Please stop Political Correctness and Bullying from spoiling my dance !
This is Pride month. I am a supporter of gay rights, women’s rights, women’s universal suffrage, outlawing racism…. I support almost everybody’s rights and of course I support freedom of speech. But recently I have found myself being bullied by Minority activists ignoring my rights.
I am a passionate country dancer. I dance Contra, English, Square, Scottish, Irish, German, Salsa, Renaissance. I dance “contre-dances” : a medieval French expression meaning that you dance in pairs, standing opposite (= ‘contre’) your partner. The convention is that Men stand opposite their Partner, and often the dance begins with a musical chord and a formal bow. Normally if numbers are equal, men dance opposite women. In Virginia we have lines of “men and women” – though often women dance together, men can dance together, or men and women may switch sides as the dance progresses with perfect freedom, love and laughter. We are free. We choose.
But I have discovered an irritating initiative in urban Contra Dance circles on the East and West coasts, where LGBTQ minorities are trying to replace the traditional usage of “men and women” with “Larks and Ravens.”
I dance wearing the kilt. I was attacked verbally by a young woman in a rainbow jumpsuit, telling me my kilt was a symbol of the Patriarchy, that the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society is full of male hypocrisy. I definitely felt bullied. I remained silent because I am polite, but I was a victim of discrimination in what I found to be an uncongenial atmosphere - definitely a first for me in the happy and relaxed contra dance community during 20 years of dancing in USA. That young lady obviously knows nothing about the RSCDS, which has been a matriarchy for 100 years since it was founded in 1923 by two women.
For her the Scottish kilt is like a red flag for a bull. That Is Ridiculous!
Give me space!
PLEASE, Young Lady: Allow me to be who I am, and I will let you be who you are!
Having felt personally bullied, I asked several dancing lady-friends for advice. This was a comment from one woman: “This is a potential fundamental shift in the entire dance community,” she told me: “You are NOT one single man who got bullied on one single evening. Bullying has become a major issue.”
PC has gone mad in the Contra Dance community. Young political activists are destroying the fun of dance by imposing new rules on everyone else. I was BULLIED in this case by a minority of four or five people who have imposed the names Larks&Ravens in place of Men&Women or Leaders&Followers. PC Bullying has entered the non-political space of the dance floor. Dance is the physical equivalent of Free Speech: it is fun and relaxing, allowing everyone to express themselves through music. Play it …. dance it …. it is music that makes dancing wonderful. LBGTQ activists are attacking our freedom of expression.
I was told in New York that expressions like “Men and Women” or “Leaders and Followers” denote hierarchy. In dancing, that is complete rubbish ! These names are no more hierarchical on the dance floor than using the terms “driver and passenger” in a motor car.
My question is whether anybody is "allowed" to criticize bullying by Minorities? Do the Minorities deny us a voice? An opinion? Our freedom?
I am a man (by birth, not by choice) and now I have to be a LARK? A song bird? I claim my own freedom of speech to say that imposing “Larks&Ravens” is an aggression against other dancers. Ravens are predators and scavengers. They feed on corpses. They pick at stinking cadavers with their pointy beaks. I do not see women as ravens. I do not see dancers as ravens. Ravens are predators without charm. Dance is charming, or it is nothing.
Some dancers now refuse to attend groups where they have to be a bird. PC is spoiling their freedom to dance. As an adult, I believe I have the right to stand up and PROTEST. PC and Bullying need to be challenged in the context of dance, which is – and should remain - the epitome of healthy, social physical expression in a safe and un-political space.
Robin Edward Poulton
poultonrobin@gmail.com
Author of a new book: “I Dance Therefore I Am” - an amusing memoir of dancing around America and Scotland, filled with jokes and creating “the greatest happiness of the greatest number” which is a Scottish philosophical maxim for a good life.