| In recent decades, belly dance and exotic dances including pole dance, lap dance and burlesque have become increasingly popular in both Hong Kong and Japan as large numbers of women of different ages have begun learning these dances at dance schools and community centres. I describe these dances as "sensual dances" as they all involve dance movements perceived as seductive or sexual and costumes considered to be sexy. I chose to study Hong Kong and Japan because many women in these two societies have financial and cultural capital which allows them to consume sensual dances as a commodity, but Hong Kong women still lack autonomy in expressing their sexuality while Japanese women's sexuality is considered to be inconsequential and built upon male sexual desire. I argue in this dissertation that sensual dances are packaged as a product which objectifies and disciplines women's bodies in the context of patriarchal sexual ideologies that shape female sexuality in Japan and Hong Kong. However, these dances also provide women a site to negotiate and resist the boundaries that normally contain their performance of sexuality. In 2011 and 2012 in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Nagoya and Kansai areas in Japan, I conducted participant observation in sensual dance classes and related dance activities, and I interviewed 30 Hong Kong and 40 Japanese women who engaged in these sensual dances. In this study, female sexuality is critically examined using performance theories. Sensual dancers in Hong Kong and Japan are found to have maneuvered within the sexual scripts, the metaphor used by Simon and Gagnon, of their own societies in expressing their sexuality. Through the performance of sensual dances, some of these women expand the boundaries of what is considered to be socially acceptable performances of female sexuality in public spaces, create alternative bodily ideals that challenge the ideal standards of female body shape in their own societies, and resist the actual and imagined male gaze of their audiences. |
