Confronting Rape Culture in Social Dance

Check out this important article from Interfusion Festival on "Confronting Rape Culture in Dance." It's a well-thought out description of "rape culture," how it intersects with social dancing, and steps that everyone -- men, women, leads, follows, teachers, organizers -- can do to confront it. 

While focused more on latin social dance scenes, there's a lot that's applicable for lindy hoppers.

“Failure to fully integrate the principle of consent on the social dance floor creates an environment that discomforts and estranges many of its participants. An environment where creative elation is often replaced with distress, sense of unity with alienation and yearning for emotional healing with yet more hurt. It is something that even the most cohesive social dance scenes suffer from. And while this issue can affect anyone regardless of gender or role, it is hardly a matter of debate that female followers suffer the lion’s share of the harm.”

Read the full article here.

For more resources and help on how to promote safer spaces at your dances, see our post about it.