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

There arent many men that pole dance miffster...

I can see the difference between 'woman swinging cheerfully and sweatily on a pole by her own choice, for fun, and a sex worker.'

Of course I can. i'm not stupid.

You are completley missing my point.

All examples such as high heels, clowns, police uniforms, bikinis, jugglers... they are not things that have been directly taken from sex workers.. and sold to us as mainstream.

I dont have a joyless horror at people playing. I love playing!

The comment 'Honey, stick your bottom out more. That?s right ? gorgeous!' does not say that having fun and toning up is the main motivation for pole dancing... in what other 'sport' do you have to worry about how far to stick your bottom out on order to look gorgeous?!

Ha ha can just imagine Fabio Capello shouting across the pitch 'Rooney! Stick your bottom out a bit more, gorgeous!'

Ladies, polar positions, never the twain & all that.

Over the years, the chip-chip-chip at perceptions of decency has resulted in very small changes. After all, a grain of sand doesn't make a beach, eh?

I'm sure the people who put on this show couldn't possibly see anything mildly disturbing: more oil on the water

One thing did make me chuckle though - I've never seen any gymnasts wearing nipple-tassels & a diamanté thong during their routines......

.....reaches for the fireproof pants

right you are ThatBloke!

I took the blog referenced as being an all-women dance class/social event. Not a sport. Byt having said that, I play netball and cries of 'stick your boobs out more when you mark her' have been heard on the team w.r.t someone well-endowed playing against a more petite opponent! In other words, it's a description of a bunch of women having an enjoyable dance class (and feeling good about sticking their bottoms out).

And that's another thing. Considering how many gym classes and dance classes seem to be about 'burning' fat and 'fighting flab' and 'punishing wobbly thighs' I should think a class celebrating having a sticking out bottom would be quite uplifting!

Have a read of wiki on the history of pole dancing.

I think if you are exercised about the commercialisation of sexuality and the living conditions of sex workers there really are better ways to engage with the subject and help to challenge sexism and oppression than getting so very angry about the fact that exercising on a metal pole has become a dance/fitness craze over the last decade.

"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"

Eh? They are still in clubs. It's not a thing of the past, like the tango in the brothels.

They are in clubs, and they are also in Holmes Place chain of gyms, Pineapple dance studio, and a whole bunch of other places including people's homes. It can't possibly be argued that they are solely and exclusively for use in sex encounter clubs, now, can it?

Thanks for the advice miffster but I do activly challenge other aspects of sexism.

Its not celebrating having a sticky out bottom.. its about sticking your bottom out because it makes you look sexually available as you need to stick your bottom out to expose your lady bits from behind.

no, as long as you are happy for everyone to think of you as a superficial bimbo.

In answer to the OP, FYI.

Good grief.

In an all-female dance class, the teacher advises a student to stick her bottom out more.

Tells her she looks gorgeous doing so.

And you have a problem with that?

YES!!

Sorry pressed go to quickly in my passion!

Poledancers i.e. sex workers, stick their bottoms out when they dance on the pole because it makes them look more sexually available..

If a woman shouted at me to stick my bottom out in order to look 'gorgeous' i.e. sexually available.. I would stick to pole where the sun doesnt shine.

If your daughter was dancing and shaking her shoulders, wiggling her hips, swinging her hair, pointing her toes, would you make her feel dirty and ashamed for doing so?

no...

After all, sex workers do that when dancing for men.

now that really is insane...

If she was doing a stripper style dance i'd be upset though, like sticking her bottom and boobs out

She does ballet, tap and jazz.....

If my grown up daughter decided to dance about shaking her boobs and sticking her bottom out for larfs with a bunch of other women and a female teacher, and she was climbing up and down on a pole, and doing hand stands and screaming with laughter and running with sweat, and going to the pub afterwards, which is what is being described in that blog, I honestly can't see what problem anyone could have with it.

Fair enough, you wouldn't like to learn to dance at a class like that foureleven, but other people might find it great fun. Liberating, even.

As for if people want to have poles at home, then again, just because you can't imagine yourself having one, or enjoying playing on it, doesn't make it wrong. as has been said, poles are no longer solely and exclusively used in strip clubs. they have become a popular fitness/dance craze and used in many gyms these days. So, the horse has bolted and the 'think of the children' stuff seems rather bizarre. Like someone getting into a froth about a mother attending belly dancing classes.

( *I don't have a grown up daughter, I'm just thinking ahead!)

I've never heard of Holmes Place, and I'm not surprised that there are poles in a dance studio - especially Pineapple. Many exotic dancers are trained dancers.

There is a campaign to get pole dancing into the olympics. But I did like what David Mitchell said "Actually, you won't find female empowerment halfway up a pole"

Holmes place is/was an upmarket chain of gyms/fitness centres. Now taken over by Virgin Active, so forming one of the largest gym/fitness chains in the UK.

Well flipping mainstream then.

I just googled for pole dancing lessons in London and here is a huge list of studios offering it.

Including Sadlers wells, Fitness First, and all sorts of gyms, health and dance studios.

Ergo, it is incredibly popular and totally mainstream.

Therefore having a pole at home = no biggie.

Thanks for the link paisleyleaf, I had a few laughs reading that

nuts and Zoo magasine is now mainstream.. does that make them ok?

I heart David Mitchell.

What have men's weekly magazines got to do with a form of exercise participated in by women? Other than both seem to excite your fervent disapproval?

Dancing [on a pole] in a gym, or in your living room is not the same as publishing a men's weekly magazine, or reading it, or appearing in it, or writing for it, or whatever the point is that you are trying to make.

If you are trying to make a point that women (or men) playing about on poles damages them somehow, or damages their children, then you could try explaining why, because you haven't actually managed to do that yet. All you have done is huff and puff about how it is something, in your opinion, to do with the sex industry and therefore A Bad Thing.

But it quite obviously isn't something to do with the sex industry any more, it's just a fashionable exercise craze. Thousands of people and hundreds of venues which are manifestly nothing at all to do with the sex industry are participating enthusiastically in it.

So if you are going to still go on that it is bad, and damaging to women and children, I think it is reasonable to ask you to explain precisely how and why.

It was in response to you saying that pole dancing was mainstream so it was ok... I was just demonstrating that not everything that creeps in to the mainstream is ok.. just because it becomes common place and accepted.