Of course this is a gross generalization, but it seems that getting a straight white dude to dance in public is like pulling teeth. Everyone else in the world will jump on the dance floor at the drop of a hat: black men and women, hispanic men and women, white women, gay white men, indians, asians,… everybody. But there is this odd resistance from straight white men. So what’s the deal, guys?
Because they can’t? 
A Seinfeld quote best answers this question:
Girlfriend [to Jerry]: Oh, don’t you like to dance?
Jerry [very matter-of-factly]: No…because it’s so stupid.
For me personlly I go with fatdave’s explanation: I can’t dance.
I’m a straight white male who won’t dance. In fact the only time I’ve ever danced is when they forced us to square dance in middle school. It was a nightmarishly dull experience.
To me, dancing just seems…well…stupid. Boring. Pointless. I see the commercials on TV hawking training videos for the hottest new flash-in-the-pan dance step, and I just scratch my head in amazement that people derive enjoyment from that crap.
Plus I have no sense of rhythm at all. I mean none. For some reason, unless I’m really, really, really stoned, I just can’t even keep a beat. Never could.
I probably could dance if I wanted to…but I’m a big fat dude with very little rhythm and have no urge to humiliate myself in a public place. Unless I’ve had a lot of beer.
Even worse is that one white dude who CAN’T dance and is out there getting into it and making an ass out of himself. He’s WHY we don’t dance. We say, “Man, I’m glad I’m not that guy!”
And this belongs in General Questions why? A stupid generalization that can’t possibly have a factual answer.
I was at a wedding last month with a gay white man and his african american boyfriend. Neither of them danced
In fact it was mostly straight white women on the floor…
I basically agree with neutron star. Dancing to me is just so dumb. I mean, it just looks absolutely rediculous.
Define “dance” for me.
At a wedding I can waltz enough to get by, but by no means would I get out there of my own accord. In a club, where the dancing seems to be “gyrate your groin while waving your arms back and forth to the beat” I end up being very self-concious because I know that I’m not doing it well (and that it looks stupid), and if I’m not enjoying it there’s really no reason to be doing it (since the women apparently aren’t diggin it…).
Dancing that you see in a music video - where 15 or 20 people are all having spasms in tandem - is just silly.
It’s such a shame. As a straight white guy I have often thought, “Man, I could get laid just about anytime I want-- if I’d only dance!”
So why don’t I? Because it embarrasses me like all get out-- and I actually have some rhythm, too (but I can’t dance).
Just sad.
I don’t think it’s dumb, I just can’t do it. Probably too self-conscious.
Yup, if only we could get guys like Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire to just get up on the dance floor a bit, but they’re just stick-in-the-muds.
Darndest thing. Normally I can’t dance to save my life, but after a handful of drinks, I’m P Diddy, Michael Jackson, Hammer and J-Lo all rolled into one. I’m a fantastic dancer when drunk!
It’s true. At the last wedding I was at, when I was cutting something fierce to “Super Freak,” everyone cleared off, stood around the perimeter of the floor and pointed. Some took pictures.
The same thing happens at clubs.
I don’t know why, but the way I’m wired … I just think danciung is pointless. What’s so fun about flailing around, gyrating, shaking your hands in the air, and shouting “whoo!” That’s what most women I know consider dancing, and I just don’t get it.
I have terrible large motor skills, so dancing involving choreographed steps, like most country/line dancing, square dancing, contra dancing or tango, is incredibly difficult for me. I have no trouble walking and chewing gum, running hiking, or rock climbing, but I just can’t dance.
DEFINATELY a self-conciousness thing. I’m too affraid to dance. Nobody ever tought me how, and I’m affraid of looking like an ass.
I forget the name of the comedian I’m stealing this line from…
"Men hate dancing. But we do it, occasionally, because we know there’s a small chance that it MIGHT lead to sex.
I mean, think about it- if we men LIKED dancing, we’d do it with other guys, wouldn’t we?"
I had a brief interest in dancing when I was app. 11. I can still do the Moonwalk and if I had a big enough piece of cardboard and maybe lost 100 lbs. I might even be able to pull off a breakdancing move or two…but since then I had not danced in public until I was well into my 20s, and even then it was the generic bobbing in time to the music. I can see the appeal of dancing, and when I’m alone or around people I don’t care about seeing me look stupid, I may do a ‘happy dance’ or goof off to some music on the radio, but I don’t think I’d ever feel comfortable dancing in public.
I have no rhythm and like a lot of other people in this thread, used to think dancing was stupid until I saw various women doing more traditional (but still seductive) dances instead of the weird gyrations that pass for dancing nowadays.
I’m a believer now.
Inability, at least for me. Flailing around in front of your favorite band is great fun and can be an emotional rush, but it isn’t really dancing, it’s an excuse to be completely uncoordinated in a crowd of people doing the same thing.