Is Dance unmanly?

[cactusjuice]

Dance is the manliest shit ever. assuming your definition of manly is strong, sexy, and attractive. ( many people think ballet is girly, but the male dancers have to fling women through the air. plus, it takes stamina.

Anyway. has anyone seen Top Secret? because i have nick rivers singing in my head.
A-wop-babba-looba-balop-bamBOO! manly stuff

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

You guys are joking right ? That is NOT manly . At least not in North American culture. Don't mistake "manly" for "attractive to women "

America produced both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly; dancers and manly men. Your move.

 

[superbatranger]

Look at those guys. They are comfortable enough with their own masculinity to dance with each other and have fun doing it. In my opinion, that is manly. Dance is only unmanly if you believe it to be so. I personally would love to know how to dance.

 

[Aidinthel]

Sure, dance is unmanly. But you know what's also unmanly? Letting other people's opinions dictate your actions. So given that you've already committed the unmanliness of wanting to dance, your only hope of retaining your masculinity is to dance the *$&@ out of that dance.

 

[the Dept of Science]

What do those dumb fucks think boxing is? Oh footwork and locked arm actions? Sounds a lot like a dace to me. In fact all fighting not done with a gun is more or less a form of dance.

The difference is in the goal and emotions involved. Yes, they are similar insofar as they both involve 2 people moving. Except a boxer who focused on making his opponent enjoy himself as much as possible would be a pretty terrible boxer, same goes for a dancer that hoped to defeat his partner.

I must say that i honestly grasp and yet am confounded by this argument. I mean sure all the points about showing emotion are valid yet the art of war and the art of dance have nothing t do with the about of enjoyment or dismay you have on you partner.

If you an you partner truly enjoy a hideous or even just simple dance in a composition or from mere 3ed party perspective you "lost" to a person that dances better yet hates or does not enjoy doing so just as in a fight you may love to fight yet get knocked out by a person that hates violence you enjoy the act more but they "win" so to speak.

I suppose this comes from me being on the side that sees boxing and dance as one in the same and my father as seeing them as polar opposites. I find this ever the more intrusting that i think "the Dept of Science" knows precisely what I mean.

I think both arguments are kindof true. Dance can be a lot of things: a performance, a battle/competition or a social/partnered dance. Each context has different goals and aims.
A performance (eg. seeing ballet on stage) is all about the aesthetic enjoyment of the audience. In that way, ballet is most similar to a play or a concert. You can say that one dancer is better than another, but its a collaboration, so it makes no sense to say that one dancer "beat" another.
A battle/competition IS all about being better than the other. In that way, a tribal war dance or a Bboy competition IS like boxing. Here anger, aggression and macho posturing can come through. There's a slight difference in that you win by pleasing the crowd the most, which isn't true of boxing. In fact, it's most like pro-wrestling.
A social dance is all about making your partner enjoy themselves as much as possible. In that way, partnered dancing is like a date or sex. A successful dance is merely one in which both dancers enjoy themselves. The outward aesthetic qualities of it don't matter; you can have a great social dance that is boring as hell to watch.

?Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.? - C.S. Lewis

I Love this quote. Because Friendship or community was evolved out of being more successful when people co-operate. Friendship is what fosters the desire to cooperate with others.

Philosophy again has a purpose to survival. Philosophy along with religion is our moral compass. Its what tells us its wrong to slay newborn children or eat human flesh. Because those things detract from community and friendship and would leave us as weaker individuals than stronger community.

Now the last one, art, Is a subjective opinion, though it is mostly right. It is one of the things what makes life worth living. However in this case, dance, serves no such purpose in making life worth living. It is an archaic art form as in we have since developed greater forms of art. It was intended as a form of entertainment and mating ritual. We now have greater forms of entertainment and as for mating ritual, given we have 7 billion people on the planet, helping people to screw each other is about the last thing we need more of.

Look it is an archaic art form that is no longer needed. Anything it does can be accomplished by other means without resorting to rhythmically convulsing and self deprecation Its use is about as useful as cursive writing is today. Honestly I am shocked that it has remained with us this long. It has continually died off, because how many people can actually make money as a dancer? A hundred? A thousand? And I mean a dancer that does not involve taking ones clothes off.

Your argument is a slippery slope my friend. If you dismiss dance on those grounds, you may find yourself dismissing music, games, films, sport etc. on the same logic.

Slippery slope arguments are bogus. It is in essence a straw man argument. By suggesting that allowing dance to fall to its proper place of of obscurity that it somehow is going to push us over the edge as if we are incapable of metering our responses to things. Though Sport is hypothetically one that could be dumped on the wayside too.

Anyway, it does not matter. Dance will continue to exist, sport will continue to exist. this is just the opinion of one individual. My end is only to express it, its up for the reader to give it merit or not. It is unlikely it will have any impact on the world. If you agree with it, thats great, if not then just ignore it and let it fall to obscurity.

I'm currently reading this as "the forms of entertainment that I like are good and the forms of entertainment I don't like shouldn't exist".

You accuse me of straw man, but I accuse you of loaded language. You describe dance as "rhythmically convulsing and self deprecation". That may have a shred of truth if you are bad at it, otherwise it is completely misleading. Anyone that has any experience dancing doesn't consider it "self deprecation".
All your accusations of it being "archaic" I find funny. First of all, Western society is the only one that makes a distinction between music and dance. Everywhere else, they are considered one in the same. Dance is deeply ingrained in our evolution and our brain chemistry considers it inseparable from music. Listening to music activates the movement centres of our brains. I would even go so far as to say that there are certain styles of music that you can't truly appreciating without dancing to them. You call dance archaic, but I consider it to be "primal". It can tap very directly into our emotions in the same way that eating or sex can. Dancing is one of the best ways to "get out of your head", the same way that your brain turns off when you completely engrossed in a great film or piece of music.
I don't believe I have to spell this out but: Ask anyone that's a fan of dance or sport, I think that they will tell you that it makes their life worth living. Fans of dance are no different from fans of any other medium.

Then you just completely ignore the second half of my argument where I go on and justify it in unnecessary "utilitarian terms".
You agreed that friendship was valuable. However, you then completely ignored my biggest point about dance, that it's a social activity. You can't dance without meeting people. You can play videogames until the cows come home and never need to interact with another human being. I'm going to hazard a guess that most people on this forum have met (in real life) somewhere between 0 and 10 people through their hobby. How can you call anything that brings people together useless?

 

[A.A.K]

Hmmm...Interesting question.
Personally, I don't think dancing is a masculine thing.
The epitome of masculinity (in my reality) is the meeting of 2 martial artists; but that could be seen as a dance with the grace of the movements.

I don't think societies opinion though should get in the way. If you want to dance, than by all means dance.

I've hated dancing my entire life, and yet I'm going to take up lessons with my girlfriend. Just because it'll make her happy and I don't have any qualms learning. Dancing is hard.

I know my opinion can be viewed as hypocritical though coming from my martial background and practice, and I accept that and let it slide.
So it's really up to you. If you want to dance, dance. If you don't want to dance, than don't.
In western white culture though, (in answer to your question) I wouldn't consider dancing to be masculine. Manly - perhaps. It's 'manly' to stand up for what you believe in, it's also manly to have women (which you'll get), it's also manly to be strong - which dancing provides....

So that's my 2cents.

 

[Lugbzurg]

"Dance"? "Unmanly"? Clearly, no one has yet left you with Pants on the Ground. Time for me to remedy that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMwhl4IrPNc

 

[Offworlder_v1legacy]

I don't know about anyone else, but I think this shit is badass, to be able to dance like that would be amazing.


Dance is not unmanly, it is a skill that takes many hours of practice to master, I look up to a lot of male dancers whom would be considered gay or unmanly, anyone who thinks otherwise is narrow-minded.

 

[Offworlder_v1legacy]

Look at those guys. They are comfortable enough with their own masculinity to dance with each other and have fun doing it. In my opinion, that is manly. Dance is only unmanly if you believe it to be so. I personally would love to know how to dance.

Man that was awesome! I need to learn those moves, smash up a club with them.

 

[General Vengeance]

Dancing your troubles away.

 

[the Dept of Science]

Spoiler: Slow Club - Two Cousins

Look at those guys. They are comfortable enough with their own masculinity to dance with each other and have fun doing it. In my opinion, that is manly. Dance is only unmanly if you believe it to be so. I personally would love to know how to dance.

A friend sent me this the other day. I thought it was worth reviving the thread to spread it.

 

[Lilani]

People who call unmanly clearly have not tried it. There's a reason professional dancers are ripped, it's extremely athletic. I think the "unmanly" aspects come from the artistry and emotion of it. Because reel men dont hav feelingz and all that jazz.

 

[Evil Smurf]

If you want to get laid, learn to dance! Is that effeminate? No! it is human nature!