Online Gender Based Violence: Story Five

I’m a male Belly Dancer. I have always loved this dance style. But Belly Dancing is often associated with femininity and sensuality, leading to stereotypes that it is exclusively a dance form for women. When male dancers like me perform belly dance, we are criticized or ridiculed for challenging these gender norms.

I often get comments like fag, weird, quit dancing etc. Even among other dancers, I get the pressure to conform the binary gender expectations and pursue more “masculine” dance styles. Not to mention the limited opportunities I have in this career.

I always face bullying, teasing, or ridicule for my feminine expressions and can’t ask for help because somehow it’s expected of me to endure all this for choosing to disobey the prefixed gender rules.

But I continue to move forward with my art as a form of representation for all those people like me who see art as art, not another way to enforce toxic gender rules.”