Harem

There's a new fun group in Second Life. The group is called "Harry's Harem." Members can expect to have a really good time and learn all about SL club dancing from one of its leading practitioners and experts. Requirements are that you be out for fun and friendship, and that you be able to dance the night away while staying out of trouble. Prospective members can apply to Harry Bailey. (You had better drop him a notecard as his IMs may be capped.)

So it's a harem? In modern colloquial (and humorous) English, "harem" may denote a number of (usually) female followers of another person, and this probably applies to Harry's Harem. (see Wikipedia) But in the backs of our minds is the fantastical mystery of the harems of our imaginations, fueled by the exotic luxury of places like the Topkapi palace, the legend of Ishtar and exotic dancers such as Salome, and the romance and cachet of words like serraglio. Myths abound. Now is a good time to bust them. Let's look at what a harem really is, the behaviors associated with it, and the myths that came about.


Myth: A harem is a sexually charged orgy room guarded by eunuchs.

Truth: The harem is simply the women's quarters of a Muslim household, be it in a palace or whatever, as opposed to the men's quarters (the selamlik). It's where the where the women carry out their everyday business.

The word harem comes about because female seclusion is emphasized in Islam, and any intrusion is haram or "forbidden." A harem can be a few women, a few dozen women, or as many as the quarters will accommodate.

A Muslim harem does not necessarily consist solely of the head of household's wives and concubines, but also their young offspring of either sex, female servants, and any variety of other female relatives, In a sense, it's the private living quarters of the Sultan and his family within a palace complex which also contains men's quarters and administrative areas. Though the harem is rapidly disappearing in the 21st century, some still exist in the more remote areas of the Muslim world.


Myth: Harem girls use belly dancing to get their way with the Sultan.

Truth: This dance form is traditional in the Middle East and is not a dance of seduction. Though done in harems by the women of the harem, it is mostly for their own entertainment, to celebrate special occasions, or simply pass the time of day. Music and dance are very much a part of everyday life. Little girls learn the shimmy dance as soon as they can walk, and doing it as a response to jubilant music is almost automatic. It has little sexual connotation. (This does not mean that the Sultan never comes by to watch.)

At both the Paris Exposition in 1889 and the even better Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, the "Streets of Cairo" was featured. This themed area included a dancer called "Little Egypt." The term "belly dance" was coined by American promoters who wouldn't have known or cared what the dance was called in its native land. Their only interest was attracting crowds to ogle the exotic dancers.


Myth: Salome did a traditional seductive dance called the "Dance of the Seven Veils" for her horny stepfather Herod. As a reward for her performance, she requested John the Baptist's head on a platter. This was because she was in love with John and couldn't have him any other way.

This is partly true, but that Salome was the dancer is traditional, not Biblically explicit. (The traditional name Salome is based on the accounts of Flavius Josephus, the Roman-Jewish historian.) In addition, it was her mom her who instructed her to do the nasty. And the "Dance of Seven Veils" was a theatrical creation, though based upon a mythic reality.

Salome was the daughter of Herodias and the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee. John had condemned the marriage of Herodias and Herod because Herodias was the daughter of Herod's brother Aristobulus and also the divorced wife of his half-brother Philip. John's public disapproval angered Herod and Herodias, and Herod imprisoned John but was afraid to have him killed because of his reputation and popularity. This was not enough for Herodias, however, who contrived to get even. She pressed her daughter Salome to seduce her stepfather Herod with a dance and make him promise to give her whatever she wished. At her mother's behest, Salome asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Somewhat unwillingly, Herod did her bidding and had John decapitated.

Salome as seductress and femme fatale was popularized by Oscar Wilde who put the Biblical story on stage and made John's execution a crime of passion. Wilde's play subsequently inspired the Richard Strauss one-act opera. In the opera, Herod's lust for Salome is emphasized. Salome, in turn, desires John the Baptist — a not entirely new idea at the time — but John rejects her, and the only way Salome may have any part of him is to demand his head be given to her. Salome fulfills her passion by kissing the dead lips of John's decapitated head. (Eeeeeeeeeewww!)

This more familiar version of Salome depicts her as the seductress of her stepfather and the murderer of a saint, thereby making her the symbol of the erotic and dangerous woman, the femme fatale. In the play and a later movie, Salome was played by a true femme fatale, the beautiful Maud Allan. And it was only Strauss's opera in which Salome stripped her veils for King Herod. The Dance of the Seven Veils is not a traditional dance based upon Ishtar's descent into the underworld. It was a Broadway and then a Hollywood gimmick, and it wound up making both the dance and Salome household words.

In the play, Herod becomes fearful and has Salome killed as well. In actuality, according to Josephus, Salome was long-lived, married twice, and raised several children. (Also note that this Salome was distinct from Salome, the follower of Jesus, who was present at the Crucifixion.)


Myth: Belly piercings were a seductive tool for harem girls.

Truth: Speaking of Hollywood gimmickry, this one is pure tinsel. A series of scandals rocked the movie industry in the 1920s: Fatty Arbuckle involved in the death of Virginia Rappe at a wild party, the murder of William Desmond Taylor amidst revelations of his bisexuality, the drug-related death of Wallace Reid, and host of other incidents. In the resulting backlash, a production code was devised to ensure morality in the movies (the Hays Code, 1930). Among other things, costuming rules became very strict: Actresses were not allowed to show their navel or wear two piece costumes.

During the filming of the 1903 movie, "The Vision Of Salome," a censor stopped the filming because of the costume the actress Maud Allan was wearing. Maud was sent to wardrobe where they quickly fixed the problem in a somewhat mischievous fashion. An elaborate costume necklace was ripped apart and used to join the top and bottom of the two piece costume, finishing it off by draping the remains around the belly. A fake jewel was then glued into Maud's navel.

They weren't worn in the harem, but belly dancers would forevermore wear belly chains and navel jewelry. :=P