Newsweek Magazine "Don't Judge Me By My Tights"

I just read an article in Newsweek magazine, the March 17, 2008 edition on the internet, written by Sascha Radetsky, an American male ballet dancer. I though this article presents a gender conflict of male versus male. I though of this when Radetsky explains the struggle he has had since he was a boy interested in ballet, an art form that society has earmarked for women. He gives the example that when he was at school and the other school children learned that he was taking ballet lessons the boys would make fun of him. He was involved in several fights at school because of his interest in an activity the society has determined is a classic female activity. Radetsky also explains how parents play a role in maintaining society's choices for gender when parents will buy ballet outfits and pay for ballet lessons for little girls but will not do so for boys. He praises his parents for being open minded and for exposing him, a hyperactive five year old boy, to the art of ballet dancing.

An interesting point I believe he made is how the Russian society has given the world great male ballet dancers because they love ballet as art and have not imposed gender based limitations to the practice of ballet. Perhaps Americans have not produced world renowned male ballet dancers of the caliber of a Baryshnikov because American society has imposed gender roles on the practice of ballet. In the United States is you are a man it is okay to be a great quaterback, if you are a women it is okay to be a great soprano, but when you as a person have an interest in a field that society has determined is not appropriate for your gender then you are in conflict with society as a whole. This can be seen when Radetsky explains how uneasy he feels when he describes what he does for a living to people.