Fabulous Fashion
Introduction
In the first section of the toolbox which focused on dance, we highlighted issues related to the way we move. The second block focused on how we look at dancing and how this constrains who gets to create the images we see. In this final block, each tool departs from the DanceSport scene to explore lines of flight. Tool 6 looks at fashion. Fashion in DanceSport crystallises many conflicts.¹
in which we intervene. But, for reference, let’s start at the beginning. In cisheteronormative Latin DanceSport, men wear full clothing, while women wear revealing outfits that regularly expose their underwear. ²
It looks like this:
DanceSport’s cisheteronormative phobias
The only issue that the DanceSport currently sees with the Dress Regulations is the constant conflict between dancers attempting to gain more marks through hyper-sexualisation and experts trying to prevent this in order to protect the sport's image as being only pretty instead of insanely hyper-sexual. This issue, however, overshadows the role that the Regulations play in invisibilising queerness.³
Val also explains in DanceSport's Economy of Desire that the DanceSport scene theoretically equates men’s thighs, knees, calves and ankles with women’s genitals in the way that the term 'Intimate Area' refers to the rule that this area must be covered by opaque material.⁴
This can only make sense within DanceSport’s cisheteronormative architecture of the gaze. Of course, the scene doesn’t actually regard men’s calves as genitals, yet they still want them covered, much like women's genitals. Consequently, they employ the same term. They imagine that female dancers are there purely for the purpose of being looked at, and that male dancers are there purely to be in charge. If we were to plot the DanceSport scene's position on fashion on a graph to determine its relationship with gender and sexuality, with gender on the horizontal axis and sexuality on the vertical axis, we would see that DanceSport can only conceive of outfits that are highly gendered and sexualised – to satisfy the hegemonic gaze.
This is why attempts to include non-binary, trans and intersex people are so terrifying to the DanceSport world. During their research, Val noticed that one of the most common reactions to opening up the dress regulations was the fear of seeing 'male genitalia' being sexualised in the same way as 'female genitalia' on the dance floor. This is because they can only imagine two polar opposite positions: The feminised one which is entirely objectified, and the masculinised one which is entirely sovereign. They cannot conceive of anything else.
"Attempts to include non-binary, trans and intersex people are so terrifying to the DanceSport world."
" Attempts to include non-binary, trans and intersex people are so terrifying to the DanceSport world."
Queering DanceSport fashion
In exploring what DanceSport fashion could be if not constrained by the heteronormative gender binary, we examine each of the perspectives that DanceSport neglects. The sexuality continuum evolves between two extreme positions: Asexual and sexualised. However, the manner in which this sexualisation is perceived is open to interpretation — but more on that later. With regard to the gender continuum, on the right we see a heavy differentiation between only two binary genders, whereas on the left the demarcations between partners are indeterminate and not that important. We call the position on the left gender-neutral. While we will provide some visual examples, we encourage you to use your imagination to envision alternative fashion possibilities beyond the confines of cisheteronormative DanceSport.
Asexual / gender-neutral
DanceSport experts often complain about dancers trying to compensate for poor dancing with flashy, hypersexual outfits.⁵ We propose solving this by having both dancers wear the exact same outfits with full-body coverage and no decorations. Plain, body-enhancing clothes – many training outfits would do the trick. (Note that, in the minds of most people, 'neutral' tends to feel 'masculine' because masculinity is often considered the default. A neutral outfit could be a crop top with a skirt and leggings.) This would address the issues related to hyper-sexualisation and allow couples with smaller budgets to participate at a higher level. And although this could make recognising couples more difficult, it can be resolved by using colours. At the same time, it would emphasise the dancers' bodies more, which could raise issues linked to body dysmorphia and eating disorders; unfortunately, this is already widespread within the scene.
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Feminine aesthetics and sexualised aesthetics overlaps in so many ways, it's very hard to imagine a very feminine asexual look, and likewise a very masculine sexual look. But that just goes to show that our imagination has been colonised entirely by the heteronormative gender binary! We'll have to get creative and rely on the skills of our tailors to realise our vision.
Asexual / gendered
To achieve this, we need to decentre the hegemonic gaze as the sole audience in DanceSport. Femme theory, which challenges the exclusionary nature of patriarchal femininity, has already paved the way. As an act of resistance, femmes purposefully fail to please the male gaze, thus unsettling the hegemonic understanding that only cis women can embody femininity and that it can only look one way. Rather than submissive femininity that is deferent to the male partner, what might loud, bold, improper and unhinged femininity look like? And what might femininity look like for cis men? For trans women? For non-binary people? If femininity no longer belongs to straight cis white women and isn't performed for the pleasure of straight cis white men, what do we do with it? What might a less controlled femininity look like? ⁶
Sexualised / gender-neutral
This understanding extends to women who sexualise themselves, but not for the male gaze. In fact, everyone should be able to express their sexuality in whatever way they choose. The term femme includes, but is not limited to, ‘sassy queer men; unapologetically sexual straight women; trans women; crip bodied femmes who refuse to be desexualised or degendered; and femmes of colour who refuse to approximate white beauty norms. ⁷
Femmes of all genders, in fact, can disrupt the association between sexuality and the male gaze.
madison moore’s theory of fabulousness also opens doors to queer expression. Fabulousness happens when Black, Brown, queer and trans people “get fed up with the pressures to conform to norms that never had them in mind in the first place and respond to that suffering and exhaustion by taking the risk to live exactly the way they see fit. ⁸ "As a form of protest against the norms and systems that oppress and torture us every day, fabulousness is style as a political weapon; it’s what happens “the second we stop trying to fit in and start daring to inhabit space on our own terms." ⁹
It’s dangerous, risky and confrontational. It's about holding our heads up high when you'd rather see us dead, donning gorgeous sequins to cloak our depression, and stepping out into this fucked-up world. Fabulousness is political because, despite the terrible odds, we dress in ways you’ve never seen before, commanding your attention and bringing a future we want to live in to the present. In DanceSport's Economy of Desire, Val pointed out that fashion plays a significant role in the DanceSport scene. ¹⁰
We argue here that we could easily repurpose it to allow all dancers to dress as they wish. Regardless of their gender or sexuality, all dancers should have the opportunity to dress fabulously, which is currently a privilege reserved for women - even though when women do it it's considered apolitical or worse, subject to the rules of patriarchy.
Obviously, this sexualisation is different to what we are used to seeing in DanceSport, where the only sexualisation is targeted at straight, cis, white men. As a trans femme lesbian, Val feels very uncomfortable with the scene’s rampant transphobia. They would never sexualise themselves to meet the straight cis male gaze by wearing an outfit that would expose their genitals. Moreover, we must emphasise that it is appalling that the scene is accustomed to seeing women in underwear yet horrified by the prospect of seeing cis men or trans women in underwear. We invite you to disconnect sexual performance from the male gaze and wonder what such a performance could look like for you, beyond the visual imagery of the scene. Here's what it looks like for Harpy and Val:
2. Mechanics as gendered aesthetics:
In their book DanceSport's Economy of Desire, Val explained that gendered mechanics are central to the performance of cisheteronormative aesthetics on the dance floor.¹⁴ Depending on the gendered style in which dancers were trained, each body part is used in a slightly different manner. Women are taught to use their bodies like so:
Men, in contrast, are taught to use their bodies like so:
Keep in mind that we use a descriptive rather than a normative turn of phrase, which gives the statements an essentialising vibe. By this, we mean that saying women are like this creates the impression that they are 'naturally' like this. However, the way these statements are made in the DanceSport scene is primarily normative, i.e. dancers should move in gendered ways.
Combining gendered ways of moving happen for instance when dancers practise short solo choreographies to warm up or work on technique during group lessons. The masculine version looks slightly different to the feminine version. Gendered styles always exist in relation to each other, so we dance the routine twice, once with Giulia dancing masc and Val dancing femme, and once the other way around. Can you spot who dances what style?
"Hypersexualisation is about the direction of action - which body does what to whom - normalising two different ways of being in the body: the toucher and the touched."
Fabulousness does not conform to the dominant gaze, but it can be a form of sexual expression on our own terms. In confronting the objectifying gaze, we look straight back at the world of DanceSport. You will not have our bodies. Your shame cannot touch us. We are too fabulous for you. We celebrate our extraordinary bodies and embrace our differences. Our bodies are unruly; we are ungovernable. We put the margins centre-stage and flood your homogeneity with our multiplicity.
"Fabulousness does not conform to the dominant gaze, but it can be a form of sexual expression on our own terms."
Sustainable fashion
Building on the work of scholars who have highlighted the overlap between those who deny climate change, queerness and colonialism, ¹¹ we want to raise the question of sustainability to close this chapter. Considering that fabrics nowadays contain much more plastic than ever before; that we have enough clothes to dress five generations; that a significant proportion of our clothes end up in landfill; and that their production has terrible consequences for people and the environment,¹² we ask: Do we really need outfits that we can only wear a few times on the dance floor? What might DanceSport fashion look like if it could be worn in different settings? Val and Harpy give us an example: Val often goes out in queer nightlife contexts and Harpy is a drag artist – the outfits they had tailored can be worn again and again in these settings.
Furthermore, what can we do with old outfits that your tailor made when you were in B class, which you didn’t want or manage to sell, and which are cluttering up your wardrobe or basement while being too expensive or tied to too many memories to simply throw away? Giulia took some of them to a tailor to be reworked – here’s a glimpse of the process:
"Fabulousness does not conform to the dominant gaze, but it can be a form of sexual expression on our own terms."
"We can tap into the vast repertoire of movements for choreography and mix and match feminine and masculine gestures or principles within the same body."
DanceSport does not evolve in a vacuum. As a community, we have a responsibility to ourselves and to those around us to critically question our habits and practices. Here, we advocate an ecological consciousness that promotes reusability.
"What might DanceSport fashion look like if it could be worn in different settings?"
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