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| FALSE Authentic Bellydancers wear a jewel in their navel? |
When I first started to learn how to belly dance m-a-n-y years ago, it seemed like everyone asked me the
same two questions: "Do you wear a jewel in your navel?" and "Can you roll quarters like that woman on
television?" The answer to both was "No".
"Real" belly dancers almost never glue plastic jewels in their navels like the kind you see in theatrical stores
and old movies, unless they are doing a comedy act where the jewel is supposed to be part of the joke or
unless they are doing a specialty act that is intentionally trying to mimic the look of old Hollywood movies.
Of course, exceptions exist--well-known dance researcher Morocco did report seeing a professional dancer
in Turkey wearing one once and asked her about it. The dancer said a few tourists had asked her why she
didn't have one, and questioned whether she could be a "real" belly dancer without one, so she started
wearing it to please the tourists.
Ultimately, it's your own choice. I can only tell you what reactions you're likely to get from other people and
leave the decision in your hands. If you think about all this and still want to wear a jewel in your navel, the
trick to keeping it in is either eyelash glue, spirit gum, or double-sided tape.
By the way, if body piercing is popular where you live , if you have a pierced navel it's okay to wear your
normal piercing jewelry when you dance. It's still not something you're likely to see much in the Middle East,
so it's not something that would be done for "ethnic" reasons. But if piercing is popular in your own
community, then there's no harm in displaying your body jewelry when you dance just as you might display
any of the other jewelry that you wear all the time like a wedding ring or gold chain. How does this differ from
pasting a plastic jewel in the navel? One involves copying a practice whose sole purpose was to meet the
standards of censors several decades ago. The other simply extends your everyday jewelry out to your
dancing.
So if "real" belly dancers don't do it, where did this notion about wearing a jewel in the navel come from,
anyway? Here's the history lesson! <smile>
According to Morocco, the practice of wearing a jewel in the navel was totally invented by Hollywood. It has
absolutely no basis in Middle Eastern tradition. If you watch an Oriental dancer in Egypt, Turkey, Greece, or
anywhere else "over there", you will never see a dancer with a jewel in her navel unless she got the idea from
a foreigner. The concept was inspired by the Hayes Code, which was a censorship guideline in the
entertainment industry that arose after the Fatty Arbuckle scandal. The Code forbade showing the navel in a
movie or television show, because it supposedly reminded viewers of a crevice a bit lower down, thereby
creating lustful thoughts & mortal sin. So, during the fad of "sheik" and "harem" movies, the way of getting
around this restriction was to put jewels in the navels of the fine young ladies who were lounging around in
costumes representing Hollywood's fantasy world.
The "general public" and many of the women who started to learn belly dancing during the 1960's believed
that all these navel jewels in the movies must be somehow "authentic", since they saw them in so many
movies. In those days, the U.S. had precious few teachers of Oriental dance who had actually done research
to know what was really done "over there", so there was no one to tell these well-meaning people that they
had the wrong idea. So, misguided dancers perpetuated the myth for a decade or so, until real facts started
replacing the misinformation they had been working with.
Today, thanks to the education available from dance researchers who have committed their lives to studying
the "real thing", and the ready availability of videotapes showing us the work of stars who perform "over
there", we have a much more educated dance community than we did 30 years ago. We also have a more
educated public. The dancers they see at home in their own back yards often work hard to educate them
while entertaining them at the same time, and the lower cost of international tourism enables people to see
real Middle Eastern dancers performing in the dance's native countries. Finally, modern movies no longer
perpetuate the fantasy--the Hayes Code that triggered it is, uh, rather obsolete!
I've noticed that men particularly want to believe in the idea that jewels in the navel are a standard part of the
belly dancer's "uniform". I think that's because some (but not all!) men find themselves erotically attracted to
the jewels. Some may have stomach or navel fetishes, while others may like the hint of another crevice lower
down. Such men dislike my advice to beginning dancers to avoid these glued-on treasures, because they
would like to see more dancers wearing them. Since I originally posted this article in 1998, I've received many
e-mails from men who simply can't accept the fact that "real" belly dancers rarely wear these things because
they wish we would.. They try to argue that maybe, at some point in time over the centuries, some woman
somewhere placed a jewel in her navel and then did a belly dance. Well, maybe. But even if someone did, it
doesn't matter because it doesn't represent the behavior of "typical" belly dancers, either in the past or the
present.
taken in part from Shira.net
same two questions: "Do you wear a jewel in your navel?" and "Can you roll quarters like that woman on
television?" The answer to both was "No".
"Real" belly dancers almost never glue plastic jewels in their navels like the kind you see in theatrical stores
and old movies, unless they are doing a comedy act where the jewel is supposed to be part of the joke or
unless they are doing a specialty act that is intentionally trying to mimic the look of old Hollywood movies.
Of course, exceptions exist--well-known dance researcher Morocco did report seeing a professional dancer
in Turkey wearing one once and asked her about it. The dancer said a few tourists had asked her why she
didn't have one, and questioned whether she could be a "real" belly dancer without one, so she started
wearing it to please the tourists.
Ultimately, it's your own choice. I can only tell you what reactions you're likely to get from other people and
leave the decision in your hands. If you think about all this and still want to wear a jewel in your navel, the
trick to keeping it in is either eyelash glue, spirit gum, or double-sided tape.
By the way, if body piercing is popular where you live , if you have a pierced navel it's okay to wear your
normal piercing jewelry when you dance. It's still not something you're likely to see much in the Middle East,
so it's not something that would be done for "ethnic" reasons. But if piercing is popular in your own
community, then there's no harm in displaying your body jewelry when you dance just as you might display
any of the other jewelry that you wear all the time like a wedding ring or gold chain. How does this differ from
pasting a plastic jewel in the navel? One involves copying a practice whose sole purpose was to meet the
standards of censors several decades ago. The other simply extends your everyday jewelry out to your
dancing.
So if "real" belly dancers don't do it, where did this notion about wearing a jewel in the navel come from,
anyway? Here's the history lesson! <smile>
According to Morocco, the practice of wearing a jewel in the navel was totally invented by Hollywood. It has
absolutely no basis in Middle Eastern tradition. If you watch an Oriental dancer in Egypt, Turkey, Greece, or
anywhere else "over there", you will never see a dancer with a jewel in her navel unless she got the idea from
a foreigner. The concept was inspired by the Hayes Code, which was a censorship guideline in the
entertainment industry that arose after the Fatty Arbuckle scandal. The Code forbade showing the navel in a
movie or television show, because it supposedly reminded viewers of a crevice a bit lower down, thereby
creating lustful thoughts & mortal sin. So, during the fad of "sheik" and "harem" movies, the way of getting
around this restriction was to put jewels in the navels of the fine young ladies who were lounging around in
costumes representing Hollywood's fantasy world.
The "general public" and many of the women who started to learn belly dancing during the 1960's believed
that all these navel jewels in the movies must be somehow "authentic", since they saw them in so many
movies. In those days, the U.S. had precious few teachers of Oriental dance who had actually done research
to know what was really done "over there", so there was no one to tell these well-meaning people that they
had the wrong idea. So, misguided dancers perpetuated the myth for a decade or so, until real facts started
replacing the misinformation they had been working with.
Today, thanks to the education available from dance researchers who have committed their lives to studying
the "real thing", and the ready availability of videotapes showing us the work of stars who perform "over
there", we have a much more educated dance community than we did 30 years ago. We also have a more
educated public. The dancers they see at home in their own back yards often work hard to educate them
while entertaining them at the same time, and the lower cost of international tourism enables people to see
real Middle Eastern dancers performing in the dance's native countries. Finally, modern movies no longer
perpetuate the fantasy--the Hayes Code that triggered it is, uh, rather obsolete!
I've noticed that men particularly want to believe in the idea that jewels in the navel are a standard part of the
belly dancer's "uniform". I think that's because some (but not all!) men find themselves erotically attracted to
the jewels. Some may have stomach or navel fetishes, while others may like the hint of another crevice lower
down. Such men dislike my advice to beginning dancers to avoid these glued-on treasures, because they
would like to see more dancers wearing them. Since I originally posted this article in 1998, I've received many
e-mails from men who simply can't accept the fact that "real" belly dancers rarely wear these things because
they wish we would.. They try to argue that maybe, at some point in time over the centuries, some woman
somewhere placed a jewel in her navel and then did a belly dance. Well, maybe. But even if someone did, it
doesn't matter because it doesn't represent the behavior of "typical" belly dancers, either in the past or the
present.
taken in part from Shira.net