Re: [Callers] Gender Swapping - When?

Martha Edwards wrote: In normal american culture, looking someone directly in the eyes for more than a fraction of a second is very rare. When it does happen, it's generally between lovers. In a swing or gypsy, you have several times that much direct eye contact, and it's generally not with a lover, so it's weird. I would say it is, from a normal american viewpoint, 'sexual', even without someone choosing to make it so. As contra daners, we've mostly learned not to think of it that way. Mostly. But the sexual interpretation and connotations are still present. Imagine a man gypsing with a young girl. If the man stared directly into her eyes the whole time, as the figure entails and would be standard with an older partner, contra dancers would widely percieve this as somewhat creepy because it would be seen as partly or possibly sexual. Also in our culture there's a wide range of variation in who it is acceptible to be sexual with and how much. Factors include: - age (more difference in age, less acceptable) - marital status (married to someone else, less, married to each other, more) - gender (Opposite gender more acceptable. If same gender, female is more acceptable) - ... Note that I'm not taking a position here, just trying to describe the culture. But I get the complaint: the unhappy male dancer did want to do something generally percieved as somewhat sexual with someone generally percieved as inappropriate for him to be sexual with. I don't agree with the complaint; I think that if he paid attention he would realize that in this group the eye contact did not indicate as high amount of sexual involvement as he thought it did. The complaint makes sense, though. Jeff