STEREOTYPING:When will it end?
Example: A movie called Bring It On was released in the year 2000 and was an extremely popular film. It is a story about a dance/cheerleading team who travels to dance competitions and competes against other dance teams. In this clip you will see how sexual the dance is made out to be instead of highlighting how dancing is a sport that requires athletic ability. Look closely at how the dancers move in this clip and listen carefully to what they are saying. Although this is only a movie, many people subconsciously pick this message up in their minds and begin stereotyping other dancers off of this. Although the girls in this movie are cheerleaders, they are also dancers who perform in dance competitions later on throughout the movie. Keep in mind, this is just one out of several examples that portray dance in a sexual manner rather than a sport.
When typing in the phrase, "Professional Dancer" into google search...
...several pictures such as this one appeared. Only a select few actually showed professional dancers on stage performing for a live audience that require high-priced tickets to view. Most of them were made out to be seductive and revealing. Sometimes there is just no escaping all the stereotypes. It is just a matter of recognizing it and using your own personal judgement as apposed to an opinion everyone else wants you to have.
Not only do non-dancers stereotype other dancers, but different types of dancers are starting to make assumptions of one another as well...
In Alison Clabaugh's article, "Stereotype Accuracy of Ballet and Modern Dancers," she recorded preprofessional ballet and modern dancers' perceptions of the personality traits of each type of dancer and self-reports of their own standing, to test the accuracy of the group stereotypes (31). I was completely shocked when I found out the different style of dancers were caught stereotyping one another. I guess I can compare it to different athletes, such as basketball or baseball players, disputing in which sport is better. According to the findings of Clabaugh's research, ballet dancers feel that a modern dancer is a dancer who just couldn't cut it in ballet, believe that modern dancers are laid back or even "kooky," or say that "all they do is roll around on the floor. In turn, modern dancers may diminish ballet by saying ballet is false and preposterous art, or imply that ballet is "the enemy," articicial, aristocratic, and un-American (32).