The Male Dancer in the Middle East and Central Asia

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11223052
AutoresAnthony Shay (Claremont Colleges, autor de correspondencia)
Año2006
Volumen38
Número1-2
Páginas137-162
Fecha de publicación2006-01-01
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaDance Research Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0149-7677 • E-ISSN: 1940-509X
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0149767700007427
OpenAlexW1953035289
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas22

Within this quotation the reader may find a rich description of historical and even contemporary Middle Eastern attitudes toward dance and male dancers in particular, penned from a native point of view. In this article I address those attitudes, but more importantly challenge several cherished, long-held assumptions and theoretical stances expressed by native elites and Westerners interested in Middle Eastern dance and dancers. First, I challenge the romantic views that many gay men hold that the presence of male dancers and the sexual interest expressed toward them by Middle Eastern men somehow constitutes evidence for an environment accepting of homosexuality and a Utopian gay paradise, where the possibility of unbridled sexual congress with handsome, passionately out-of-control Arabs, Persians, and Turks exists. Thus, they crucially confuse gay or homosexual identity with homosexual activity or behavior. Because of this confusion, I use an important aspect of queer theory that counters “the monolithic alternative of liberationist gay politics” (Bleys 1995, 7) to look at the phenomenon of professional male dancers in a somewhat grittier, more realistic light. In particular, I refer to Stephen O. Murray's groundbreaking article, “The Will Not to Know” (1997, 14–54) which establishes a valuable lens through which to view how the vast majority of Middle Eastern individuals regard homosexual acts

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Confusion · Dance · Homosexuality · Human sexuality · Identity (music) · Literature · Middle East · Paradise · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Queer · Romance · Sexual identity · Sociology · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Gender Studies · History · Law · Psychology · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society

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