sartorialadventure: delphinidin4:In all male environments, such as mining camps or navy ships, it wa
sartorialadventure: delphinidin4:In all male environments, such as mining camps or navy ships, it was common for men to hold dances, with half the men wearing a patch or some other marker to designate them as the “women” for the evening. (x) My alma mater, Wilson College, was a women’s college, and I know that they used to do this, too. A lot of the dance events that I go to nowadays there are more women than men, so similar steps are taken to make it easier to find a partner. At contra dances someone brings a bag of pre-tied ties, and women who are acting the part of men in that set wear a tie (it’s really necessary when you switch partners to know that yes, you ARE supposed to have ended up with this person!). At swing dances women often lead other women, and I’ve known a number of men who were learning to follow and would ask other men or women that they knew could lead to lead them. No clothing designation needed there, however. :) To clarify: in swing dance, you dance in partners, and that’s usually it. So as long as one of you leads and one follows, you’re fine. And in fact, in swing, they have switched from calling them “men” and “women” to “leads” and “follows”. It’s more complicated in contradance because you are in partners, but those partners also dance with other partners and you keep dancing with more and more people. So it’s often really helpful to have some kind of visual indicator of who is dancing the “men’s part” or the “women’s part”, especially if you’ve got a lot of beginners who might accidentally end up in the wrong place in the dance. Thus the neckties. :) -- source link