Bodies in a Frame
Black British, Working Class, Teenage Femininity and the Role of the Dance Class
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2642843 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Camilla Stanger (0000-0002-8001-3471, Goldsmiths College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 204-213 |
| Publication date | 2013-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Research Online (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1360-7804 • E-ISSN: 1360-7804 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.5153/sro.3041 |
| OpenAlex | W2086510819 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 7 |
Historically the working class, black, female body has been defined by its sexuality and socially constructed as an object for heterosexual consumption; this article is concerned with how this manifests itself for young British women in educational settings today. I will argue that this historical bodily construction has been compounded for young women in this context by a contemporary popular culture which frames, glamorises and hetero-sexualises black female bodies. Drawing on the work of Judith Butler and Michel Foucault, I will suggest that girls who perform a Black British, working-class femininity play a central role in their own construction as hetero-sexualised and consequently passive bodies, through an internalisation of and performance for a heterosexual 'gaze' within various spaces of the urban, post-16 college. This article ultimately focuses, however, on the potential for resistance. Based on research conducted into the experiences of four dance students at an inner London post-16 college, I will explore the dance class as a potential space for resisting the debilitating heterosexual gaze enacted within the public spaces of the college. I will argue that the dance class can be a space where the student can reconstruct and reproduce her own body in a way that grants it agency, rather than objectifying it within a metaphorical frame
Aesthetics · Art · Contemporary dance · Dance · Femininity · Gaze · Human sexuality · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Public space · Social science · Sociology · Visual arts · Working class · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · History · Law · Psychology · Sports, Gender, and Society
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,25 |
| Citation span | 2018 - 2024 (7) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |