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Abstract
This article discusses recent responses to performances of same-sex male ballroom dancing in order to consider the subtle difference which can exist between homophobia and effeminophobia. Given that the world of performance-level ballroom dancing is a gay-friendly environment, in which many participants are openly gay identified, this article will argue that a discourse of effeminophobia, rather than homophobia, underpins the world of performance-level ballroom dance. Performance-level ballroom dance is often read as camp not only because it represents exaggerated gender roles but because its official technique requires that the male dancer synthesise codes of masculinity and femininity in his dancing. What protects the gender-dissident male ballroom dancer from being read as effeminate is that he is paired with a female body performing excessive femininity. Without the foil of the hyper-feminine female partner, the same-sex couple draws attention to the fact that the male ballroom dancer is not dancing as a man but in accordance with ballroom’s queer construction of masculinity. Given that performance-level dance has struggled for so many years to be viewed as masculine sport, practitioners may, quite understandably, be anxious about any representation which suggests that ballroom dance may be an effeminate activity.
Notes
1. So You Think You Can Dance (Citation2005) is an American dance talent show in which dancers perform in open auditions, held in major US cities, in order to demonstrate their dance ability. If these dancers are allowed to progress to the next levels, their dance technique is tested as they are required to dance in a variety of different styles and genres. The series is an international franchise with shows broadcast in more than thirty different countries.
2. The word ‘effeminophobia’ was coined by Sedgwick (Citation1991).
3. The term ‘performance-level dance’ will be used to distinguish dance which is performed in front of spectators from dance which is simply for personal enjoyment as in, say, the context of a dinner dance. This term incorporates both amateur and professional level competition ballroom, as within DanceSport competitions, but also performances on television dance talent shows.
4. The concept of gender performativity was developed by the most influential gender theorists in recent years: Judith Butler. Reworking the Nietzchean philosophy that there is no doer that precedes the deed, Butler argued that ‘There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; that identity is performatively constituted by the very “expressions” that are said to be its result’ (Citation1990, p. 33).
5. Tim Bergling coined the term ‘sissyphobia’ which, in many ways, is a synonym for effeminophobia. However, Bergling’s focus is on the anxiety about effeminacy within gay male culture and, in particular, gay male concerns about being labelled as a sissy (p. 9). In this respect, it is fair to think of effeminophobia as the general anxiety about effeminacy, as expressed by both gay and straight cultures, while sissyphobia denotes the specificity of discourses within gay male cultures – particularly the world of dating.
6. Of course, this interpretation is premised on the idea that gender is the defining attribute in eroticism. It has been the agenda of much of queer theory to argue that the gender of the sexual object choice may not be the only factor in sexual desire. Some people, for example, may desire a specific sensation or sexual act rather than the gender of the person who is performing the act (see Sedgwick, Citation1990).
7. A commercial and critically acclaimed success, Billy Elliot has also been the subject of considerable academic debate (Hill, Citation2004; Lancioni, Citation2006; Sinfield, Citation2006; Weber, Citation2003). The film narrates the story of a young, working-class boy growing up in a mining village in North East England during the miners’ strike of the 1980s. Instead of attending his boxing classes, Billy develops an interest in ballet and has to contend with his family’s reluctance to allow him to engage in the activity.
8. As Brenda Weber points out, the final scene of Billy moving to the stage wing and having his cloak removed bears more similarity to the action performed by a boxer before his match than a ballet dancer (Citation2003). This is not only an ironic reference to Billy’s past, in which his family tried to insist that he should take boxing rather than ballet classes, but is also a visual coding of ballet as masculine athleticism for the film’s spectator.
9. Hazel Fletcher and her husband Alan were World Professional Latin Champions 1977–1981. Fletcher now sits on the World Dance Sport Federation’s Committee for Artistic Standards and Excellence. This committee is charged with maintaining standards of technical and aesthetic performance in the world of competition ballroom dance.
10. As Butler asked ‘Is there a “physical” body prior to the perceptually perceived body? An impossible question to decide.’ (Citation1990, p. 146.) As the body is both discursively constructed and perceptually inspired, there cannot be a fixed, immutable, pre-discursive body.
11. A ‘cross between a game show and a talent show’ (McMains, Citation2010, p. 262), Dancing with the Stars also bears similarities to the type of transformation narratives made popular in make-over TV shows in which the participant gains a new skill and sense of personal and/or physical improvement (McMains, Citation2010, p. 261). The premise of the show is that a celebrity is paired with a professional ballroom dancer and, every week, dances one of the set dances from the ballroom repertoire of standard and Latin American dances. Dancing with the Stars was developed from the BBC dance show Strictly Come Dancing (see below).
12. Strictly Come Dancing (known affectionately as Strictly) first appeared on the BBC in 2004 and was a revival of the 1980s show Come Dancing with a new twist in the format of pairing celebrities with professional ballroom dancers. Now into its thirteenth season, Strictly continues to be one of the BBC’s most popular shows and the format has been sold to many countries around the world where it has the title Dancing with the Stars presumably because other countries would not appreciate the reference to the original Come Dancing series.
13. Opponents of the proposed changes have included the heterosexually identified professional ballroom dancer James Jordan (see McCormick, Citation2015; Powell, Citation2015) and the gay identified celebrity GP Dr Christian Jessen (Duffy, Citation2015).
14. In a number of interviews, the professional dancers on Strictly have affirmed that the best celebrity contestants are always sports people because they have strength and endurance; a mind-muscle connection and a commitment to the regimes and demands of training.
15. Harrington is one of Canada’s most acclaimed ballet dancers. Made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2000, he was then added to Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2005. In 2006, York University Canada awarded Harrington an Honorary Doctorate for his outstanding contributions to dance and the performing arts.