Date of Award

2016

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology

Keywords

Dance; Gender; Habitus; Hegemony; Masculinities; Men

Supervisor

George, Glynis

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

This thesis is an exploration of men’s and boys’ experiences within the dance world. I explore how hegemonic masculinities can influence men in dance and set the parameters for understanding what the ideal male dancer is. It draws on a narrative analysis of interviews with six male dancers between the ages of eighteen and thirty in Southwestern Ontario and my own auto-ethnographic accounts of life as a male dancer. The study examines three main themes associated with men in dance namely, family and peer perceptions, compulsory heterosexuality and hegemonic ideals. The research examines hegemonic discourses and inform stereotypes of men in dance, that my research participants both contest and reproduce. This thesis then complicates an understanding of social pressures associated with being a male dancer on a day-to-day basis.

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