A Trade like Any Other : : Female Singers and Dancers in Egypt / / Karin van Nieuwkerk.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: van Nieuwkerk, Karin,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©1995
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (240 p.)

In Egypt, singing and dancing are considered essential on happy occasions. Professional entertainers often perform at weddings and other celebrations, and a host family's prestige rises with the number, expense, and fame of the entertainers they hire. Paradoxically, however, the entertainers themselves are often viewed as disreputable people and are accorded little prestige in Egyptian society. This paradox forms the starting point of Karin van Nieuwkerk's look at the Egyptian entertainment trade. She explores the lives of female performers and the reasons why work they regard as "a trade like any other" is considered disreputable in Egyptian society. In particular, she demonstrates that while male entertainers are often viewed as simply "making a living," female performers are almost always considered bad, seductive women engaged in dishonorable conduct. She traces this perception to the social definition of the female body as always and only sexual and enticing—a perception that stigmatizes women entertainers even as it simultaneously offers them a means of livelihood.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Note on Transcription -- Introduction -- Female Entertainment In Nineteenth-Century Egypt -- Female Entertainment In The Twentieth Century -- Life Stories Of Female Entertainers -- Marginality -- Honor And Shame -- Gender -- Female Entertainers: Feminine And Masculine -- Conclusions -- Methodological Notes -- Notes -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index