While I am relatively new to contra, and just called my first dance this weekend, The Baby Rose... I'll have never considered gypsy a term related to a race of people, nor did I know it was applied today to a group of people called Romas.
However, my general position on terms that have both discriminatory and non-discriminatory meanings is that the meaning needs to be derived by context. Before reading the discussions here, I had only considered the meaning of gypsy as related to wandering dancers... Not a particular ethnic group. Perhaps my view has been naive. While I am sensitive to cultural issues, until someone comes up with a term that captures not only the physics of the move, but also the flirtatious nature of it, I will probably grimace any time someone uses a different term. Orbit, no handed swing, whatever... Until something emphasizes the flirtatious eye contact it will fall short in my mind. It is more than a figure, it is a figure with an attitude. :) I am not necessarily arguing for the use of gypsy, but I hope someone comes up with a better term than what I have heard so far. On Apr 4, 2016 11:36 AM, "Aahz Maruch via Callers" < callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > On Mon, Apr 04, 2016, Michael Fuerst via Callers wrote: > > Ron Blechner: > >> > >> 3. That perhaps the use of "gypsy" as a term isn't as bad as non-Roma > >> self-identitying as "dance gypsies". Roma wander because they are > >> persecuted or can't find work. When we talk about "dance gypsies" > >> beig wandering from place to place, we're comparing our having fun > >> traveling to various dances to the widespread persecution of an > >> ethnicity (the worst being the Holocaust). > > > > Maybe you do. No one else uses such bizarre logic. > > You happen to be wrong about that. Any time you're tempted to use > "nobody" or "everyone" when talking about people, you're almost certainly > wrong. > -- > Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 > http://rule6.info/ > <*> <*> <*> > Help a hearing-impaired person: http://rule6.info/hearing.html > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > Callers@lists.sharedweight.net > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net >