Week 11 Blogging Assignment

As I was watching the So You Think You Can Dance Tour last Saturday, I noticed that the only tap dancer in the group was male. Now although seemingly not important, it also reminded me of all the famous tap dancers I knew, who were all inherently male. Interestingly enough, I myself took tap dancing lessons as I child and I only remember seeing girls in these classes, just like any other dance class I took as a child (well, at least predominantly female). So intrigued enough by this possible phenomenon, I looked it up. Turns out that this blogger, Molly Edmunds, also thought of the same thing concerning tap dancers a year ago when National Tap Dance Day came about. After some research, she found that "tapping was considered a male form thanks to its association with jigging competitions between male slaves in plantations". Not only was that an interesting historical fact, it also highlights the fact that females were portrayed as "too weak" to partake in this form of dance. Luckily, today's society has given the opportunity for women to partake in tap, but it is still dominantly for males. Today, the debate is now over whether women should be allowed to use heels for the tap shoes instead of the gender neutral ones the women had previously advocated for. In my opinion, I think women should have the freedom to choose which type of shoe she likes and I don't believe that these heel shoes portray subordination to males. This is just a silly issue that is simply a matter of personal choice. Grace Huang.

http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2010/05/25/tapping-away-at-sexism-in-dance/