Vem äger dansen? En intervjustudie om attityder kring kulturell appropriering och intersektionell feminism inom Tribal fusion och ATS

Abstract

Through interviews with three amateur Tribal Fusion and ATS belly dancers, this thesis explores attitudes concerning ownership of the dance, the importance of its cultural background and its feminist potential. Cultural appropriation and intersectional feminism are key theoretical perspectives. A focus on individual ownership and technical details can be seen as a dissociation with a history of cultural appropriation but also as an attempt to disconnect the dance from a current appropriation. The feminist uses of the dance mainly concern creating a positive body image, outside the western norm. In some ways this can be seen as being done through the use of the Other. However the idea of a unified international sisterhood is never represented in the interviewees stories.