Exams, Stress, and Expectations
Being labeled “the gifted kid” can come with a heap of stress.
You’ll Agree with Me When You’re Older
Are points of view of older people inherently better than those of younger people?
International Aid to Uganda in Light of Human Rights Violations
What is the correct response to the horrible human rights violations in Uganda?
An Oscars-Inspired Dinner
Anne shows us some Oscar inspired meals complete with a celestial Gravity themed cheese plate.
Band Riders and the Legend of Brown M&Ms
Smashly brings our attention to Band Riders a photography project depicting the catering requests of various musicians’ riders in the style of a Flemish still life.
Stem Cells, Stressed Cells, Healing, and the Lure of Rejuvenation.
A recent study in Nature, entitled “Stimulus-triggered fate conversion of somatic cells into pluripotency“, suggests that subjecting cells to dangerous but non-lethal conditions (such as a bath in acid, or a mechanical squeeze) can turn them into stem cells.
Gods! Freyja (en español)
Silvia introduces us to the goddess Feyja, who kicks ass while riding a cat driven chariot.
Oh No You Didn’t!
Rachel asks Queereka readers if they’ve ever been called out in public settings.
Why I Can’t Stand Neo-Segregationists
Yessenia critiques a recent Salon article on “white appropriation of belly-dancing.”
Pop Quiz: Sorry?
Jennifer reminds us of the value of a good apology.
Fox News: Let’s Get Some White Christian Homeschooling Immigrants Up in Here Instead of All These Poor Brown Losers
DrShell notes that Fox News has finally come to embrace illegal immigrants–so long as they are white Christian fundamentalist homeschoolers.
Pop Quiz: The Horror of Textbook Prices
Jodee shudders at the skyrocketing price of textbooks.
“Is Breast Truly Best?” What This New Breastfeeding Study Does (and Doesn’t) Say
A thorough scientific analysis of the paper behind the latest breastfeeding study.
Explaining Death to Kids, Atheist-Style
Tori relates a story about how she told her son about death from an atheist perspective.
Internet Meme Demolition Derby: Congratulations on Being Born in the XX’s
Lou does an excellent takedown of the clueless nostalgia behind a popular meme.
Featured image credit: Chris_Parfitt via Flickr
That belly dancing thing…
The objection here does not seem to be the copying of Middle Eastern dances in general but rather the particular set of overtly sexualized moves bordering on simulated intercourse.
As far as we know, that particular element got going after the Ottoman Turks took it up, or rather their rulers did. In an age where starvation was common, being morbidly obese was the height of fashion which made it rather difficult to ‘enjoy’ that harem thing. As with many elite cultural practices, they tend to percolate down the social ladder over time and spread geographically.
So Victorian western travelers brought back exotic tales that were later used as ‘justification’ for Western imperialism. At the time London had several hundred thousand child prostitutes but the mere existence of a hip-wiggly dance in Turkey becomes ‘justification’ for the British occupation of Egypt.
Since the Ottomans had a habit of kidnapping women from a large geographic area and in a range of skin tones, the idea that it ‘belongs’ to one group is rather silly.
All cultural practices are ultimately inventions and most are borrowed from completely different cultures. Today the bagpipes and the tartan kilt are the cultural emblems of Scotland but the pipes come from Turkey, the kilt was invented by an Englishman and most of the clan tartans invented by a pair of Polish con men selling fake Scots pedigrees to English infiltrators. Hawaiian shirts, furniture and food was invented in Los Angeles by a restaurateur who hadn’t been to Hawaii at that point but was friends with a lot of early Hollywood stars. What passes for Tantric sex in the West is essentially a Californian invention.