Notes towards an essay to be titled “Edward Said, Bellydance, and Me”

[sajia_kabir]

1. It would probably been better for everyone had bellydance been invented in Bangladesh * obscure comment on Bangladeshi ecumenism / mother goddess worship / openness to collaborating with foreigners etc is obscure *

2. I really need to write that essay on “Edward Said, Bellydance, and Me.” Although it’ll probably turn into “Edward Said, Making Light, Racefail, Social Justice Fandom, Bellydance and Yoga, and Me” by the end of the first paragraph.

3. Because of course everyone worships Said in the ME and the rest, and no one judges him for flunking the Umm Kalthoum Worship test and basing the foundation of his aesthetics on western classical music. But god forbid some white women who don’t want to wreck their bodies through a ballet pro career love this wonderful, wonderful dance.

4. on the other hand, maybe the biggest problem with tribal fusion and bellydance fusion isn’t that it appropriates bellydance from ME women but that it appropriates hip-hop dance from black women.

5. Also, take a look at the oeuvre of Mahafsoun.

6. Although, since I’m clearly on a mission to burn every bridge in existence, serves black women right for choosing to whine and whine on Tumblr instead of actually creating dance.

7. because dance – even bellydance – is, unlike writing for Tor, an inherently collaborative artform, and choosing to bellydance would mean learning to work with people you don’t get along with and That Would Not Do.

8. and yet – if white women are dancing, and black women are acting like 1990s NME journalists – maybe that’s in itself subversive of race.