In a new study, scientists have claimed that belly dancers have lesser hang-ups about their bodies.
According to lead researcher Marika Tiggemann of Flinders University in Australia, most women who participate in this torso-driven dance do so because it is fun and they get to perform interesting moves, and not because they necessarily feel sexier while doing so.
Previous studies in the US and the UK had shown that street and modern dancers hold more positive body image of themselves than exotic dancers do. Tiggemann's team tested how participants of the potentially sexually alluring yet embodying dance form saw themselves, and sought to find out what the dancers gained from it.
The researchers recruited 112 belly dancers from two dancing schools in Adelaide, Australia, along with 101 college women who had never participated in this activity before. The participants completed questionnaires in which they rated their own bodies, how they think others view their bodies and about the attention they attract from men.
The researchers found that belly dancers saw their own bodies in a better light than the college students did, and were less likely to be dissatisfied with how they looked. They also had fewer self-objectifying thoughts, and therefore took what others might think about their bodies less to heart.
Tiggemann said that this underscored the fact that belly dancing was an embodying activity that gave women a sense of ownership of their bodies. It allowed them women to be mentally and physically present "in the moment" and to feel good about themselves.
The study was published in Springer's journal Sex Roles.