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Dr. Rachael Louise “Raygun” Gunn is a lecturer at Macquarie University, Australia, who has extensively studied and participated in the Sydney breaking (more commonly known as break dancing) scene. Her work has primarily focused on studying social dynamics in the breaking scene from feminist and queer perspectives: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=LLebtn8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra. Gunn has also demonstrated outstanding ability in the breaking scene, having won numerous competitions across Oceania and garnering wide respect from other Australian breakers.
Gunn has also been widely reported as having a background in Jazz, Tap dancing, and Ballroom dancing.

I put it to you that Rachael Gunn is intimately familiar with breaking, to a much higher degree than most breakers, having both personal and academic experience with the scene. Her academic work breaking down elements of the scene indicate a detailed understanding of the moves, speech, social and cultural contexts, modes of dress, relationship with gender, and numerous other individual aspects. She also has a detailed understanding of her relationship to the scene, having written a paper titled The ethics of living a double life: rethinking ownership, authenticity, and identity in hip hop culture, and spoken in interviews of being white and middle class in a scene that grew from socially impressed minorities.

So how could someone with the demonstrated knowledge and ability of Raygun not score a single point at all, having reached the Olympics as the highest scoring competitive b-girl in Oceania? Indeed, Martin Gillian, head breaking judge at the Olympics, praised her performance, and she's received extensive support from the breaking community in defence of her routine, so a score of zero seems impossibly unlikely.

The inclusion of breaking at the Olympic games was a controversial topic ahead of its debut, primarily due to concerns over the corporatization and dilution of breaking culture inclusion would bring, and was widely criticised by the breaking community. One person who studied the divide in opinions was Dr Rachael L Gunn, who in 2023 published The Australian breaking scene and the Olympic Games: The possibilities and politics of sportification, which criticised the IOC and WDSF’s implementation and homogenisation of the scene. From the conclusion of the paper:

[...] the concerns are centred on the impact upon culture, and a potential loss of agency and self-determination. Isolated from neighbouring countries, and consisting of distinct, localized scenes guided by individual agents, top-down decision-making led by the WDSF already impacts the social organization, identities and hierarchies of respect within the Australian breaking scene.

While sport and the Olympics are framed as ‘great equalizers’, the exclusivity of Australia’s sporting institutions along gendered, class and racialized lines means that breaking’s sportification may in fact impact the accessibility of breaking. While the ABA aims to ensure that Australian breakers retain self-determination and agency through this Olympic process, there are many obstacles that come with the introduction of concepts like governance, transparency and accountability. Making global what is essentially a localized practice invariably requires standardization, homogeneity, professionalism and risks further moving breaking away from its African American and Latin cultural traditions and histories.

I put it to you that Raygun's olympic performance was in fact carefully calculated to show off breaking without meeting a single olympic criteria, as a protest against the inclusion of the sport, choosing to show breaking off as an artistic medium rather than athletic one. Using movements that were specifically contextual to Australia's presence in an international space, her performance was a criticism of the IOCs attempt to represent breaking as a gymnastic sport rather than artistic expression, and directly intended to sabotage the inclusion of breaking - and expected resulting gentrification of the scene - in the Olympics.
Currently it has been confirmed that the 2028 Olympic Games will not feature breaking, and there are currently no plans to include it in the 2032 Games.
Raygun wins.

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[-] flan@hexbear.net 26 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Be that as it may unilaterally delegitimizing breakdancing on the world stage seems like a pretty bad way to protest. Maybe get other people involved in your harebrained scheme.

[-] booty@hexbear.net 18 points 3 months ago

Does it matter if something like breakdancing is "delegitimized" in the eyes of the public? I feel like that's exactly what the average person who's into it would want. They're having fun doing their thing, why would they want it to be "legitimized"

[-] flan@hexbear.net 31 points 3 months ago

I don’t have any connection to the breakdancing community so I don’t know what they want or dont want. I’m just thinking if my favorite activity (edging) became an olympic sport I would both be mad that it became an olympic sport and that some australian phd in edgeology fully finished on purpose to prove a point

[-] Adkml@hexbear.net 15 points 3 months ago

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the vast majority of people who enjoy breakdance probablly aren't happy that the vast majority of people now think their sport is stupid and is at least partially hopping around with your arms up like a bunny and slowly gyrating on the floor like a worm.

In this case "legitamizing" means "not thinking it's fucking stupid"

[-] booty@hexbear.net 5 points 3 months ago

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the vast majority of people who enjoy breakdance probablly aren't happy that the vast majority of people now think their sport is stupid

Isn't that already the case? Any time I've seen breakdancing in pop culture the vibe has been "this is really fucking dorky and stupid but they're having fun and they aren't hurting anybody so good for them"

Furthermore, I highly doubt one olympic breakdancing event in any way impacted the popular perception of breakdancing as a sport/art/whatever. I doubt most people are even aware any of this happened (or will ever be aware)

[-] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 11 points 3 months ago

Furthermore, I highly doubt one olympic breakdancing event in any way impacted the popular perception of breakdancing as a sport/art/whatever. I doubt most people are even aware any of this happened (or will ever be aware)

Most people will just say white people can't dance and continue with their day.

[-] MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml 18 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

This should be the first response: that if this is what she did (and it makes a certain amount of sense given the fact she's won other competitions), it wasn't decided democratically and does not seem to be supported by the broader community.

That's a much better critique than "she may have dedicated much of her life to this, but she doesn't get an opinion because she's a white lady."

[-] aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net 18 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

This should be the first response: that if this is what she did (and it makes a certain amount of sense given the fact she's won other competitions)

I disagree. In niche sports like breakdancing, you can become a regional champion and win competitions while performing below a world class level, because there is not a lot of official competition. Especially in women's sports which are not as well funded or supported as a whole, which are supported even less in niche sports in smaller regions. For example, look at the African track cyclists, climbers, etc at the Olympics.

I mean look at her performances before the Olympics. They are equally bad

[-] MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 3 months ago

Oh yeah, I don't think OP's theory is likely, but it seems at least plausible and I don't know enough about breakdancing to have an informed opinion on what her real talent level is.

[-] aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net 14 points 3 months ago

I mean you don't need to be knowledgeable in breakdancing to recognise her final performance that got her to the Olympics as not up to par.

[-] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 2 points 3 months ago

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[-] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

Link 1:

Link 2:

[-] gueybana@hexbear.net 6 points 3 months ago

she may have dedicated much of her life to this, but she doesn't get an opinion because she's a white lady.

That’s not even the fifth biggest reason for why people are annoyed by her

[-] MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 3 months ago

It's the first response by a couple of people here, though.

[-] Adkml@hexbear.net 12 points 3 months ago

It's literally the comment below this one when I got here lmao. You could get the comment saying nobody's saying that and somebody saying that in the same screenshot.

this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2024
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