Actually, that presumption isn't entirely accurate as it was not unheard of for younger sons of poor noble families to marry wealthy women of color from merchant families in the colonies.
But your point is one of the reasons I offered the above without comment.
One of the difficulties in the preservation of historic dance is the diversity of people interested in it -- i.e., everything from deeply religious home schoolers to queer geeks. As a queer, cross-dressing geek, I don't obviously have a particularly vested interest in humoring certain other parts of the community. On the other hand, my life as a queer person today is markedly different from what my life as a queer person was like even 20 years ago. There is something intellectually interesting to me in getting a handle on certain social subtrafuges that were in place at the time of periods that interest me, but yes, the are also exhausting, claustrophobic and unnecessary. Everyone would very much not concur however, and that's the reality folks who engage in this activity deal with.
While lots of gender-free dance opportunities exist and they are awesome and fun, they don't seem to exist in intersection with formal, dress-up events, which is a source of frustration to me (despite all that I do get away with) and presumably the OP as well.
no subject
But your point is one of the reasons I offered the above without comment.
One of the difficulties in the preservation of historic dance is the diversity of people interested in it -- i.e., everything from deeply religious home schoolers to queer geeks. As a queer, cross-dressing geek, I don't obviously have a particularly vested interest in humoring certain other parts of the community. On the other hand, my life as a queer person today is markedly different from what my life as a queer person was like even 20 years ago. There is something intellectually interesting to me in getting a handle on certain social subtrafuges that were in place at the time of periods that interest me, but yes, the are also exhausting, claustrophobic and unnecessary. Everyone would very much not concur however, and that's the reality folks who engage in this activity deal with.
While lots of gender-free dance opportunities exist and they are awesome and fun, they don't seem to exist in intersection with formal, dress-up events, which is a source of frustration to me (despite all that I do get away with) and presumably the OP as well.