Sexing the Nation: Discourses of the Dancing Body in Ireland in the 1930s

Abstract

This article addresses the relationship between discourses of ‘nation’ and ‘gender’ in the specific context of the dance hall in 1930s Ireland. The establishment of public dance halls during this era coincided with the project of nation building following political independence in 1922. It is claimed that the dance hall became a significant site for national identity construction, that powerful political and cultural groups sought to mould dancing bodies to shape an ‘ideal’ body politic and, that this process was profoundly gendered. It is argued that the tension between the discourses of ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ within the political arena led to a struggle to achieve cultural dominance which was mapped onto the representation of female and male bodies within the dance hall space. Four main discourses of the dance hall were identified and categorised as ‘degenerate’, ‘utopian’, ‘battleground’, and ‘custodial’. I go on to argue that the male and female bodies within the gendering process could be seen as mirror images of each other and operated through the association of women with the private sphere, modernity and consumption, and the representation of men in terms of production and as guardians of tradition in the public domain. The discussion is based on an analysis of representations of the dance hall in a particular provincial newspaper, The Leitrim Observer, for the year 1934 and is supplemented with data from other newspapers for the same year.

Keywords:

• Dance
• dance hall
• the body
• national identity
• gender identity
• tradition
• modernity
• consumption

Notes

The abbreviations used in extracts from the newspapers are as follows: LO for The Leitrim Observer, CT for The Connaught Tribune, WP for The Western People, and WXP for the Wexford People. The year is omitted from subsequent extracts from the newspapers as they all refer to the same year, 1934.

‘Modern’ should not be confused with the more common use of the term to mean American Theatre Dance. In this context it means the newest and most up-to-date ballroom dances which accompanied the popular music (non-traditional) of the time and which originated in the US and Britain.

Jazz-dancing was somewhat of a misnomer since it was an umbrella term for non-traditional social dance and was frequently used interchangeably with ‘modern’ or ‘foreign’ dance. Newspaper coverage indicates the widespread public confusion about the precise meaning of the term jazz-dancing. Whether it was a jazz foxtrot or quickstep was not at issue, the main point of contention being that it involved closed couple dancing (as did ballroom) thereby allowing closer physical contact than céilí dance where minimal body contact was the norm. Indeed, one writer on the topic opined that in Irish dancing ‘[t]he nearest approach to contiguity is the joining of partly outstretched hands’ (Anelius, 1943, p. 166).

The degenerate discourse was emic in so far as it is taken from clerical pronouncements. See quote from the Bishop of Galway reported in The Leitrim Observer of 17 February and also the infamous phrase ‘Irish dances do not make degenerates’, quoted in Breathnach (1983, p. 44). The other three discourses are based on categories developed by the author.

This trend was most explicitly expressed in the Constitution of 1937 in which women's primary role was constructed as mothers within the home and, inter alia, led to the implementation of the ‘marriage bar’ which denied married women access to Public Service jobs.

It is interesting to note the equation of Irishness with the Catholic faith in this quote. The conflation of religion and ethnicity had been ongoing since the mid-nineteenth century when the Church strategically manoeuvred to gain control of education and health institutions and was formally sanctioned in the 1937 Constitution when it was given a ‘special position’. For further details see Whyte (1980).

The economic climate of the 1930s was characterised by a state policy of protectionism and an economic war with Britain which restricted the availability of consumer goods and encouraged the value of frugality.

A typical example is the announcement of the opening of a ladies hairdressing saloon and beauty parlour in Carrick-on-Shannon in which the proprietor indicates that she is ‘late of MR. A. PALCIC'S, [note the capitalisation], Grafton Street, Dublin’ and where ‘All Modern Machinery and Equipment, as used by the leading Dublin Hairdresser's will be employed …’, and where ‘Patrons are assured of Personal Attention and Efficiency’ (LO, 25 August).

The name is derived from their uniform distinguished by the colour of their shirts. While they can to some degree be seen as analogous to other youth movements such as the Brownshirts, their ideologies and activities are generally regarded as ultra-conservative rather than fascist. They were in conflict with both the IRA and the de Valera led Fianna Fáil government; a conflict which originated in the Civil War and was both political and class-based/economic. The year 1934 was marked by incidents such as the relatively minor ones reported at dances but also more serious ones such as murder and attempted murder of rivals. For further reading on the ‘Blueshirts’, see Manning (1970).

The following programme announcement for the Gaiety Cinema in Carrick-on-Shannon seems germane to the discussion. It includes a film called ‘The Last Trail’ based on one of Zane Grey's books of the same name. It is characterised as bringing ‘in conflict the tough gangsters of the eastern cities with the hard-riding, straight-shooting cowboys of the Western plains’ (LO, 22 September).

Men's attitude to social dancing has been the subject of much discussion in sociology, cultural studies and dance studies. See Ward (1993) for a critical and insightful overview. To further the debate in an Irish context would require further empirical investigation of men's dance practices and attitudes in a wider variety of contexts and, specifically the gradual transformation from rural to urban techniques of the body with rural to urban migration.

Newspaper coverage indicates that céilís were generally held in local venues whereas dances were held in both local and extra-local venues.

Twenty six of Ireland's thirty two counties achieved independence from British rule in 1922 which was subsequently known as ‘The Free State’ until the declaration of a Republic in 1949.

Ceilidh is the most common spelling in the 1930s.

Prices varied according to venue, purpose, and type of dance. The range was from six pence for a concert followed by a céilí, to seven shillings and sixpence for ladies and ten shillings for gents for an annual Agricultural Show Dance. In the latter case it is worth noting the common practice of pricing according to gender. The average price for non-céilí dances was about two shillings. The price for the Gaiety in Carrick-on-Shannon was five shillings.

While the independent state was but a little over ten years in existence, the nationalist ideology which underpinned it was based on the idea of a long and unbroken thread of cultural traditions which were required to be transmitted from one generation to the next.

This gendering process may be homologous to the gendering of attitudes towards television viewing where research has indicated that men tend to overestimate the amount of factual programming they view and where they express criticism of ‘women's genres’ such as television soap-opera.

Cumann na mBan [trans. The Society of Women] was the name given to the women's organisation of the Irish Republican Army.