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 :)

I agree Wilson. Rather than say it is wrong end of...I think people need to seperate the two issues. Like I said to AF I am hoping that by the time my son get to the age where he might realise pole has a seedy side he will just be conditioned to the fact that actually it is not seedy at all and can be used in a really positive way by both men and women.

Honestly, when I am hanging upside down or clinging on by my armpit he doesn't bat an eyelid, he is so used to it. It's a shame really that his view may be tainted by people trying to make it something it doesn't have to be.

AF - Mmmm, would rather have vanilla please :) Ta!

Wilson How can you have a discussion about pole dancing / fitness and not mention pole dancing clubs ?

There are a number of posters bringing this into a wider social context.

Circus skills are a better choice. Or Gymnastics.

Fact is, the pole is just a giant cock.

i think you could see it as a phallic symbol if you wanted to, and in some cases it certainly would be, but not in all cases, as has been said. Its very much taken off as a valid form of strength training, and there will be many women who both enjoy it for the skill, and pole training for fitness, both looks completely different from sex club pole dancing, and IS completely different, and in these cases, the pole is not a big phallus, its a gymnastic prop.

I dont think its doing women any favours to tell them that they cant do a certain form of fitness because of the fact that men might enjoy watching it if they got a chance, and i think its very over the top to suggest that pole fitness is supporting the sex industry.

I think im coming at this from a very different place, and im sorry you found me calling myself sex positive, insulting, but i do think both sexes make sexual displays to each other. Obviously if people only see women as sexual objects over and above everything else, thats very problematic, but to have fun with sexuality is ok too, and not letting any side down or being part of any problem

Interestingly my DH is an ex Ballet dancer and I often accompanied him to rehearsels and backstage. It couldn't have been a less sexual environ. These people are professionals and their bodies are regarded as highly tuned pieces of engineering- a tool or instrument so to speak.

Yes to the historical context. But nurses also endure a level of sexual scrutiny and importuning because of the historical origins of their profession. Doesn't mean it applies today though.

These people are professionals and their bodies are regarded as highly tuned pieces of engineering- a tool or instrument so to speak

The same could be said for some professional pole dancers to be honest and in their case they have two instruments so to speak, their bodies and also a chrome pole. There is no difference.......pole dancing and pole fitness is about as similar as ballet is to stripping to music.

strumpet..you are doing that classic thing that most of the "for" posters have done on this thread

you start off by saying "it's not sexual, no-no-no, no way, it's purely gymnastic"

then you start saying "but so what if it is ?"

Meaning that you know and accept on some level that it is derived from sexual display and objectification of women.

FWIW the thing with using such a clear back-and-white term as "positive" strongly implies that anyone that doesn't agree with you is negative. Since feminists are often silenced by being told that they hate men, hate sex and are ugly hairy trolls that no man would ever fancy so they are jealous of the young sexy things that get their tits out for the ladz...it is an insult in the context of this conversation.

exotic dancing..thats what I meant but couldnt think of the word. If pole dancing is compared to pole fitness then we need to compare ballet dancing or any kind of dancing to exotic dancing!

Professional Ballet Dancers do not start ballet 'to get fit'.......

and your point to that being...............

AnyFucker
People who think a bit more widely about how our youngsters are being influenced by the normalising and mainstreaming of sexual objectification of women are not "sex negative" and I take exception to that inference.

+1
Just let's not have blinkers on and suggest it's all about porn/lapdancing/poledancing/prostitution because it's far more insidious than that.

I'm convinced there's more sex in advertising than there ever used to be (see the old "girly" calendars from engineering firms less and less - but look at TV/fashion mags. Ick).

I did say so what if it is, because as i ALSO said, there are two different forms of pole exercise. One is the very disciplined strength training gymnastic type sport, and one is erotic pole dancing, which bear no more similarity to each other, than marathon runners share with the benny hill girls bouncing chasing after him in their bikinis.

I also said that so what if it is, because I happen to not have much of a problem with the whole burlesquey poledancy thing as a performance either, whilst accepting that they are hugely sexual

My god, did you bang your head on that pole Betty?

I'd like to be "sex positive" and live in a world where erotica and sexy dancing could be enjoyed or ignored as the fancy strikes, but in the context of today's world I can't, there is too much nastiness, exploitation and oppression.

I struggle with this stuff as I started as what you call a 'fun fem' and my tastes are to the shoe shopping cocktail sipping side of things, on the whole, however I dislike intensely how sexualised UK culture and media is and despair at the global plight of women.

Going way off topic sorry!

No Mig but think I will go and do that in a minute. I am merely pointing out that if people say pole fitness is bad because people confuse it with seedy pole dancing then surely ballet dance is bad in case it normalises exotic dancing.....my poor wee brain cannot see the difference!

The fact that I started poling to get fit and gain some strength is irrelevant surely....I don't see what that has to do with anything. :)

Alan, you can still have "fun" and object to whatever you want to. You can even like sex. Whoonoo ?

Ballet dancing has nothing to do with 'exotic' dancing and does not normalise it. cannot truly see how anybody would or could confuse the two. Sadly ballet is often seen as more elitist than it is. Not the case surely with the more 'exotic' forms of dance?

The discipline of ballet has fitness as part, process and necessity not as a raison d'etre. I feel safe in stating that asking young people at the White Lodge and other schools why they are there would rarely elicit 'getting fit' as the reason or the thing that drove them to pursue it in the first place.

Ballet dancing has nothing to do with 'exotic' dancing and does not normalise it

This is exactly how I see pole fitness.

you can still have "fun" and object to whatever you want to. You can even like sex. Whoonoo ?

AF - Woohoo indeed. On that note I shall take my cupcake and toddle out of this debate as I am just going round in circle. Shall leave you lovely ladies to it :)

I suspect that most men watching that link of the women in her pole show would be impressed at the skill, rather than finding it erotic.

If someone couldnt see the HUGE difference between
www.metacafe.com/watch/8941155/best_pole_dance_ever/?noFBRedirect=1#=

and this

then I think thats quite dismissive of something somebody has obviously trained bloody hard for and has a passion for. Especially the ones who said well why cant she just do pilates or something?

Yes she may look stereotypically feminine, and I think her choice to look like that may make some people think that everything she does is for the male gaze, but there comes a point, where i feel a bit like there is a certain faction of the feminist movement that wants to restrict womens choices even more than the patriarchy does.

Me saying that I am a sex positive feminist, doesnt mean I am calling YOU anything.

Bye Betty. it is always good to have good natured sparring.

Yes, it does.

Yeah I know, and I do! But I seem to fall between two stools as it were - some of my friends think I am a humourless auld bag who over thinks things and some of them think I am a bit of a lightweight and despair because I have bikini waxes.

I can't reconcile it myself, part of me wishes I could have my consciousness lowered and not realise about horrid stuff and part of me thinks I am a disgrace and should stop wearing makeup etc. it's hard!

I went to a pole fitness class with some friends as a Christmas girls night out a couple of years ago, it gave me a new respect for anyone who can lift there bodyweight round a pole and hang upside down,
I looked sexy as hell like a walrus shinning up a drain pipe.

Both my friends ended up buying poles and using them to work out and in doing so lost weight and toned up, as yet neither have taken it up as a job or started selling their bodies, both still have good jobs and are useful members of the community.