Dance like a man, girl

Not gunna lie: I am a huge fan of MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew.

See, dancing is really important to me. I’ve been dancing since I could move, so to see millions of people come together to support a deep love of mine is encouraging and exciting.

But the show frustrates me, too. I think this Huffington Post headline sums it up pretty well: Women Don't Fare So Well On America's Best Dance Crew. I mean, they're right: Of the Top Five crews, two included female dancers. Of the 12 dancers in the finals, 0 were women. Isn’t that statistically improbable?

It’s easy to say gender has nothing to do with it, that the groups were evaluated on their dancing alone. But that’s what sexism looks like today: subtle and complicated, easily ignored and pushed aside.

So what happened? Women couldn’t compete with the stunts, flips and muscles of all-male groups? Psh, ya right. An all-female group could absolutely match the acrobatics of an all-male crew. I’ve seen it. But that’s the beautiful thing about dancing: the movements, ideas and energies come from individual experiences. That’s why each group can bring something different to the floor. The style the group chooses is based on the backgrounds and identities of the group members.

But when two groups perform equally difficult routines, and the all-male group wins, what does it mean to be the “better” crew? It means they were more masculine in a world that places all things male at the top of its gender hierarchy. I fear that a group that adds “feminine” grace and fluidity to hop-hop is valued less than a group that adds “masculine” power and force.

But maybe we just can't get past the dancers’ bodies! We live in a world where people (especially men) are taught they are entitled to view and evaluate women’s bodies for attractiveness and sexual pleasure (Hillary Clinton, anyone?). When men dance, audiences watch their bodies as instruments engaged in creating art. When women dance, we watch their bodies as objects meant for our pleasure.

For their audition, Fysh ‘N’ Chicks, the only all-female group in the Top Five, wore baggy, grungy clothing to prove to the judges that their dancing was about the movements, not about evaluating their bodies. This concept is so novel, apparently, that it caused the only female judge in the competition to compliment the women for “dancing like men.” Reader, these women weren’t dancing like men. They were dancing like women who battle against the idea that their bodies are “for” someone else. Until women are no longer seen as sex objects, I wonder if an all-female group can win a competition based on performing with the body.