Dance And Body Image Essay

Intro
“Ballet is a female sport”, “guys who dance are mostly likely gay”, how do we ourselves or heard other associate male dancers with homosexuality? The reality of the dance world is that men are boxed into stereotypes that leave a lasting impression on them emotionally and mentally. Dancing is not only a career but an art form, and dancers are artist. The stigma placed on male dancers is tenting, which can inhibit the portraying of the beauty and purity of their art. The body is a dancer’s tool, as the artist, if their perspective towards the tool turns negative, abuse happens. Males are too often over looked in the subject of body image. History, body shaming, society, and the dance community itself has an effect on body image. Just like females, male dancers need to be educated on the root cause of negative body image and how to overcome it.
Body image
Body image is a phenomenon is that is constantly being studied and connected to dance; and most often to
I believe that males and females can both have negative body image, however it may be expressed in different ways. Men and women are very different psychologically and what justifies gender varies between the sexes. While negative body image has no respect for gender, it only makes sense that male dancers will not exploit poor body image the same way females do. The physical demand dance puts on a male is different than a women, so the way men approach achieving the ideal look is going to be different. Although eat disorders are not usually associated with men they too can suffer from disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and binge eating. Mental illnesses such at depress are also very common. However, negative body is often expressed in a male’s attempt to gain muscle mass, and alter their body’s appearance in forms of tanning, piercing, tattoos, and