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Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll
When I was a kid the mother of a good friend’s cousin (talk about strange connections, huh?) was a belly dancer. When I was eight or nine, we had a sleep over at their house and tried on a bunch of her mom’s belly dancing stuff.
I was a chubby kid and I remember being so surprised that this older woman (who was not skinny by any means) would be willing to put on a bra and skirt and dance at all.
It was a strange idea- that there was a sort of dancing that didn’t have to be done only by skinny people. At the time it felt empowering, though as an adult, I realize that empowerment is complicated by institutionalized racism, sexualization of Middle Eastern women, and a whole lot of Victorian orientalist baggage.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll
I don’t know much about actual belly dancing costumes and I’m not an expert on their history. I looked up belly dancing costume sites like Belly Dance.com and Belly Dance Digs. I did want to include finger cymbals which are also called “zill”.
Specific Source Images: Coin bra’s like this one and this one
Learn/See More
On the Blog: This is my first ever belly dance costume! But here’s More Jewels & Gemstones Paper Dolls
Around the Internet: Wikipedia on Zill, a fascinating history of belly dance, an article on appropriation in belly dance and an equally interesting response to said article
Last Thoughts
I don’t know a lot about belly dance, but I know enough to know that there’s serious issues around appropriation, sexualization, racism, orientalist fantasy and such in the whole thing. I went back and forth about posting this outfit, but in the end, I chose to share it.
Why? Because my rule has always been not to post anything with sacred religious meaning. None of my research suggested that there was religious meaning in belly dance costumes, unlike, for example, Native American regalia (which often includes holy symbols) or Catholic nun habits.
In case you’ve ever wondered why I don’t have any nun paper dolls, now you know.
Tomorrow on Patreon there will be a medieval inspired princess paper doll for my Patrons. Join now and you can check her out too!
I want to do more dance costumes. Any suggestions? I’m thinking maybe Irish step or a classic tutu.
Cool paper doll. I can’t wait for your new dance paper dolls. I realy realy want to you draw a ballerina clothes. Last ballerina you have in Marisole Monday series. That was realy realy years ago. That will be my dream to have a ballerina in Jewels and Gemstones series. Please. 🙂 That belly dancer is amazing. I realy like your new series. 🙂
Beautiful! I did belly dance classes when i was young adult and it really helped with my posture and gave self confidence. Their outfits are stunning.
I don’t really know what people wear for dancing outside of the whole “ballroom or ballet” thing, but seeing your take on street or break dancing would be kind of cool.
I know absolutely nothing about belly dancing, except that the costumes are gorgeous. Thank you for this, I love it!
I think you linked to the same appropriation article twice. The “response to” link takes me to the first article instead.
Eep! Good catch. It has been fixed now. This is reason 110 why I shouldn’t write blog posts after 9pm.