"Does it mean anything?" and other insults: Dreadlocks, tattoos and feminism.

Abstract

Drawing on feminist theorizing, phenomenological investigation of lived experience, and embodied ways of knowing, I interrogate my own creative and political acts moving in the world. As a dancer, my understandings of movement as epistemologically significant provide the basis for my re-creations of self, and for my play with the markings of gender, identity and culture. While dance performances provide a means for personal embodied theatrical engagement in issues of gender, culture and identity, my everyday encounters with others are also a rich context for interpretation, re-creation and play, In particular, my manner of dress, dreadlocks and tattoos provide markings of gender, culture and identity that seemingly confront others' stereotypes and generate encounters that can be either positive or negative. This presentation, utilizing personal experience narratives or autoethnographies, provides a context for personal reflection, interrogation and interpretation, moving towards more politicized embodied understandings.