Eighty-five percent of males that study dance in the United States are bullied or harassed for doing something they love. They are called names like happy feet or twinkle toes. These dancers are cyberbullied, face physical intimidation, and get death threats. Male dancers work just as hard as females, and yet their career is mocked. They are stereotyped as gay. This bullying normally happens from the age of 13 to the age of 18. It’s not fair or okay that teenage male dancers are being bullied and schools need to do something about it.
Dancers work just as hard as basketball or soccer players. They work through twisted ankles, sore muscles, and blisters. Dancers need to have excellent balance and focus. They compete against other studios and they do conditioning like other sports team. Dancers spend over 5 at the studio each week.
Bullying usually starts with the idea that dance is a feminine art and that male dancers are gay. This could lead them to feel bad about themselves which can make them stop dancing and doing what they love which could lead to depression. After being depressed and most likely still being bullied, those factors could lead to suicide. It could also affect them because the bullies devalue them and what they do. When they are devalued they stop dancing which could again lead to depression and then suicide. 
Peter Sabasino, dancer, thinks that “creating more performing art schools altogether would make dance look like a cool thing to do.” When it comes to performing art schools you have to audition to get in and not everyone does.
In my opinion I agree with dancer Leo Lamontagne. He thinks, “What would happen if dance were treated more like sports in school?” Lamontagne then says, that “It’s up to us to educate not just dancers but also non-dancers on what dance can be.” I believe that this could be done by putting dance in school. We could make it apart of the physical education curriculum.
If dance was apart of the schools physical education program then there would be education about dance, but also about how stereotypes and labels can hurt someone. If it was in the PE program then It would let the dancers have time to be themselves. It would let the bullies see how important dance is to their “targets” and it would hopefully remind them that they have something important to them too. Either soccer, basketball, etc. Putting dance into the physical education program would also let others try something new. It would show that anyone can dance. This would not solve the problem of teenage male dancers getting bullied, but it would certainly help open eyes to the fact that this is happening. This would help the dancers feel safe in what they do, it could lead to less suicides, and it could pave the road for more male dancers.

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