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 have also been accused of invading a feminist space with my non-feminist ideas. I believe in equal rights for men and women. But I also feel we are about there. I don't think whether or not you like pole dancing is a feminist issue. And I certainly don't think anyone has the right to tell someone what they should or should not be legally doing with their spare time. I don't want to learn to pole dance personally, I am just standing up for peoples right to do it if they enjoy it. I also stand up for peoples right to not do it if they don't want to, but the two are not mutually exclusive.

Lastmango if you had met the women I have, you wouldn't have missed them ^^ As we are getting silly I don't think men normally storm womens pole dancing sessions and stop them from practicing? Men aren't frightened of lechery, but I know a few who have been might quite uncomfortable by it.

*made dammit!

This thread has become too pathetically dumb even for my current micro-brow (non)sensibilities.

I think it's a fair point about footballers and rugby players. They are objectified by some women. Women I know frequently link to photos of various sportsmen in states of undress with 'phwoooar' statements.

Some women find men at the peak of fitness, covered in mud and sweat very attractive. Does that really need to be qualified ?

Do those men ever worry the women will assault them GetAll ?

The question seemed to be about open lechery in regard to football and rugby players Ria not sexual assault.

The thread is about Pole Fitness, not sexual assault. That said I doubt women doing Pole Fitness classes worry about the men there sexually assaulting them.

If objectification began and ended with fancying people it wouldn't be such an issue. Men who like to wank over strangers in strip clubs often do worse things to women too. Women who leer at footballers don't usually rape or abuse men of their acquaintance. Does this really need spelling out?

Where is your evidence that men who 'wank over strangers in strip clubs' often do worse things ?

Sexual assaults on women go down around sexual entertainment venues.

Men who go to strip clubs often do worse to women? Really?

A small minority of men who go to strip clubs may well have assaulted women in one way or another, just as a small minority of men who don't go to strip clubs will have as well. I can't imagine for one second that the two things are mutually exclusive.

This thread has not been about sexual assault, it was whether it was 'ok' to go do pole fitness or pole dancing.

RiaOverTheRainbow men don't usually rape women of their acquaintance. Rapists do.

Eh, "sexual assaults on women go down around sex entertainment venues" where on earth did you get that from, getall?

Thisisaeuphemism Leeds University did a study, it was part of their findings, it's easy to find.

But as said above it's not what this thread is about. There was a humdinger of a thread about all this recently.

GetAll and Janey my point was the culture perpetuated by the sex industry leads directly to the dehumanising of women, which leads to the abuse of women. Surely this isn?t that radical an idea?

OMC that wasn?t what I meant, I apologise if that?s how it came across.

Ria

Well, with respect, you didn't make the point very well in your previous post, especially as this thread is about women who choose freely to pole dance, not men having a 'wank' over them.

Fair enough, I should have expressed myself better, but at the same time a lot of this thread has been about the sex industry, and whether or not pole fitness is related to that, and I don't think you can discuss that without acknowledging the 'customers'.

Anyway this has deviated from the OP, I just meant I think ogling footballers is in a different league to ogling pole dancers.

I've looked and can't find yet - unless you mean the study led by Belle du jour writer to refute a study in Camden which found the opposite.

I would be very interested in seeing how they managed to prove that the club was the reason for the decrease.

Thisisaeuphemism

The MN thread discussing it is here, and I think has a direct link to the report as well as other links that point to the same findings.

Leed University Sociology and Social Policy page is here

The MN thread predictably turns into a bit of a bun fight but there are plenty of links in there, including major criticisms of the Lilith report ( Camden ).

Cheers - will read it later

They seem to have de-activated the full report download ( because I'm sure it used to be on that page ) and put up a 'funky' bite-sized quote and graphics thing.