Belly dance is popularly practised in the West, and every year, thousands of enthusiasts and professionals from around the world travel to attend belly dance festivals in Egypt, which is considered the cultural centre of the dance. This bachelor’s thesis examines the discourses produced by Western or ʽwhiteʼ belly dancers from Sweden and Finland, on the topics of tourism in Egypt and belly dance festivals in Egypt. The texts are analysed using James Paul Gee's discourse analytical framework, combined with postcolonial theory, complemented with an intersectional approach. From the postcolonial and feminist perspectives, belly dance discourse in the West and tourism discourse are problematic, as they perpetuate Orientalist tropes and unequal global power structures, which build on colonial discourse. It is hoped that by identifying and questioning these aspects of discourse that are problematic in terms of equity, this study will make a small contribution towards mitigating its adverse effects, and towards social change. / <p>ORCID for Mavis Hooi : 0000-0002-0049-1095</p>

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This dissertation constructs a cultural history of women's performances in Boston from 1762-1823, using materialist feminism and ethnohistory. I look at how "woman" was historically understood at that time, and how women used those discourses to their advantage when constructing performances that allowed them to intervene in political culture. I examine a broad range of performance activities from white, black, and Native American women of all classes. Chapter two discusses three of Boston's elite female intellectuals: Mercy Otis Warren, Judith Sargent Murray, and Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton. Though each woman's writings have been examined individually, I examine them as a community. With the connections and public recognition they built, they helped found the Federal Street Theatre where they could have a ventrioloquized embodied performance for their ideas on women's rights, abolition, and political parties. Chapter three looks at the construction of three solo performances: Phillis Wheatley performing her poetry in 1772; the 1802 theatre tour of Deborah Sampson Gannett, who fought as a man in the revolution; and the monologues and wax effigy creations of Patience Lovell Wright circa 1772. These women depended on their performances for sustenance, and in Wheatley's case, to secure her freedom from bondage. I look at the way these women created a mythology about themselves and crafted a marketable image, both on and off the stage. In particular, I examine the ways each grappled with a charged discourse surrounding their bodies. In chapter four I look at fashion as performance. I explore homespun dresses as political propaganda, Native American and black women's use of clothing to express cultural pride that white Anglo society had attempted to erase, and the way that women used mourning costumes to perform and create nationalism at the mock funerals held for Washington after he died in 1799. In my conclusion I contrast the 2008 miniseries John Adams with a solo performance of Phillis Wheatley. I briefly trace the trajectory of the history of women during this time. I argue that focusing on performance identifies and legitimizes other sources of evidence and locates examples of women's agency in shaping popular culture. / text