A trade like any other
Subtitle: female singers and dancers in Egypt
By: Karin van Nieuwkerk.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Austin
Language: eng
Number of pages: 226
Subjects: Women entertainers -- Egypt -- Social conditions.; Belly dance.; Belly dance music -- Egypt.
Description: "Karin van Nieuwkerk's look at the Egyptian entertainment trade ... 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. Drawn from extensive fieldwork and enriched with the life stories of entertainers and nightclub performers, this is the first ethnography of female singers and dancers in present-day Egypt."
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-219) and index.