Abstract
Dance has traditionally been marketed to boys and men by aligning it with traditional masculinities. Within a culture of shifting gender relations and declining homophobia, new possibilities emerge for dance to be marketed in different ways. This chapter examines such possibilities, analyzing the online marketing practices of dance organizations from Anglo-American cultures. Findings document how dance continues to be (re)positioned within orthodox discourses of (hetero)masculinity; at the same time, new marketing strategies promote the “all singing, all dancing boy” and the “(hetero)sexy male dancer.” Ultimately, these marketing strategies deploy various blends of old and new masculinities which consistently seek to safeguard dancers’ masculinities. The chapter raises concerns that this marketing approach is limited and short-sighted.
Keywords
- Marketing strategies
- Online marketing
- Dance organizations
- Thematic analysis
- Heteronormativity
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- 1.
In this study, the authors viewed “articles” as consisting of marketing posts and blogs. Marketing posts were typically written by the dance organizations, with no option for reader comments. Blogs were typically written by individuals (e.g., dancers or dance teachers) and invited comments.
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Owen, C., Harman, V. (2022). Marketing Dance to Boys and Men: New, Complex and Dynamic Practices of Masculinities. In: Risner, D., Watson, B. (eds) Masculinity, Intersectionality and Identity. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90000-7_9
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