pole dancing for fitness

[hairyqueenofscots]

in my work i work with very highly qualified academics, i am support staff. they have all recently started these classes and burlesque. I have recently got very interested in the feminism on MN. I am saddened these woman are doing this ,they have everything going for them! Am i wrong? be gentle i am a learner :)

[VoleClock]

Those videos are amazing, thank you, Hadro. He is seriously strong and agile. While I can see that the two women in the other video are also fit and agile, I find female gymnastics and similar activities less interesting to watch than men because of the leg pointing, hand waving and weirdly over arched back which always seem to be a part of it. Somehow the women always look as if they are saying 'please like me' while the men are saying 'look what i can do'. Or perhaps it is just my ingrained mysogeny....

[penpalgal]

I used to do Burlesque but was never really sold on the idea of it being 'empowering', I just used to like going to dance classes for fitness and also like performing on stage, so saw it as a bit of fun and another string to my bow. It was all a bit naff really, and I'm going to be brutally honest about myself and say I thought it would make me sound sexier to men. From what I saw of it some of the women going were young like me and thinking it would make them a coolgirl, others were wanting to reconnect with sexiness after having a baby/putting on weight/getting older etc and wanted to feel more confident and have a touch of glamour in their lives away from drudgery, as well as it being a way to make new friends. In that sense it felt fairly harmless, but yes, if a bloke found out I was doing burlesque classes they'd immediately say 'do some burlesque for us then' [boak] and that's all they'd want to talk about in the following conversation. I can see how pole involves acrobatic skills and would be a good workout, but I find it really depressing due to the young women I know who do this, who seem to be doing it for the same reasons I did burlesque. Middle class girls with low self-esteem and self-respect wanting to appear edgy and rebellious by dipping their toes in the water of 'sex work' in the safest way possible whilst inadvertently reinforcing the idea that women are just objects to be bought and sold, but never feeling the brunt of it because they're socially and economically protected. These are well-educated women in their twenties. Not saying all people doing pole fitness are like this, but it exists.

[EmbarrassingHadrosaurus]

It can be remarkable as a sport and the elite in the sport are strong and fit.

World Pole Sports Championship 2019 - Parapole PPD4- Andrew Gregory - Great Britain

[LadyOfTheSith]

Beautiful artform*.

[LadyOfTheSith]

Here is performance from 2016 World Pole Dance Fitness Championship as example that it is beautiful artistic art.

[EmbarrassingHadrosaurus]

Zombie thread.

I'd agree that the UK has some leading men and women in World Championships and will probably put up a good squad for the Olympics.

We also have a leading pole fitness Para class World Champion (can't find a film of that but there is a documentary about him).

www.timeout.com/london/things-to-do/this-londoner-is-an-amputee-pole-champion

This is a routine by him.

[Notoironing]

I wonder if those posters saying that pole dancing was invented for the sex industry have any idea about the history of pole dancing?
it has its origins way back in history and is a highly skilled and athletic art form. It’s the nightclub version which is a modern hijacked version.
burlesque is totally different.

[LadyOfTheSith]

And most of the Judges at this competitions/championships are women that are world/European champions and that are qualified to judge the performance for athletics choreography and artistic aspect of the tricks some of them take months or up to year to learn

[LadyOfTheSith]

Pole Dance Fitness is part of Olympic Games now so it's officially recognised as a sport discipline and have championships around the world with amazing performances and talented athletic men and women

[hellomarmalade]

I always thought pole dancing sounded really fun . It's not fair that drunken perverts got their first.

[DontGiveAwayTheHomeworld]

I think pole fitness would be more akin to circus stuff - I mean, I can imagine similar things being done with ribbons, or a hanging hoop (I've actually seen the hoop stuff, it's incredible!) In that context, I don't see anything wrong with it. It would probably be quite fun, although I don't dare try it due to my distinct lack of coordination.

Pole dancing for the titillation of men is just wrong though.

[Greythorne]

polerbear
Do you even know what thread you have posted on? Do you know what FWR stands for?

[ReadyToPopAndFresh]

Interesting first post Polerbear, however if you are trying to drum up business the feminism section is probably not your best bet.

[namechangeguy]

Did the OP ever come back? Did she ever ask the highly intelligent, highly qualified academics what their motivations were? Or are people just happy to read into it whatever suits their agenda?

[GetAllTheThings]

Very interesting talk Gigabot

Mumsnet gets mentioned about three minutes in !

[Gigabot9k]

Dr Brooke Magnanti shows that the statistics for an increase of sexual violence around lapdancing clubs are distorted.

[Nigglenaggle]

*male dammit!

[Nigglenaggle]

I just see make dominated language as historic - lots of our language has rather odd/different origins.

[Nigglenaggle]

Hehe you may use my name as a pun if you wish :P

[DameMargotFountain]

it's just one of MY niggles (no pun intended) that shows how entrenched we have become in male-dominated language

[Nigglenaggle]

Sorry for the use of guy. It genuinely never crossed my mind anyone would be offended by it.... but the same goes for many of the things put forward in the feminism section! I just feel I must be living in a different world (although in fairness may be in a different country to some of you) when I read some posts.

[AnyFuckingDude]

My BP is greatly helped by forming succinctly descriptive replies. Thanks for your concern about my health though, it's much appreciated.

[DameMargotFountain]

'guys'

i'm not a guy, and have a really good idea that many of the feminists here aren't either

[Nigglenaggle]

Gees though guys, read the talk guidelines.... waste of time typing posts no-one will read.... and its probably not helping your blood pressure.