karena

My cat hates my stick - runs if I pick it up (and she's never been accidentally hit with it or anything) but I had to extract her from my veil this morning!

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"Nothing is black and white, it's all shades of grey" Me

Reen.Blom

Gosh,
I hope your veil survived!

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ShiroiOji

I know I should wait until the end, after I have read everything to post. However, I couldn't. I have to say, it made me love you a little when you simply just came out and said "I'm fat..." Then when I read this part of your post, it simply made me love you all the more.

My weight and maintaining it is something I spend time, maybe too much time, on, because I can go either way; I used to be the skinny guy that people would callously yell, "Eat a cheeseburger" on the street to. I also had a "friend" who would often tell me how paunchy I was, (as he was uncomfortable with how heavy he was, and still is.) It's lovely to read this sort of compassion about weight being bidirectional from you, and I want to thank you for it.

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ShiroiOji

Hawkies, Gummies and Aerodynamics.

And please people, realize that I am being snarky here, and am in NO WAY, SHAPE OR FORM actually suggesting that these actually be used!

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da Sage

If you loved that, you should hear me tell off people who say I'm bigboned. "Absolutely not. I'm smallboned and overweight."

belly_dancer

QUOTE... "everyone"....
cannot decide who to quote/respond to in particular ... as y'all have good points... & cannot remember who said what....
as far as "fat (or old... or male... or whatever...) only shows/contests"...
wellllll........ in theory... those bd contests where you got knocked off points right off the bat for being "large" (did i read it on this thread/forum?? read it somewhere in the last couple of days...).... did they say in their "rules/handbook" that size was an issue??.... did it say "only size 10 & under need apply"?????
I can sort of see that MAYBE this is why some people want to have a "big beauty (only need to apply)" type contest IF this (the above) is what happens in the "regular" type contests/shows......
in a "perfect" world we would have a "belly dance only" contest (as in NO Jazz/ballet/modern/etc need apply)... buutttt then would the other dance forms be pissed off that they were not included?? (I think not?!?) & then WITHIN our belly dance only "contest" (or show...) would we not separate out the "categories" such as.... "Egyptian"/"Turkish"/"AmCab"/"Tribal"/"Fusion"......
is that SOOOO different as separating out say the sport of swimming???
I mean you have all your different "strokes" (styles) then you also have your "distances" (sizes?????) then of course the sexes are TWO TOTALLY DIFFERENT events.... & if you go slightly smaller than the Olympics... you also have AGE group swimming.. from the 5 & under category to the "Masters" (the old folks.. in swimming I THINK (do NOT quote me... been a while...) it is like 39 & over) & within the masters the even break the ages down further... by decade.......
I THINK.. what I am TRYING to say is... is it weird/unusual.. that people would want to compete (or in a show, be COMPARED) with(to) their "peers"???
just throwing that out there.... although in a "show" I can see for instance that it would be great (variety reasons) to have young/old/fat/scrawny/male/female/misc. be in a (say) "Turkish" BD show....
but on the other hand why not have a turkish/tribal/am cab/egyptian/fusion/etc "male (or big beauties... or "masters"... or whatever)only" show.....
I think the point is... how/where do you determine your categories....??
where do you "separate"??
I know cause I live in a smaller populated area... we would lump more together.... so here I do not think we could get enough male (or turkish or "large" or "old" dancers (much less interested audience!!!)) to populate a whole show!!....
maybe in one of the top 10 (population) cities this (the segregated) show could happen....
but...& lets face it... BD is rather a "niche sport" so in many places we would be lumped together.... did I contradict my own point????
I AM trying to say I see BOTH reasons (to separate... or NOT to separate!)
but if the not= young/physically perfect/female groups are being discriminated against.... I can see why you want your own show/contest/etc...
after all when I am hired as a dancer... they DO care if I am male/female.. young/mature.... girlish(skinny)/womanly(curvy)... & then depending on the ethnicity of the audience a turkish/egyptian/etc belly dancer depending on their needs.....
hope this makes sense... does not offend anyone... I am late... must run so no time to edit!!!
have a HAPPy FUn weekend!!!!

Artemocion Malta

[quote=LadyofLostTimes;81260]I want to thank you all that have left such nice comments.
"I am just tired of people telling me that I have to if not I cannot be a belly dancer."

Well these people that tell you those things r being stupid. I mean you can't go saying that skinny girls can't dance but you can't say that bigger ones can't either! it's so stupid!

Belly Dance is one of the few forms of dance that can be done professionally from both big girls and small ones . You cannot say the same for jazz and ballet maybe but as far as belly dance goes..its good for all one us ! If you need to lose weight do it for your health and to feel lighter in general not to be a belly dancer.

I mean it's not like you are applying for AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL( where the trend is to be skinny ) . If some one would be choosing a model for a fashion belly dance costume...no ,they probably won't choose a big girl, but when it comes to a real show......they will choose who ever they wanna see dancing and that has little to do with whether you are thin, fat , normal etc.

just ignore the bla bla of those people~ do try to lose weight for your health and general well being but do not stop belly dancing !

Aisha Azar

Dear Belly_dancer,
The difference is that if someone has a show about Egyptian dance, or Turkish dance or Tribal dance, they are still having a show about dance. If someone has a show based on whether or not people are plus size, or male, or thin, or black or Christian, then they are having a show based on something other than dance. There is a huge difference in those two concepts. There is prejudice everywhere and creating more segregation based on elements not related to the situation is not the answer. I can see the reasoning in having a all Tribal show, but an all plus-sized show makes no sense if we are discussing dance.
Regards,
A'isha

lizaj

agreed A'isha I much prefer an all-inclusive show accepting all body types. To exclude slender people is sending out the same message as excluding larger girls.
And the idea of plus size beauty contests..that's saying a plus size girl can't stand along side a slender girl in the beauty stakes and vice versa.
This year a larger girl reached final places of a UK national beauty contest and that's were the larger woman should be..in the mainstream. Weight is only an issue when it's an issue of health. We are just going through an era when ultra-slim was the thing..it was not the case in previous decades nor centuries.

Size 16 woman in 'beauty competition winner' shock!

Aniseteph

Can't leave you (or A'isha) rep, but Especially in something like belly dance, where we know that fantastic dancers come in all shapes and sizes. Any discrimination within a dance community based on size is just bizarre, IMO.