Yes, because *sarcasm alert* the hang-ups are entirely those of the callers and organizers.
When gendered terms are used, people are more likely to sort themselves by gender. Newcomers are unlikely to even consider the possibility of not doing so. If there's a goal for dancers to not sort by gender, doing things that increase the likelihood of sorting by gender are probably worth avoiding.. Also, newcomers who aren't in the know about how the terms are being used will assume they bear some relationship to the perceived gender of their fellow dancers, and be confused by who's supposed to do what. (This is probably less of an issue in MWSD, where there's a lengthy protocol for learning the language.) And using terms in a way that's different from how the rest of the world uses those same terms is considerably more cliqueish than using terms that don't have a contrary meaning in the rest of the world. (Again, this doesn't seem to be a concern in MWSD.) --Read Weaver Jamaica Plain, MA http://lcfd.org On Jan 1, 2013, at 6:54 PM, Bob Green wrote: > The other possibility is to give up your hang ups about gender-identified > names, and redefine them for your own purposes. It then breaks down to a > simple question, "Do you want to dance girl or boy?" (from my MWSD group) > or " I dance girl, would you like to dance?". > > On Tue, Jan 1, 2013 at 5:20 PM, Joyce Miller <joycel...@sbcglobal.net>wrote: > >> I could not agree more. Very well stated. >> Thanks Chrissy, >> >> Joyce Miller >> >> On Jan 1, 2013, at 2:52 PM, Chrissy Fowler <ktaadn...@hotmail.com> wrote: >> >>> >>> I disagree re. lead and follow being the most accurate. I don't think >> of it as residual baggage, but merely inaccuracy. In my experience, there >> just isn't a leader and follower dynamic in contradancing. Not the way >> that there is in other forms of partnered dance. Or that there >> historically may have been in contra or its related genres. >>> >>> It does seem that some women dancers depend on leadership from the gent >> role, and some men dancers feel pressure to direct the non-gent role >> dancers. But I don't think there's any lead/follow component inherent in >> the contra dance form. >>> >>> All my opinion, >>> Chrissy Fowler
