Accepting Name Changes in the FatChanceBellydance Vocabulary

I'll be using deadnames in this post. You have been warned.

I had been away from ATS for so long that when I came back recently, I realized that a lot of the names of fast steps and slow moves had been changed. 

It's not easy to adjust. I still from time to time call a step by its own previous name just because it's both familiar and less of a mouthful. I mean, "Rhythmic Undulation" as opposed to just "Arabic?"

After all, there's Arabic in gymnastics and Arabesque in other dance moves and nobody really seems to mind.

Plus, there's already a very similar move in raqs sharqi called "Egyptian."

Up to maybe a week ago, the only move I felt deserving of a name change was the Ghawazee Shimmy Combo (now named the Mazin-inspired Shimmy Combo to honor folkloric artist Khyria Mazin). 

Then that gay cruise debacle happened. 

I don't know what these people were thinking, if they were thinking at all. I was born and raised in a supposedly moderate Muslim country and even now (July 2026), there are raids of "sodomites" (the derogatory Indonesian term used is boti, a short for "bottoms," which implies it's okay if you're the top, I guess). 

Turkey and Egypt are also Muslim countries, with Egypt having been accused repeatedly of the systematic ethnic cleansing of Coptic Christians (the very same people who created the tulle bitelli). It makes so much sense they wouldn't want gays to enter their countries.

I'll bet that if a gay cruise reached Bali, a mostly Hindu island but is still inside the very homophobic Islamic stronghold of Indonesia, it'd be turned away too. (Koh Samui in Thailand is prettier and a lot more welcoming anyway.)

And so, I am now very much for this name change, but perhaps not for the same reason (i.e.: "respecting the people whose name was appropriated").

Why would I (or anyone) associate this dance form that celebrates diversity, freedom, and feminism and accepts my sexuality and gender expression with homophobic and misogynistic countries?  

So, out with "Egyptian" and in with "Swivel Step." Out with "Turkish Shimmy" and in with "Forward & Back Shimmy." 

I'll end with this: I have no idea why a lot of gay Americans are so ignorant and uninformed of the state of the world. Is it because they've been so coddled, so comfortable with the idea of being free to show their sexuality and gender expression that they think the rest of the world has caught up? 

As an immigrant and now a legally naturalized US citizen, it always baffles me every time I see an American who has nothing bad bad things to say about this country. It's not perfect, but I'd really rather be here than anywhere else. 

Although I suppose I'll move somewhere else when the intifada jihadi attacks begin, but that's a topic for another day (and another blog).