Pole dancing exercise classes

[BadgerBumBag]

A friend is organising a group pole dancing class as a fun night out. I have reservations. I won't lie, most of my reluctance is due to being rather larger and less fit than the others, but I can't help feeling uncomfortable with the whole idea.

Am I being daft or does gyrating round a pole as exercise seem ok to you?

sorry pleaser

Trucks, that was a beautiful, eloquent and imaginative post.

Thanks LtEve. :)
You might enjoy this beautiful dance

That is utterly stunning. Its such a shame that people have stupid, unsubstantiated misconceptions of something that takes so much skill and grace.

Very

trucks you speak very persuasively about it, makes me want to try

• it (dropped the last word of my post somewhere)

MummyOfIsla, it's possible to realise that something requires skill and grace and still be troubled by the wider context.

Like bullfighting, or eating foie gras, or something.

that's funny, I thought of bull fighting on horseback when I read 'skill and grace'

Hmm, I'd never kill and animal for fun or 'extra special' pate. Pole Dance or Pole Fitness however....

Trucks that is beautiful. My colleague isn't as good as that, but she is pretty amazing. I'd love to be that graceful.

I know, LtEve, it's not a perfect analogy but I was thinking that some things can be both skillful (or tasty) and damaging - it's not that the second precludes the first.

That is true Doctrine but at the same time how can someone honestly say that what is done in strip clubs (imo doesn't deserve the term pole dancing) and what has been shown here are one and the same. I'm not troubled by the wider context because what the woman in that video (as an example) is doing is dancing (it just happens to be around a pole) and so (imo) should have no link to stripping.

I understand your argument, MummyOf, But I don't agree with it. Is pole dancing popular as a set if classes you can take because of the inspiration of athletic pole dancers or because of the link with stripping? I think the latter.

I think its popular because its a damn hard work out, and its fun.

I think doing it well takes incredible dedication and skills (not to mention strength). I've done a few pole lessons and I am strong woman (I go to the gym regularly to pick up heavy objects and put them back down again), but it's a very particular type of strength endurance and it's tough!

OP that's probably not what you'll get on your night out. It'll probably be harmless in itself, but especially if drinks involved there will probably be more gyrating and less of the stuff that takes practice and / or is inadvisable after a couple of glasses of wine. Why not ask about the class? Does the teacher have a website? If it's a pole fitness class you might love it. If the website is all stripper heels and fluffy pink / red background, it might not be ideal (wouldn't be my thing either).

Incidentally, although this is one of the more balanced reads on this board as a thread, can I say I hate it when the whole 'empowerfulising' thing is trotted out. As a woman, that says to me 'I think the person making this argument is an air headed, bimbo, tool of the patriarchy who cannot spell' Now of course that me be what the poster thinks, but I'm not sure it'll get anyone round to your way of thinking from a feminist perspective.

FWIW, I can see that pole can be problematic, given its origins.

Don't knock it till you've tried it . There's something to be said for a work-out that is also fun- it's really motivating. I can't get excited about running aimlessly on a treadmill, but there's something really exhilarating about swinging about like a monkey in time to dance music! Plus the feeling of every muscle being pushed to the limit the next day is reassurance that it is a good workout. To me it was nothing to do with being 'sexy,'- I was learning new moves and new ways to push myself (it's fab for upper body/ core strength) in a room full of women whilst wearing cycling shorts. It never felt to me as an access course to stripping

*'Don't knock it till you've tried it

Seriously? Does that apply to all activities? Stripping? Prostitution? Gang-bangs? Illegal drugs?'*

What are you on about? Because I was referring to pole dancing. I didn't even read the rest of your post because that statement was so fucking stupid.

That's the last time I post on a feminism thread. I thought feminism was about equality and having the choice to do things without fear of gender-based judgement and assumptions, perhaps I'm wrong there. I'm such a disappointment to woman-kind because I happen to like using a vertical bar to exercise. But then maybe I don't know my own mind, maybe deep down I'm doing it to arouse other men, even though no man has seen me pole dance

Tracy, surely Red's point was clear that plenty of things can be looked at critically without having to try them.

I revert to my previous example of bullfighting. I can imagine it's exhilarating to watch, the jeopardy of the matador - but I don't intend to ever try it because of the negatives.

Tracy, it's not about why you (or anyone) personally are doing it, it's about what the popularisation of pole dancing classes means in the wider culture - there is a strong link to stripping even if there are also links to gymnastics and dancing. Does it normalise stripping more if pole dancing classes are available for a laugh?

TheDoctrineOfWho how does pole dancing in an exercise context have anything to do with stripping? Because noone at my classes had their breasts out.

tracy if that's how you deal with discussion, cheerio then. "Don't knock it till you've tried it" is a fucking stupid statement in the context of any analysis.

Posy that's not what I'm thinking when I use "empowerfulising". For me, I'm usually trying not to make the point that the thing being discussed is not empowering or at least raising the question of where is this power or empowerment.

I noted further up that I can see why Trucks finds it empowering to feel strong. There is power in strength but there is not power in every choice a woman makes. Along these lines:

www.theonion.com/articles/women-now-empowered-by-everything-a-woman-does,1398/

Florafox cheerio. Just off for a cheeky wee gangbang, a line of coke and a swing round my pole. Because that's how I roll.

Tracy, I explained that pole dancing has strong links to stripping. Not in your class, but in society.

If you overheard a conversation about em watching pole dancing, which one do you think it would probably be?

You could fight that by trying to strengthen the links to gymnastics and pole dancing and hope that "wins" against the stripping link. Or you could fight it by saying "this form of exercise class is too closely linked with stripping by culture and therefore I'm not going to support it."

MummyOfIsla upthread was of the former view, and maybe you are too; I'm of the latter.

Or perhaps you don't want to fight the link at all, you're not fussed about it, I dunno.