Nightclubs

One of the most interesting things about Minneapolis is its nightlife. From Thursday through Saturday, there is a plethora of clubs that seem to attract a diverse group of young individuals. These clubs have a very distinctive culture and style, and if you have ever been “fortunate” enough to go to a nightclub, you have been a witness of that culture and of the distinct body practices that take place there.

The first distinctive body practice is how clubbers dress. Women seem to want to dress in the most provocative manner that is still technically legal. The heels on shoes seem to have grown to almost unusable heights, which leads to the streets of downtown Minneapolis being filled with slow, stumbling, but very tall girls. We seem to think that the ideal intelligible bodies society wants from us is one decorated with sparkles and tight skirts and lots and lots of skin showing. Men wear close to the opposite. They tend to wear loose shirts and pants; either to hide flasks, erections, or unattractive bodies. Both genders view going to a nightclub as an opportunity to attract the opposite sex and (in some cases) find a “mate” for the night.

The next interesting body practice that takes place at the club is the dancing. Today’s dancing is nothing like the dancing of the past decades. “Grinding” is the main style of movement throughout the club. Basically grinding is a type of dance where two (or more) participants rub their genital areas together. Now imagine a club that is absolutely stuffed to the seams with people, and the vast majority of those people are engaging in this dance (the remaining people are most likely girls stumbling to or back from the bathroom in long chains).

So what does the nightclub do? One thing I noticed was how it transformed people. While preparing for the club, one can plan for total control or agency throughout the night. However, when one actually enters the club, they become surrounded by blasting music, crazy lights, and are almost suffocated by the sheer volume of people grinding around them. The body can easily lose control in this situation, and be transformed into a docile body. We are overwhelmed by the surrounding events, and surrender to the environment; allowing ourselves to become part of the nightclub culture. This can alarm some club-goers the morning after, but others see the transformation as a type of release. Some long to become anonymous members of the environment, and the nightclub allows for this.