So You Think You Can Dance, the American dance-based reality show with a very high viewership (and more than 10 country-specific spin-offs) has a minor controversy brewing in their fifth season: one of the judges, Nigel Lythgoe, commented "I think you'd probably alienate a lot of our audience" after watching a straight/gay male ballroom dancing couple. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) issued a call to action to contact FOX and Lythgoe. Lythgoe tweeted more of his thoughts, but then went on to apologise for all his comments. Additionally, FOX issued a comment on how auditioners and contestants are reviewed. But none of this addresses the role of gender in dancing, though Lythgoe has clarified his thoughts before: that men "need to be very strong. Dancing is role-playing most of the time. And you need to be strong and lift girls. You need to look stronger than the girl you’re dancing with." Specific roles are assigned by gender in many styles of dance, including Square dancing, Tango, Poi, Haka, and many others. But there are opportunities for gender-role free dancing, as with the Lavender Country and Folk Dancers and other such groups.
posted by filthy light thief on May 23, 2009 - 56 comments

Free to Be... You and Me
posted by thirteenkiller on May 22, 2007 - 56 comments

Iron Women, Foxy Ladies- A collection of propaganda posters depicting the ideal, but contradictory, roles for Chinese women in the nation. Even if you're not interested in the politics, the evolution of style and form in the artwork is fascinating to examine.
posted by headspace on Aug 31, 2004 - 6 comments

Testosterone accelerates heart disease in men, according to a new Australian study. So is this something unavoidable, or would it help to reject Mark McGwire's favorite performance-enhancer, or avoid all anabolic steroids, or quit rooting so loud for sports teams, or stop getting into silly fights with each other?
posted by soyjoy on Sep 16, 2003 - 20 comments

Girls dress up, boys don't. Boys need to help girls cross the street. Girls work, boys play. Subtle gender messages (and really silly hairstyles) as observed by Monsieur Jean after collecting images from different countries of children on street signs for his salon.
posted by iconomy on Jun 24, 2003 - 18 comments

Pigs aren't the only animals getting cosmetic surgery: Cows in dairy shows are getting all manner of 'boob jobs' in a practice some compare to primping for the Miss America Pageant. "People really hate it when I compare cows to humans, but it's kind of the same," says one dairy farmer. Let's ignore the potential danger to human health of injecting stuff like silver directly into udders. My question is: Is there really such a wide gulf between Western culture's obsession with womens' breasts and and our refusal to wean ourselves, unlike the rest of the world, from milk?
posted by soyjoy on Oct 10, 2002 - 76 comments