traditional — a kind of relaxed housewear- streetwear dress that folks in Egypt rock daily. There are videos of her in these robes dancing at weddings and smoking sheesha while she dances. When I am having a particularly lousy day, I watch this video of her and dance along.

advertisement

Randa Jarrar is the author of the novel, "A Map of Home."

• I'm having an abortion this weekend
• Bali's government is on an unrepentant dog-killing spree
• Why do so many straight women prefer penetration to oral sex?
• Dads: Don't congratulate yourselves on your feminism
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg showed off her collars, here are the best ones
• Texas just lost another abortion provider in the wake of sweeping new restrictions
• There's now an app to help couples get divorced
• Let the dying die!
• New luxury vibrator also makes for a lovely pendant
• Paul Krugman: What the GOP doesn't know can  hurt you
• 10 reasons America is morbidly obese
• The disgusting reason Wal-Mart ice cream fails to follow laws of nature
• The bizarre case of a dad traveling alone with a baby
• How to have cybersex on the Internet, courtesy of the '90s
• Could a blood test gauge your risk of suicide?
• Coke's chief science and health officer: Give up sugar and die
• Watch Anna Paquin school Larry King on bisexuality
• Lands' End learns girls like science too
• Blogger allegedly fired from language school for teaching students about "homophonia"
• Teach teens to tie each other up!
• Former "ex-gay" leaders come clean: "Conversion therapy harms people"

• Make Summer More Poetic with These 10 International Works
• 8 Illustrated Books for Every Age and Every Summer Reading List
• 10 Great Science Reads That You Can Take to the Beach
• Turn Summer into a Literary Field Day with these 9 Collections of Non-Fiction Sports Writing
• Travel to Foreign Lands in 10 Newly Translated Novels
• Get Lost in 8 Great Biographies – from Lawrence of Arabia to Margaret Fuller
• Explore Diverse Cultures Through Varied Genres with These 8 New Works
• 8 Great Essay Collections for Your Reading Pleasure
• Looking for Fresh Fiction for your Summer Reading?
• Tough love: An intimate look at Mexico City's retired (and semi-retired) sex workers
• Famous literary meals
• The best and worst series finale music of all time
• Stories from a Warming Planet: Wildfires
• Seven celebrity "authors" who didn't do it alone
• They're no "Divergent": Eight young-adult movie franchises that died untimely deaths
• Space porn: These images are (quite literally) out of this world

advertisement

brought to you by

advertisement

advertisement