Re-articulating gender norms through breakdancing

Breakdancing has the capacity for bodily difference. This difference challenges cultural regulations that inhibit a body’s way of moving. Gendered categorisations of physical activity culturally discourage particular bodies from participating in certain activities. However, this article argues that breakdancing attempts to transcend the cultural regulations that limit bodies. In breakdancing, males participate in a typically feminine activity - dance - and females adopt a ‘masculine’ way of moving. Yet in this process, hyper-masculine/feminine expressions are reinforced. Paradoxically, breakdancing both enables and hinders the re-articulation of gender norms.