highlandsflyer":19hnbuj5 said:
Not generally. There are good reasons. My wife has sold a lot of clothing, and usually indicates when it a 'ladies only' item.
Yes, I do understand that, but there are some who would cross the boundaries as it were as clothing is a popular fetish, but what I refer to really and perhaps I was not explicit enough was activities and events where there was no reason to exclude a gender as there are no religious, therapeutic or maternal issues involved, it is just purely and simply an event where the organisers being a business have decided no males will be present aside from obvious staff etc.
In my capacity as a male belly dancer, I come across this very often in the UK, something the yanks find amazing that it is permitted, but still in the UK it seems male belly dancers are discouraged on the grounds that belly dance is something to do with ancient priestess's and fertility rites which is complete hogwash bearing in mind there is no academic evidence to say as much and what is perpetuated by mostly those that wish to sell something, is fantasy.
Where this thing comes from is Egypt where males still belly dance despite the laws in that country, some professionally and others in social situations there indicating this dance is a social dance, not a female only dance which the UK would like it to be.
But it is known in Britain, that males as a rule don't dance, so there is not the support from the male community for males that wish to belly dance let alone any other female dominated dance.
But of male belly dancers, no accurate survey has been made, but at any one time there is reckoned to be about fifty to a hundred of us trying to buck the trend, a figure that does not rise because of the situation in the UK in that the UK is unwelcoming to male belly dancers, people become discouraged and I personally hover between continuing and quitting because of the attitude that exists in this country, a country which is quite happy to dictate human rights to other countries blind to what is going on in it's own.
This topic is about belly dance in a way, it is what created it as what events run in this country for belly dancers and there are many,
ladies only is a common thing we come across.
But to give an indication of how bad this thing is, I will link a letter written about five years ago by a professional male dancer who has since quit the UK and the venue that comes in for his attack has since begrudgingly opened it's doors to males on licence.
http://doubleveil.net/index.htm?http&&& ... t/mike.htm
The website is another
on the spectrum world class male belly dancer who in his own words couldn't give a F**k what people think but professionals have that privilege.
