Thanks for this Maia; you said it better than I can.
And as I’ve said elsewhere, learning to teach/call positionally and
adapting to dancing to Larks/Ravens has, for me, the bonus of creating new
brain cells and possibly delaying cognitive decline.
On Mon, Feb 13, 2023 at 9:47 PM Maia McCormick via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
  Happier days for some, but a lot of us, those
"haylcon days" were really
 not all that. Transgender people and gays and lesbians having to hide who
 they were, or not able to dance with (let alone marry) their partners for
 fear of retaliation, or having to go to their own separate dances to feel
 safe and accepted; women with no recourse if they were touched
 inappropriately or made to feel unsafe; and more that I don't have a gut
 sense for, not being part of those groups. For myself, I much prefer the
 current time.
 I'm sure it must feel jarring to experience this sort of contention and
 discomfort, but I promise this is only a fraction of what minorities and
 vulnerable groups have experienced in the dance scene over the years. I
 hope that folks who have mostly coasted through a dance world built for
 them are willing to endure a little proximal discomfort and change for the
 sake of the people only just finding safety and community here.
 I know email and especially large group discussions are a pretty lousy way
 to have discussions and convey nuance; if Jon or anyone else yearning for
 these "simpler times" is interested in having a one-on-one conversation
 about this, drop me a line off-list.
 Take care,
 Maia
 --
 Maia McCormick (she/her)
 917.279.8194
 On Sat, Feb 11, 2023 at 5:37 PM Jon Greene via Contra Callers <
 contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
  Oh those halcyon days when gents were men, ladies
were women, birds were
 birds, gypsies melted down, nobody cared how many jabs you had and you
 never had to guess whether someone was smiling or frowning at you.
 Sent from my iPhone
 On Feb 10, 2023, at 9:23 PM, ROBERT FABINSKI via Contra Callers <
 contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
 I look forward to a day in the future when the "quaintness" of the
 gendered terms will be used as a quirky theme for a dance evening, and
 people will think it's so old fashioned that no one will take offense;
 gendered terms will just be "the way it was a long time ago" and not the
 contentious topic it has been for the last few years.
 If that ever happens, the "Push Pa, Pull Ma" type dances with original
 will be pure gold!
 bobfab(a)aol.com
 On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 3:03 PM, Rich Sbardella via Contra Callers
 <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
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