Irritated...

Salome

Administrator
Posting as a moderator here... moved this into the debate forum... all welcome to carry on in its new home :)
 

dreamthief666

New member
did i get it wrong

:( i thought we danced to make our lives better,to have fun, and meet other fab people, i'm only a novice in dance and on the forum, but it seems a shame to cause such angst about a really beautiful art-form, i'm white english, so proberbly miss a lot of the context, but still get great joy from it and i recently saw a show with all manner of dancers from all mover the globe all of which semed to portray it well, i would have thought the arabic dancers in the show would have bouycotted it if they thought it was being degraded, this is not meant to offend or upset.
 

Amulya

Moderator
:( i thought we danced to make our lives better,to have fun, and meet other fab people, i'm only a novice in dance and on the forum, but it seems a shame to cause such angst about a really beautiful art-form, i'm white english, so proberbly miss a lot of the context, but still get great joy from it and i recently saw a show with all manner of dancers from all mover the globe all of which semed to portray it well, i would have thought the arabic dancers in the show would have bouycotted it if they thought it was being degraded, this is not meant to offend or upset.


Of course we dance for the positive reasons. And it can be pretty scary for newbe's to see all the nasty stuff that can go on. Better to ignore it and concentrate on the good stuff on the forum :).
keep dancing!
 

karena

New member
dreamthief - similar passionate discussions could be had about anything, that's the nature of forums. :D
 

Sita

New member
:( i thought we danced to make our lives better,to have fun, and meet other fab people, i'm only a novice in dance and on the forum, but it seems a shame to cause such angst about a really beautiful art-form, i'm white english, so proberbly miss a lot of the context, but still get great joy from it and i recently saw a show with all manner of dancers from all mover the globe all of which semed to portray it well, i would have thought the arabic dancers in the show would have bouycotted it if they thought it was being degraded, this is not meant to offend or upset.

Hunt out the bunny/asylum thread to cool your nerves and present you with the forums softer, sweeter and to be honest prolly scarier side. :lol:;)
Long live fluffy bunnies and cute cats :dance:
Sita:D
 

khanjar

New member
I didn't know exactly where to post this topic but anyway.. I'm sick and tired of getting into silly arguments on youtube such as the comments made by fanatic idiots.. it is irritating me :mad::mad::mad:


First I get a message from an Israeli Jew that says "camel riders stop stealing our culture" What the....???? Last time I checked, judaism is not a culture, but rather a religion. This person is like many Israelis came from Europe (he's from Albania) so he has no connection to Middle Eastern anything. I also don't see how Egyptian music and dancing fits into "their" culture. I've heard all sorts of stories, like belly dancing was a godess temple dance, or that it originated in India.. but I wonder how on earth anyone can come up with a story like that!!!!!

I notice too many camel insults going around these days. So, if we're riding cars now does it mean that we should forget or be ashamed of our past?? I love going into the desert and riding camels.. until this day there's people who still live like that, the same way in the west there is people who prefer to live in farms.

Another fanatic who left offensive comments (which of course, I deleted)on videos of a famous dancer that I had put up. Next thing he replies to a comment I had made about the same dancer (video posted by someone else) where he continued the name calling. The funny thing is when I clicked on his channel he had only two things on his "favorite videos", one of them was a clip of that dancer. I don't understand WHY he would keep searching and watching her stuff, then trash her by saying what she's doing is "haram". I'm assuming it would be just as bad to be looking at 'sinful stuff' as it is to be doing the sin.

The insulters on youtube, it sometimes pays to see where else they have been and what comments they have put elsewhere, as some just join websites to rant and abuse. Perhaps it is the only soap box they would dare stand on, the one that is totally anonymous.
 

gypsy8522

New member
I have now become a pro at dealing with youtubers :lol:. My inbox is flooded with all sorts of messages daily and I often do not bother to respond unless I feel it is a legit message, otherwise I delete/ignore as spam.

The only thing that still gets to me sometimes are the people who send me ugly messages, usually it's because they dislike Arabs and their culture. Fine. Why click on my channel when the title clearly says what it's about? A Zionist woman that lives in California recently told me that "Arabic culture and all traditional clothing in the Arab world is appalling". Whatever! I switched from english to arabic titles for this very purpose, which sadly kind of ruins it for others.

I've also had in the past a "complainer" who followed me onto youtube after disagreeing with my posts here on the forum.

I think it's also my fault because I link the youtube channel, this forum, and my blog, sometimes I wish if I had not done that and kept them seperate. My youtube is mostly music and dance, while my blog talks about social and political issues. The stalker who came to the forum found me on the blogsphere first.

Yes it's frustrating, but I won't follow them around the internet to see where they have been posting. However, I do sometimes click on their profile and that usually helps to put their comments in perspective. I usually do not moderate comments, however I do snap if someone gets on my nerves.

I am usually a strong person, but everything has a limit.
 

Amulya

Moderator
Maybe you can block emails in youtube as well? If you turn the comments off and the email function, maybe that would help?
I am about to put some things on youtube, but hearing this makes me wonder if I should do it!
Maybe there are other channels to use instead of youtube?
 

Shanazel

Moderator
The only thing that still gets to me sometimes are the people who send me ugly messages, usually it's because they dislike Arabs and their culture. Fine. Why click on my channel when the title clearly says what it's about?

Because some people have nothing better to do than wallow around in their own mire of nastiness. What a shame you come in for such ugliness, Gypsy. I can see how you may regret linking all your internt activities, but I am glad you did- I'd have missed so many wonderful video clips had you not posted them here.
 

Kharmine

New member
For the record, gypsy, I do regret being snarky about putting a label on those earlier videos. I had just seen a passel of similar clips with labels on 'em from different people and was being uniformly grumpy. I apologize for that.
 

Scarletminx

New member
Not to play devil's advocate, but in a small way, I do relish it when I get those "white girl" comments in relation to my interest in belly dance and Middle Eastern and Indian culture.

The reason being that despite my fair complexion and American upbringing and (dyed) red hair, 2 parts of my ethnic background are Romani (Gypsy) and Arabic respectively.

So even though my interest in these things are more incidental at best and are not due exclusively to my ethnicity, belly dance does have ties in some respects to my inherited cultural background.

Oopsie. :lol:
 

~Diana~

AFK Moderator
I end up always getting post by people saying this is not 'romani dance' or 'gypsy dance'. I never said it was as it is stated as gypsy-style. Some of them are just so rude and I end up deleting and most of the time blocking them. Rarely ever do they send me a message to inquire about it but rather they instantly get mad.

However at the same time I can see why they could get mad, cause there are people out their playing to the 'fantasy gypsy' and putting it off as the real deal. Though they should also be smart enough to realize my dance style is not this fantasy gypsy or pure romani.
 

Scarletminx

New member
As someone who IS partly of Romani descent, I can sympathize with their ire to a point, Cheart.

I don't think it's a secret to anyone with any realistic knowledge of Romani culture (as opposed to the popular misconceptions, benign ("Oh, how romantic and quaint! Read mah palm!!!!!!") to downright nasty ("OMIGOD, DON'T STEAL MY WALLET/CAR/WIFE/KIDS/GOAT/whatever") that the Romani are grossly misrepresented and misunderstood in many places around the world. Despite the fact that we live in a world where prejudicial nonsense has somewhat improved over time, prevailing attitudes towards Romani have been woefully absent from that evolution.

Hence, those who know better (particularly those who are of Romani descent) can sometimes be more sensitive and reactionary on the subject of accuracy than one might otherwise expect.

I'm not particularly a fan of going overboard and angry if I perceive that someone is merely less informed about the facts, as it doesn't exactly inspire an open mind or ear with most people. Who likes to be yelled at, for Pete's sake? I do nonetheless offer educational correction to people on the subject in a polite way if merited, though.

Although I would hardly react the way the people who've harrassed you have, I probably would've raised less of an eyebrow at a term like "Gypsy-inspired dance" as opposed to just plain 'ol "Gypsy dance" when it's not really accurate to the cultural reality.

For native Hawaiians, for example, a girl donning a grass skirt and doing what she perceives as an interpretation of hula might not hold much authentic cultural relevance for them.

Being that the perception of "Gypsy" culture is one that is often grossly misrepresented or caricaturized (and therefore presenting those who don't know any better with innacurate information that then forms their perceptions of said culture), I can understand your detractors' complaints to a point. Someone who is genuinely familiar with the realities of Romani culture may be able to identify that it is only inspired by it or is meant as a "fantasy" portrayal of it, but the average audience likely won't.
 

~Diana~

AFK Moderator
That is true but I also get a laugh from it cause Andrea and her family are Romani and Romani ancestry. Her dance style has been passed down through the family and they all learned it growing up. To my knowledge, her grandmother immigrated to the USA.

Andrea makes a point of teaching us about her culture and history. Because of that I do know the difference when it comes to fantasy gypsy and part of me does not totally like the fantasy gypsy.

The problem I have is seeing all these people lashing out at others rather than logically guiding them or informing them of the truth. Explaining something to someone works so much better than yelling and telling them off.
 
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