I quite disagree, and this brings back the who-does-what question. Dance the role, not the genitals. It's a different issue from a 2-gents-swing or 2-ladies-swing dance, where a symmetrical hold may indeed make sense. But I expect to dance the role I'm dancing, whatever the apparent sex of the person I come across.
--Read Weaver Jamaica Plain, MA http://lcfd.org On Apr 18, 2013, at 7:13 PM, Kalia Kliban wrote: > On 4/11/2013 5:18 AM, Richard Mckeever wrote: >> I think we are making a bigger deal out of this than needs to be. You go to >> any other type of dancing and you will have some difficulty finding 2 men >> dancing together. It is not the social norm and so it makes people >> uncomfortable. It has nothing to do with homophobia. I will admit - I >> prefer opposite gender swings - Am I homophobic and just don't know it? >> >> I worry most about new dancers - we try very hard to make them comfortable >> and same gender swings don't help with that objective. > > This sounds like something that deserves a few words at the beginners' > session. "Some folks like to switch roles as they're dancing, so you may > find yourself swinging another man, or another woman. No big deal. Here's a > symmetrical hold you can use if you're not sure how else to swing. It'll > help you enjoy _all_ your partners..." > > If you can make it less of a surprise and thus defuse a little of the > awkwardness for someone who's never danced with another man/woman before, > seems like that might smooth out a bump or two. > > Kalia > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
