to have installed a pole dancing pole in my living room...?

[superv1xen]

been having lessons for months now and decided to get one put in at home!

its amazing for fitness and so much fun, i have really toned up since doing it and i am thinking of possibly teaching it from home if i get good enough. and dp enjoys watching me practise although i reckon the novelty will probably wear off soon

my mum did a bit of a "cats bums mouth" when she first saw it though and dp darent even tell his mum i have got one! haha

Sheesh.

Dancing on a pole USED to be an activity performed by sex workers, just like the Argentinian tango USED to be performed by sex workers, but it is now so mainstream that people have poles at home, where they continue to practice the moves they have learned in their pole fitness dance classes.

FFS, get over yourselves, some people on this thread. I can't believe how much 'think of the children-ing' is going on here, it's like a daily Express readers convention.

It was me who joked about deepthroating the postman not mailman.

I only regret that I didn't go with my original choice of vicar.

And erm since when did vibrators have nothing to do with sex??

What have I missed now? Was it on hollyoaks or something??

I agree SWC. But if the Daily Mail ever prints my opinions I am installing a pole, a sex swing and a special, groin level hole for the postman/vicar.

OK, the OP was slightly Benny Hill-ish, possibly because she's contended with 'cat's bum mouth' attitudes in RL which are similar to those on here.

This doesn't change the fact that poledancing isn't necessarily an activity performed by sex workers - in fact, its mainstream popularity is very much on the increase.

I'd happily have a go, if I weren't traumatised by unhappy memories of invariably getting stuck on the ropes in PE...

Grace, believing that people don't associate pole dancing with the sex industry is fine if you live in a cultural void where the opinions of the rest of society don't matter. There are many areas in life that each of us may choose to participate in, despite the negative opinions of others. That's a great thing - it is part of living in a democracy.

But by the OP coming on here to ask people's opinions, she is going to get people telling her their opinions of pole dancing, and the same if she puts it in her living room and talks about it to visitors. If she doesn't care what others thinks, then great. But she clearly does care, or she wouldn't be asking for opinions on the internet. Anyone who puts youtube videos of their child dancing on a pole is also inviting a public response to their children. That's why some celebrities (Ewan McGregor for example) refuse to have their children photographed.

If you want to live in your own version of the world, that can be a positive thing, and sometimes it can be a positive thing for your children. But once you post it on the internet, the world is going to come into it, and that isn't always a good thing for kids who have no choice over what their parents decide to put on the internet about them. I really don't think that when that woman's boys get to high school they are going to thank her for the fact that their fellow students will have seen them pole dancing on the internet.

Heh, I could hardly believe "people" don't associate pole dancing with the sex industry after this thread!

But the gist of the thread wasn't about what "people" think about pole dancing as a paopular form of exercise. It wasn't even about the OP title. The thread's been about whether openly choosing to pole dance perpetuates the sexual objectification of women and, by implication, condones porn.
Which is a mindlessly inane, reactionary proposition.

Grace, that's a hard one to answer. Many people who pole dance at home do so for unpaid, sexual display; that is a mainstreaming of porn culture. Someone who dances purely for exercise may be trying to reclaim an activity that other women have been participating in a sexualised way by social and economic pressures. A lot of women's culture is misogynistic and some of it has to be reclaimed. I'm just not convinced that people should be putting their kids on the internet in order to reclaim it. And if a woman puts her stepdaughter on it, but then does some sex industry type dance for her husband later, I'm not convinced anything has been reclaimed in the life of that individual.

Milly: "Someone who dances purely for exercise may be trying to reclaim an activity ... A lot of women's culture is misogynistic and some of it has to be reclaimed."

I couldn't agree more!

Stripping is not womens culture.

Hmm. So should I stop going to my pole dancing class at the gym? I hate the gym with a passion, love running outdoors but its too bloody hot to do that in Thailand, am a crap swimmer, so take dance classes as a way of keeping fit (street dance as well pole). Do it in trackies, no men around, would never do it in front of husband and clothes stay firmly on at all times.

Buying into misgynist culture or just keeping fit?

NB. Still cam't hang upside down from a pole - thigh muscles of a gnat - does that make it any better???

Interesting blog about pole dancing lessons which I found when googling. It sounds like great fun. My friend at work does it and has lost about a stone and really toned up over the six months she's been at it.

miffster, no one is agrguing that you cant 'tone up' doing pole dancing, and we know it can be fun too.

Its the bigger picture... Particularly when you are doing it in front of impressionable children.

Our school has started home visits before year R - I'm sure that the teacher will remember the house with the pole in the front room

Ok: I have now read the blog..

The following are all disturbing:

When we get to access our inner showgirl. We swing on poles and kick our legs and toss our hair and feel gorgeous and go slightly bonkers whilst the Rolling Stones pound in the background. Afterwards we go and have a drink together in the pub and hear each other's news. This feels like more than a fitness class, it feels like a proper - or improper - girly night out

'Honey, stick your bottom out more. That?s right ? gorgeous!'

the ones being exploited in the 'gentlemen's clubs' are the men, say the young women who flock to work there.

Hah such a goo dpoint jeee!

The OP isn't talking about wandering round a pole gyrating her hips in a string bikini and perspex heels whilst her OH stuffs money into her bra is she? She hasn't mentioned kids either.

She has a metal pole, which she uses to work out on, in her living room. have you seen someone work out on a pole.

Another poster also has a pole, and she and her kids enjoy playing on it. Again, nobody is bumping and grinding and it is no different to playing on a climbing frame.

Just as mothers and fathers might dance about with their children one way, and then dance alone for each other in a different way, don't you think someone who has a pole at home is capable of using it appropriately?

The mere presence of a pole does not unleash the forces of immorality and sleaze. Not with Holmes place running classes in it alongside the Pilates and the Tai Bo. It's mainstream. It's no different to circus skills classes.

Like most things in life, this is all about context, and I think it is rather patronising to infer women or men who like to climb up and down poles are not perfectly capable of working out appropriate behaviour without finger wagging and cats bum mouth pursing.

I don't see what's disturbing about a bunch of women playing on poles as per the blog description. How is it any different to a bunch of women learning trapeeze and releasing their inner showgirl, or learning juggling and releasing their inner clown?

I give up.

Im not suggesting people dance erotically infront of their children..

But to 'main stream' pole dancing by letting children play on them only perpetuates the attitude that poledancing is ok as they get older..

I want my girls to grow up to be horrified about every aspect of the sex industry. Not think that poledancing is 'ok' just because it has become accepted.

ARGGHHHHHH! It is different because trapeeze, juggling and clowns are not associated with the sex industry..

the difference between a showgirl and a clown...?! Do I really need to explain?!

Yes, you do need to explain because you are being irrational.

You seem to be unable to get past the fact that yes, pole dancing started out in clubs where the dancers wore very little and used the poles when dancing for men, for money. However, nowadays they are just poles, and thousands of women - and men - have taken to swinging about on them, because it is fun and gets you fit. they learn how to do this in classes, often held in gyms and dance studios. Some of them like it so much they have poles at home.

Bikinis are worn by sex industry dancers, they are also worn by sunbathers and swimmers. High heels are worn by sex industry workers, they are also worn by women in everyday life.

Sometimes people like to play. They life to dress up and act up and have fun. They might slip on the high heels and bikini and dance for their husband, for example. That's not bad, or wrong. Women might want to play on poles for a couple of hours a week, pretend they are showgirls, why not?

What harm does it do?

I really don't understand your joyless horror at people playing. It is such a shame you can't see the difference between woman swinging cheerfully and sweatily on a pole by her own choice, for fun, and a sex worker.