Mistaken Identity: Deconstructing White Beauty and Gender Politics

Abstract

This chapter examines the way in which female choreographers of African contemporary dance theatre question beauty in their work by addressing dominant white discourses on beauty, gender, and race. Significantly, the different positions these artists take and propose in their works come from diverse experiences of race as they are constructed by female artists from the African continent itself and across the African diaspora. As white audiences witness such choreographic work, they encounter racist stereotypes of their own un-making as different possibilities for new beliefs and histories about race and gender become apparent. The chapter argues that identity politics today cannot be considered separately from racial discourses surrounding aesthetics, representation, and the dominance of the white gaze in a global media culture.