From "He Wants to Be a Ballerina. He Has Taken the First Steps" in the NYT.
It seems to me that it's all about the performers looking a certain way. Maybe there's a problem with how extremely ballet presents the difference between male and female. But most female human beings fail to meet ballet's image of the female. There are rigorous "specific aesthetic norms, which include thinness and ideas about harmonious proportions," and groups of female dancers need to blend together with no one sticking out as different. How can any man possibly fit into that narrow niche? But if he can, why not let him? It might be that he can't, but they're doing it anyway. I don't know.
There is also Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, which is a comedy form of ballet where males dance as females, and Johnsey has done that, but he quit and claims he was harassed for looking too feminine. And:
“With the Trocks, if you messed up, you could make a joke about it,” he said. And despite his strong point-work technique, he said he had “completely the wrong idea about what makes a ballerina beautiful and graceful. It is actually strength, hidden within softness and grace, and I have had to figure out in my genetically male composition, how to find that.”He lost 20 pounds in order to be able to present his body as feminine enough for ballet standards. It sounds disturbing unhealthy: "I had to cannibalize my body, make it run on energy from muscles and figure out how to lose muscle mass without losing strength."
Here's what Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo look like:
AND: Why must ballet enforce a near-anorexic standard of feminine beauty? Here is an early effort at adjusting to modern-day standards of body acceptance:
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73 comments:
"I had to cannibalize my body, make it run on energy from muscles and figure out how to lose muscle mass without losing strength."
I had to do that in order to crawl out thru the ventilator shaft, but it was worth it.
ANOTHER reason to be completely uninterested in ballet.
Chicks with dicks.....
So feminism is about men taking jobs from women?
"That is, that the dancer is not a woman dancing, for these reasons juxtaposed that she is not a woman but a metaphor summing up one of thee elementary aspects of our form, and that she is not dancing...Then, through a kind of commerce whose secret her smile seem to pour forth, without delay she imparts to you, through a last veil that remains forever, the nudity of your own concepts, and silently proceeds to write your vision in the manner of a Sign, which she is."
Mallarme on ballet, cited by Derrida.
No hymen, no ballet, however.
If you can't tell the difference, I suppose it doesn't matter. If ...
Codpiece manufacturers hardest hit.
Some ballerinas have dicks.
--NYT Guide to the Ballet
Men used to play the feminine roles in traditional ballet way back in the day. Big whup.
The male dancers have such prominent crotch bulges. I know a male can do various things to eliminate the look of male genitalia, but wouldn't that make the strenuous dancing too difficult? I don't know. Just asking! The gender performance in ballet is so exaggerated. Maybe the critique should be aimed at that.
Soon all the roles will be performed by transgendered.
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog, and under the tutu nobody knows you're a man. No need for special strapping if the tutu provides enough coverage.
'Travesty' is the correct word, considering its etymology.
An old friend of mine was a dance major at a Big Ten university. They told her in no uncertain terms that her body was not correct for the Ballet, i.e. frizzy hair, large breasts, short legs.
Tcrosse, they were right. There are dance styles someone built like your friend could be great at, but ballet isn't one of them.
I like basketball, but being a man of normal height, I won't be going pro. Them's the breaks.
"How can any man possibly fit into that narrow niche?" By declaring himself to be a woman.
"But if he can, why not let him?" Anything goes, after all, and as we know, women welcome male competition.
"It might be that he can't, but they're doing it anyway." Can, can't, there you go again with your arbitrary standards of performance. "They" will tell you what can and can't be done.
"I don't know." What in the world do you mean? Get woke.
"The male dancers have such prominent crotch bulges." So what? Are you saying women can't have penises?
I'm so glad to read this.
My life-long dream was....to Dance!
Now, I can take off my shorts and dazzle the babes with my strong, manly, legs.
As I dance, dance, dance!
The male crotch bulges and female tight fits are there to indicate different jobs. It's part of the story.
"Soon all the roles will be performed by transgendered."
Soon all women's sports will be dominated by transgendered.
Fun times to come at the IOC. Especially since China, India, the Middle East, and Africa aren't quite as woke as we are. Russia isn't either but will welcome any new chance to cheat.
The NYT breathlessly reports: "For the first time in modern ballet history, a male dancer is performing as part of the female ensemble at an international ballet company signaling an important moment in an art form that often celebrates a particular ideal of femininity."
Wow! It's almost like Jackie Robinson breaking the race barrier in baseball!
No, I lie. My actual dream was to play NFL QB.
But my "Body Shape" prevents that. Hopefully, something can be done about that.
Why shouldn't 5'10 inch men be allowed to play in the Superbowl?
Just more discrimination.
The song "dancing queen"
Takes on a whole new meaning.
I just watched The Hurricane Heist (2018). Unconnected and sort of random plot. Action but no sense. Weird science physics.
In the middle, the hero and heroine arrive somewhere, and the lady announces that she's had to pee for two hours, and the guy says good suggestion, so she squats behind a pillar and he pees against something (nothing non-PG about it).
So I asked myself, I can't wait to see how this fits in as a significant detail.
It doesn't fit in. It was just there. I suppose in the absence of a tit scene, whose place it held in the tit scene slot.
I loved Nureyev. Gay, yes, and he danced beautifully as a man. No tutu for him. This whole gender blending craze is nucking futs but our hostess seems fascinated by it.
Why shouldn't 5'10 inch men be allowed to play in the Superbowl?
They can. Just not at quarterback, offensive line, defensive line, or linebacker.
Fernandistein said...
I had to do that in order to crawl out thru the ventilator shaft, but it was worth it.
Freedom is never free.
And I don't see what's wrong with a male ballet dancer performing the male parts in ballets. Obviously I'm not "woke."
"But in a world with a heightened awareness of gender fluidity..."
Our 6,527th article article this year on the hugely important and socially all-pervasive issue of transgenderism? I'm writing propaganda? Why ever do you say that?
Leland: So feminism is about men taking jobs from women?
Never let it be said that the generally dour face of Clown World is without its humorous aspect.
rehajm: Men used to play the feminine roles in traditional ballet way back in the day. Big whup.
True for plays, but is that really the case for ballet? I had the idea that ballerinas have been around from ballet's development in the 17th century. I could be dead wrong about this, so corrections welcome.
At any rate, the important thing is that progressive thinking is finally moving to get women off the stage as well as the sports arena (where they don't belong), restore tradition, and give those roles back to men.
There's a guy named Wayne Sleep who was a big star at the Royal Ballet and who only stood 5'2" in his stocking feet. Hell of a dancer. At a benefit in 1985 he did a wee dance with Princess Diana, who was 5'10 and wearing heels. It was warmly received.
A wee dance? Is that like the girls did in the hotel suite in Moscow?
"...so she squats behind a pillar and he pees against something (nothing non-PG about it)."
Around 1970 movies started to have "bathroom scenes". Y'know where two characters would go into a bathroom and talk while taking a piss. Or we'd just see the male hero go in and saddle up to a stall - for no reason. I can remember Peckinpah had a scene where the stagecoach driver takes a piss off-screen ( and we hear it hit the ground).
So what is the point? Well, first, little kids love this because its so 'edgy' like saying "poop" or "wiener". But the real point is that Hollywood remembers that under the "Hayes code" they couldn't show a bathroom. So, this is their way of sticking it to the Bourgeois - even though no one except a few film nerds - like me - know about it.
Its like when Hollywood sued a company for selling DVD's without profanity. You'd think they'd WANT that to increase sales and make more $$$. But no, the number 1 priority is sticking it to all those "weird" "Christian" types.
To misquote Sally Fields;
They hate you. They really hate you.
But keep giving them your unrequited love.
Why must ballet enforce a near-anorexic standard of feminine beauty?
Sure, why? Bad ballet, bad, bad ballet. Let's make room for the heavy, the awkward, the uncoordinated and, while we're at it, let's integrate traditional male and female roles so that the dancers can celebrate their individual sexualities. Miss Piggy has shown us the way. Anyone who opposses is guilty of hate speech.
A wee dance? Is that like the girls did in the hotel suite in Moscow?
You're taking the piss.
Why must ballet enforce a near-anorexic standard of feminine beauty?
Disney answered this in Fantasia 58 years ago.
Dance of the Hours
"Why shouldn't 5'10 inch men be allowed to play in the Superbowl?"
Two words: Garo Yepremian
Why must ballet enforce a near-anorexic standard of feminine beauty?
Ask Harrison Bergeron.
Betcha he’s still accused of manspreading in the ladies changing area.
Mansplaining too.
"Why shouldn't 5'10 inch men be allowed to play in the Superbowl?"
Russell Wilson is only 5'!1".
Fat ballerinas? It might make good theater but not good dance.
OP:AND: Why must ballet enforce a near-anorexic standard of feminine beauty?
Professor Althouse begging to be mansplained
Kinetic Energy = 1/2M*V^2
The muscle twitch is fixed at birth, mass is the variable
Blades of Glory:
Coach: You're the girl.
Jimmy: What?
Chazz: You're my pretty lady, MacElroy.
Jimmy: Wait, why?
Coach: Because you whine like one! [turns to Chazz] And no one can lift your fat ass, you're on a diet starting now.
Look folx - Harvey W. identifies as a handsome urbane young sophisticate and everyone gives him a hard time. Surely if it's good enough for the gender-fluid to self identify it's OK for Harvey W. ?
Some seem to think Althouse is sympathetic to this dude but, I have to say, the Drudgian inclusion/juxtaposition of those two videos in the same post is the un-wokest thing I've seen all week.
Plenty of 5' 10", and shorter, players have been in the Super Bowl.
Is the NYT celebrating that a man took a job away from a woman? It's not enough that the ballerinas have to compete against each other for the lead, now they also have to compete against the more feminine men.
Misty Copeland, step aside.
-LWL
"Misty Copeland, step aside."
From Wiki:
"Misty Danielle Copeland (born September 10, 1982)[1] is an American ballet dancer for American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States.[2] On June 30, 2015, Copeland became the first African American woman to be promoted to principal dancer in ABT's 75-year history.[3]"
On the Social Justice Bus, Ms. Copeland must step to the back when a white man in a tutu comes aboard.
-LWL
On the Social Justice Bus, Ms. Copeland must step to the back when a white man in a tutu comes aboard.
It's a lot like poker hands. A black transgender would be the royal flush.
A tight, narrow niche is the ballerina's greatest attraction.
The male dancers have such prominent crotch bulges. I know a male can do various things to eliminate the look of male genitalia, but wouldn't that make the strenuous dancing too difficult? I don't know. Just asking!
Depends!
Way back when, ballet was a blue collar job. Those Degas girls were not members of the haute bourgeois striving for beauty, but rather children of the poor struggling to make a buck. I don't think they ever made all that much money dancing, but they were young and supple and could enlist the support of rich men whose support of the arts was not altogether altruistic. Ballet was corrupt, exploitative and sexist from day one.
William, have you ever heard ballerinas talk? Rather spoils the elegance of their art. They're not haute anything.
The Imperial Russian and Bolshoi ballets were well known for supplying mistresses to the Russian aristocracy. A tradition carried forward into Soviet times, and apparently to this day, as there have been several recent scandals.
A friend of mine was once married to a dancer of the San Francisco ballet. She was beautiful of course, but an alcoholic and cocaine addict, abusive and had a terrible temper.
Gender fluid. Race fluid. Age fluid. Canine fluid. It’s all the same stream.
Women, your time is done.
The patriarchy now makes better women than you do.
Some day, the dumbass liberals will look Stone and say, "Hey, where did the real men go?".
This story is vomit-inducing.
The Trocs are pretty wonderful.
Soooo, men are better than women at just about fucking everything, eh?
Of course the male balletrinas could do something to eliminate the look of male genitalia, they could wear baggy shorts, but Nooo!j
Transgender/quasi-female. Perhaps tutus can be replaced with potato sacks.
Well, just think ... we can soon find a future where all 'female' parts are played by men and just shove women out of the public square - from sports to ballet!
HOW empowering!
Soooo, men are better than women at just about fucking everything, eh?
Men are about fucking everything, for sure. ;-)
Love the "modern ballet history" - cause you know in the old days all the people they'd step back when a young man danced by as a ballerina.
when Elton john wrote "hold me closer, Tiny Dancer",
wasnt that about Rahm Emanuel?
In ballet slippers and a pirouette with a high center of gravity.
a future where all 'female' parts are played by men and just shove women out of the public square
Deprecated by neo and quasi-females. Subordinated to their proper position... waiting in line at Planned Parenthood and a transgender conversion center awaiting a neo-male identity.
Why does it not seem like a step forward, for men to take over women's roles?
My (once) Juilliard dancer wife took me to see the Trocks quite some time ago.
Hilarious.
My Bride said the reason it made for great burlesque is that they had great technical skills, without which the comedic aspects of their performances might have fallen flat.
They could dance on point, and do all the leaps, jetes, and other stuff a female dancer would be expected to have mastered.
To this day I recall some of their stage names, such as
Margot Lowyn-Octane
Colette Aday
Tarara Boumdeyeva
They're still performing. A 2010 NYT article reported that a diminutive Chinese recruit, Long Zou, to be known as Enimenimynimova (say it aloud) had joined the group.
"Despite their initial opposition to his career, his parents are not judgmental about his current job, he said. “In Chinese opera the men play everything,” Mr. Zou remarked. “There is no problem with the Trocks.”"
I didn't know Frank Oz was such a good dancer.
His Black Swan is just awful. Campy hands, inexpressive arms - perhaps too long with Trocadero - for starters?
He is what used to be known as a freak show. And I suspect that's the only reason he's being hired as a "ballerina" - because it's certainly not his dancing or acting. D list would already be a stretch. And I'm being nice about that.
@Buwaya - bitches smell better.
Trumpit said...
I love trees, too. Don't you? They are murdered on a daily basis to make toilet paper. Isn't that sad when you think about it? A living, breathing, beautiful tree was mercilessly chopped down, so you could wipe your fat ass. Think of all the delicious fruit that trees provide
Trumpit is most likely tongue in cheek but for those who believe this crap: Don't you understand that trees grown for lumber and for paper pulp are a crop much like corn or cotton? People plant the trees, let them grow, then they harvest them 15 or 20 years later. Then they plant a new crop for harvest 20 years in the future. It's a type of farming.
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