I thoroughly enjoyed the Olympics this year. One of my favorite parts about the games was the diversity of people participating and the variety of activities. 
What I want to talk about is one of the controversies of this year’s Olympics. Not that controversy, I did not watch the opening ceremonies. Instead, I want to discuss the women’s break dancing category and its infamous participant.
I had been watching swimming or something and went to change a load of laundry and came back to see a woman dressed in a green outfit flopping about on the ground to music. At first, I thought it was a joke or some sort of goofy entertainment, but then it seem to be that it was a serious break dancing competition. Later, as more information came out, I found out that she was a cultural studies professor in her 30s. The question that most people asked was, “Why is she doing a sport that is normally done by inner-city youth?”
When people questioned her about it, she doubled down, expressing that it was appropriate for her to be representing her country. It seems that any large population of people (such as Australia) is going to have some one better at it than her. I’m not trying to shame her for being a middle-aged white woman, but I am confused and frustrated that as a cultural studies instructor she doesn’t seem to know better.
In anthropology, participant observation is encouraged, but you have to go about it in a respectful manner that doesn’t center yourself, otherwise it’s considered a kind of cultural appropriation.
For example, I lived in China for two years, where I taught college English. Every day I wore appropriate western attire to teach in. I was a fan of the traditional Chinese clothing and I wanted to try some of that, so I asked the Chinese people I lived near about it. One of the iconic pieces was the Qipao, that’s the high collared dress that’s often made of red silk. In America, you might see waitresses in Chinese restaurants wearing such a thing, but in China, the Qipao is usually reserved for formal events and red is associated with weddings. It’s not a strict rule, but it’s important to understand the cultural expectation. I ended up having a blouse and skirt made in a traditional green floral pattern. That way, I did not embarrass myself or make my students uncomfortable by showing up to class in a full blown Chinese wedding dress.
As for ethnocentrism, that happens when someone doesn’t take the time to listen and learn, but inserts their own experience and narrative.
If you are going to learn about breakdancing and its culture, you should let the people within that culture lead. That’s why all of her “creativity” with kangaroo hops and spasms seemed disingenuous. Also, she was using the poses of breakdancing without really understanding their meaning. You can tell that there’s a back-and-forth in the dancing like a conversation. One dancer looks pointedly at the other “check this out” and then there’s a response which is like “nice, but can you do this?” Instead, she was just doing random poses and moves that it didn’t make any sense with what was happening with the other dancer.
In conclusion, I think people should enjoy and participate in new activities and sports, but they need to go about it in a way that is appropriate for that sport and acknowledges those who have done the work to create it. We can take this opportunity to learn from her mistake and try to do better moving forward.
