Sadly, U R correct...

Anyway, all those impressions you mention, Diana, are what an educated viewer would come up with. That "bellydancing does not really look like that", "the stripper is trying to bellydance but can't", "bellydancing is more difficult than stripping", "she looked quite clumsy for a bellydancer"- how is any ordinary person who has never seen bellydancing supposed to notice that? All that the general audience is going to think when seeing this is that bellyancing is something strippers do for money and that it is used to get men's attention and seduce them when they are trying to do something more serious. I agree, thanks, Hollywood. Duh.

Oddly? The article shows that Carol herself did not have a clue what she was doing, so how would she notice that the performance in the movie is not appropriate? See here, quotes from the article Rasha posted:

*The Egyptian secret service "nearly had a fit," Shannon said. She used a sword and laid it flat on the defense minister's head then slid it toward the ear like she was going to cut it off. Then she ran the sword down his chest to his belt buckle.
"They ran and tried to stop me and take the sword on several occasions and Charlie kept saying, 'Leave her alone, it's just part of the dance,'" Shannon said. "Finally the defense minister said, 'It's OK, it's OK.' I know I'm good at my dancing and I wasn't going to hurt anyone, but they kept trying to stop me."
The dance "mesmerized" her Egyptian audience, Shannon said.
"They loved me," Shannon said. "They said I was the best American belly dancer they had ever seen. So that was quite a compliment because as far as we know that's where belly dancing started, and they're very proud of it."
"It's not restrictive like ballet dancing," Shannon said. "It's like freestyle. You can express your own personality, your own feelings. You watch your audience while you're dancing and you work with what you're seeing. You just feed off of them. This fits my personality perfectly because it's a spontaneous dance.
"We can all learn the same steps but it's how you present yourself," Shannon continued. "People love me. I have fun with it. I'm very sensuous but I can cut up and act like a clown too. I'm very good at what I do and I love it."*

So, how would she ever know that the girl's performance does portray give bellydancing appropriately? Her impression that the Egyptians were "mesmerised" may have been true, but they may have been for very different reasons than what she thinks... "The best American bellydancer they have ever seen", uh oh. Praise the subtle sense of Oriental irony.

Wow, I did not know that this aspect of the movie was actually based in history at all... I just thought that part was completely made up (because it is so ridiculous). And I definitely had no clue the woman who did it in real life was actually a belly dancer.

Am I going crazy? I really think in the movie she was a stripper. Now, why would they do that, when the real person was actually a belly dancer? Now I'm confused.

In any case, we are all obviously in agreement that this movie did not portray belly dance accurately or positively, yet still within the plot I think that a non-belly dancer would know that is not what belly dance looks like. Maybe I think this because I am originally from Brazil, where there are sometimes (although not often enough) belly dancers on TV shows or soap operas so everybody has at least an idea what it should look like even if there are still misconceptions or if the portrayal is not completely accurate.

On the other hand, even though there is less belly dance in pop culture here in the US, I still think most people have an inkling. I mean, everybody knows for example what undulations look like and that they are common in belly dance, so much that I often find youtube videos of random girls just bellyrolling or undulating and calling that belly dance,and everyone going along. Then there's Shakira, whom everybody knows belly dances, and again even if she is no accurate portrayal, you can get an idea what it should look like, and that woman in Charlie Wilson's war did not do anything that looked even remotely close to belly dance, not even the "belly dance" of those home youtube videos or of Shakira, which I think is what most Americans relate it to.

Either way, now I'm pretty pissed too that they went out of their way to actually change a historical fact to portray belly dancing in this light. Why would they do that? I mean, they could have had a real belly dancer there and it still (from a general populace perspective) could have been a wonderful, exotic, and sensuous scene.

Hahha... well actually i have to go pantless in one of my costumes or if it slips down it shows thong. Not attractive. and its tight enough so it doesn't flash fandango.