An Important Belly Dance Video for our Future!
The purpose of this video is not just to provide pleasant inspiration for you, the pregnant woman. The dance we do here together is for the child as well.
After the child is born, it is my hope that she or he will grow up watching this dance, connecting with the life-affirming archetype of a woman; pregnant, powerful, and continuing to use her body to active self-expression. By sharing and fostering this image of pregnancy “as a time of creation, fulfillment and beauty” WE BEGIN TO CHANGE THE WORLD! We chart a new course! We influence the future!
With a few brave exceptions, we see SO FEW images of pregnant women doing anything other than waiting for the baby. We rarely see many movie stars pregnant in People Magazine. We rarely see politicians and CEOs pregnant, strong, carrying on with their lives and work, and celebrating their condition. We don’t see news reporters, performers, or television talk show hosts at work, with pregnancy as an additional highlight of their strength and beauty as women. The examples are few. We should think about why this is.
I have a sneaking suspicion that many people still see pregnancy as an incompetent activity, bringing only limitation and discomfort. The thought that pregnancy is something that “happens to” a woman presents an unflattering image of a powerless position. (That sex, yes, SEX, is a part of the process is unfortunately still enough, by itself, to make some people uncomfortable!) In Western culture, the emphasis has historically been on pregnancy as a time of emotional and physical vulnerability, with pregnancy presented as an uncomfortable, unpleasant process that is out of the woman’s control. The “weaker sex” is thought to be at her weakest during this time!
ON THE CONTRARY, for most women, the physical discomforts of pregnancy are transitory. Many women will tell you that pregnancy primarily brings feelings of great physical pleasure, strength and awareness of natural processes. Our communities, families, and pregnant women themselves should join together in an active, joyful involvement with the genesis and progress of new life, and participate in the vision of pregnancy as a healthful, beautiful process to be celebrated throughout! Putting only healthy things into our bodies, getting prenatal care, and staying physically active allows us to fully experience pregnancy as a natural and creative act, and as a woman’s special time of personal power and completion.
The prevalence of anorexia, rape, suicide, inequality, violence and ruthlessness in our communities tells me that we need greater balance in our society today. The “feminine” values associated with pregnancy, birth and motherhood must be seen as human values, to be embraced and honored by all of us if we are to thrive as a species. Each of us, as humans, has access to a full complement of human values and feelings – masculine and feminine, and by finding them within ourselves and nurturing them in our communities, we can build a better world. Positive images can do so much to evoke these feelings and to support these values. We must learn that there is strength in emotion, and that openness and vulnerability are not properties to be hidden, devalued, or taken for granted.
By valuing women in all their aspects, we enhance our ability to value life itself. Providing our children and our communities with healthy and powerful images of women helps to develop confidence and self-esteem in young women, and respect and true appreciation for women in young men. I believe that this video meets this test. Show this video media to your children! Show it on public access TV! Show it to your parents! Show it to friends from other countries! Share it with your friends as they consider or experience pregnancy! I take special pride in this work, and I am pleased to share it with you!
And one more thing I have said for years: If the World Leaders took the sanctity of life and our future more seriously, then we would sign all economic, environmental, and peace treaties over the bellies of pregnant women!
Love to you and to your children, born and to be born,
