Fifth Generation

My husband was messing around on youtube.com watching Uzbek bellydancers, I think. Well, anyways, he ended up on this video called “mujra”. It was an Indian looking woman, who was fair and mmmm well plump dancing. I thought it was a bellydancing video so I said, “This is the worst bellydancing I have ever seen!”

We noticed a long list of videos labeled “mujra”. I thought to myself, “how can this terrible dancer make all of these videos?”

The next video was more professional. The woman was almost obese and was wearing a two piece Indian style outfit. We noticed in the comments that they said she was Pakistani. Her hair was dyed blond and she had green contact lenses on. Again, all I could think was that this was the worst dancing I have ever seen. It looked like the dancing drunk Americans do in the nightclubs right before closing.

My husband clicked on another video labeled “mujra”. This was a live video from a Pakistani club. The lady was dressed more modestly than Paris Hilton. She was wearing a one piece dress with spaghetti straps. The dress went down to her knees. She had very long hair, and her stomach was larger than mine and I had a baby 8 months ago. Her dancing was horrible as she was merely striking  what looked like erotic poses. I guess in Pakistan that is about as erotic as it gets. The commenters were shocked and talked about how they felt sorry for the woman who was so poor that she had to dance in order to survive. mmmmmmmm

My husband and I finally figured out that mujra is a type of erotic dancing in India and Pakistan. A mujra is a men’s night club or dance bar. The men would go watch women show a little cleavage. The women do not strip. Men give the women money for their dancing. Their clothes are usually more modest than what most Americans wear to nightclubs. I guess in Pakistan they like curvy women, as most of the dancers would be considered “fat” by Western standards.  Today, I guess mujras put out CDs for men to buy to enjoy at home or at parties.

It was interesting to learn about a new subculture of South Asia. People who know me know I love studying a culture’s subcultures. I find it fascinating. This particular subculture troubled me however. If what I saw in the videos was completely shocking and shameful to Pakistanis and Indians, how the heck do they perceive American women? It is true that in the west we had similar standards and a similar subculture. (can-can girls, and strip tease artists) I also know that things are changing at least in India and girls in some places (especially in Bollywood) dress just as immodestly. I also know that I have seen American women wear less than the mujra dancers shopping at Walmart. Those women were probably bigger than the mujra dancers too. I once saw a girl at Walmart who was at least 250 lbs wearing a short skirt and no underwear. That was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen.

Well, now I know what “mujra” is and I don’t think I will see anymore of that.

Speaking of modesty, do you think that soon modesty will be back “in”?  Do you think the suggestion of the erotic is sexier than graphically showing the erotic?

In my opinion, I think mujra can be like marijuana. It would lead to the more hardcore stuff, so it is probably not LDS standard.