12 Apr
2013
12 Apr
'13
1:13 p.m.
On Thu, Apr 11, 2013, tavi merrill wrote:
As Mac and Aahz rather humorously shared
i'd chime in and say i have a slight preference for same-gender swings -
for obvious reasons. The swing holds a special place in contradance as the
moment of sustained, more intimate interaction, and i'd wager to say we ALL
prefer swinging folks we'd be keen on, er, dancing the horizontal tango
with. [...]
For me, this is almost true. That is, there are a few women I love
swinging (and dancing in general) with but have little or no interest in
more intimate physical contact. And I'm sure that asexual people (which
I'm emphatically not) would say that even more vehemently. Be careful
with those sweeping generalizations. ;-)
I will
admit - I prefer opposite gender swings - Am I homophobic and
just don't know it?
Well, I *overall* prefer opposite gender swings and other kinds of
physical interactions, has something to do with being heterosexual, I
think. ;-) That's different from feeling >uncomfortable< with or
disliking same-sex interactions in dance. [...] That said, i don't give a crap who i'm
swinging as long as it's a
satisfying swing, and gender has less to do with that than skill and the
subtle communication that allows dancers to orient themselves (often during
a balance) as they pull into the swing.
This I completely agree with.
I think the issue here is more about (related to
homophobia, but subtler)
misogyny. Because the dance roles are defined by gender, if dancers aren't
expecting or mutually planning for a symmetrical hold, there's a moment
when dancers ask themselves, and wordlessly ask each other, which one is
going to suddenly become the "lady". The subconscious cascade reaction is
distracting, and entry into the swing becomes awkward and
less-than-satisfying.
You have a point here. I passed along part of this thread to someone
else and got this response back:
I don't like opposite gender dancing (with men I don't know). That
intersects in weird ways with the claim that if men don't like same
gender dancing, societal homophobia inevitably plays a role.
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