Test animals
Speaking of pole dancing, and the laughable claims that it’s not sexual at all oh no no no it’s about fitness – a few months ago a UK morning chat show had three little girls on to demonstrate their pole dancing skills. That’s attractive. If there’s disagreement over whether X activity is sexual or not, the thing to do is get some little girls to do it on tv, so that we can all decide.
Here’s ITV’s not at all sexual photo of one tiny dancer:
Obviously not sexual at all in any way. People who think otherwise are perverts.
The question posed by the show was “Are pole dancing lessons too sexual for children?”.
On the show, eight-year-old Tilly-May and Timea and 11-year-old Mia danced in skimpy outfits.
Naturally. Got doubts about whether porn is too sexual for children? Get some eight-year-old girls to perform on tv to test it out.
Psychologist Emma Kenny was also on the show, and she said: “I don’t doubt for one minute that the girls keep fit. And I also don’t doubt that the moves we’ve just seen are pole dancing rather than pole fitness.
“I think we are in a culture that sexualises children…and whatever way you look at it, it’s inextricably linked to sexualisation”.
Well she’s just one of those sex-negative people who want to spoil everyone’s fun.
After defending their outfits, instructor Zoe said: “I want to say it’s not sexualising children, and they should go and try it themselves and see the strength and stamina they need. It’s pole fitness not dancing.”
Missing the point, instructor Zoe. The fact that you need strength and stamina to do it does not mean it isn’t sexual. The two are independent of each other.
There’s two direct questions I’d like to ask the folks who insist it isn’t about sexualization:
1: Why not just stick with traditional acrobatics, which require pretty much yield the same benefits, while also teaching the girls about competition and sportsmanship?
2: Why are the girls in those outfits? There are ample non-sexy clothing that could be worn during this activity, if it’s not deliberately being done to emulate pole dancing specifically.
There are actually quite a few sexual acts that require strength and stamina, too.
My thoughts exactly!
I just marvel at the effrontery of someone who dresses little girls in sexy outfits and has them perform a very sexual form of dancing typically associated with strip clubs and then claims that there’s nothing sexual about it because it keeps them fit!
I also wonder what the Hell their parents are thinking.
Probably what the propaganda tells them to think – it’s empowering! It teaches them to love their bodies!! It builds confidence!!!
A friend of mine practices pole fitness in her room. She has shown in her FB signs of abrasion in her skin, very ugly bruises, sometimes bloody and swollen. Sustaining your body by the attrition of your skin against metal comes at a price. I wonder if those pole dancing children had ugly bruises too, maybe hidden by cosmetics.
Something has been bothering me about this argument on whether pole dancing is sexualised or not, and I think I finally figured out what it was. I may not be at my most coherent, it’s very late and I really should’ve gone to bed already. I’ll try my best, but apologise in advance for the potentially low quality of writing.
I first took up dancing about 15 years ago and never looked back. I started with one style, then drifted on to another, did workshops in yet more styles, all the while enjoying the act of physical self expression as well as improved fitness. I heavily dislike the word “empowering”, but I suppose that’s exactly how dancing has felt. I’ve gained familiarity and confidence with my body, I’ve moved from thinking about how it looks to thinking about what it can do. And these days it can do a lot. I’ve become strong, fit, flexible, all positive things, and my confidence has clearly grown. I suppose that is what many people mean by the word empowering and I would be surprised if pole dancing didn’t give all these benefits to its practitioners too. I wouldn’t personally know, I’ve only stuck to more traditional dancing.
However, I’ve always felt slightly uneasy about how “dancing” as a concept is conceived within a society. I’ve been very aware that it’s seen as a “girly” or “feminine” exercise, something socially appropriate for someone like myself, and that has bothered me. Secretly I’ve felt a bit like a sell out for enjoying something the patriarchy tells me I’m expected to enjoy, but I don’t think that was the only reason. It seems to me that part of my unease was because dancing itself is in my opinion sexualised. Everywhere I’ve been it’s mostly seen as a feminine activity, not just a woman’s activity, but a feminine one. All the dance schools and clubs I’ve attended have had trouble finding men willing to participate, the perceived unmanliness of the hobby clearly being a factor. Not to mention, the attributes dancing promotes are very much in line with what is considered conventionally attractive in a woman.
Being fit, lean and flexible are all positive physical attributes, but they are also all qualities that are sexualised in a (heterosexual) woman. I like being able to kick my leg up so high that it’s level with my forehead, but I can’t help being aware that things like that are also fetishised in the wider culture. Now, I’ve never partaken in the overtly sexual dance styles available these days, I’ve always preferred more traditional styles, yet I still feel dancing as a whole is sexualised. How could it not be, seeing as so much of it dovetails nicely with ideas of conventionally attractive femininity, besides being very heavily coded as a women’s activity?
So my question of the evening is, why would pole dancing be an exception? If someone like me feels unease about how her beloved hobby is sexualised in the wider culture, how can pole dancing be this perfectly pure and unsullied form of exercise some seem to wish to portray it as? And how can it be controversial to suggest otherwise?
I’m not going to stop dancing, but I’m perfectly comfortable in admitting to some ambiguity about how society views my sport of choice. I wish I lived in a world where I could say that I’m an amateur dancer without it conjuring up all sorts of seedy implications, but I don’t. My actions don’t exist in a vacuum, I can’t separate them from the greater cultural context as much as I might wish to. And I don’t understand why it’s controversial to suggest that this might be the case for pole dancing too.
Beautifully said.
Margot of the Mountains @6, that was indeed well said, and very good food for thought. I don’t see how anyone could honestly dispute your thesis.
I really appreciate having had a dance teacher who insisted that I express myself more with core movements and not be afraid to try ugliness and chaos as dance moves. I’d grown up watching ballet and tap and they influenced my style in improvisation a lot– but they tend to have very gendered differences in movement. By moving away from lyrical form and exploring percussive and chaotic moves, I got out of the rules I internalized.
That’s empowering. Freeing oneself of the notion that dance should be pretty– my final performance was a solo to the Eurhythmics tune Regrets, which I danced in a costume reminiscent of a broken straitjacket in a chaotic style.
Anyhow, what I was actually going to get to was that in my last year, we had a new dancer join the classes. She told us only near the end of the semester, that she’d been a stripper and didn’t think she could do *real* dance until she’d been in the class and we’d been so supportive of her. It was ridiculous. Of *course* she was far more fit than most of us amateurs, and she had good movement. She also had had her self-esteem ENTIRELY trampled from the time spent doing dance as a sex-substitute while men showed her zero respect. And she got just the right response for her revelation. We assured her she was a great dancer, that strip club dancing is still dancing, but that we were glad she’d gotten away from an environment that had made her feel bad about herself because she’s smart and talented and a good friend and deserves to be seen as a whole person, not just a body.
This weird, choosey-choice feminism can actually shame women for *not wanting* to be exploited, for wanting to say “no”. That is not helpful at all.
OK, I’m just going to bore you all by saying what you’ve all said already. You’ll just have to take my word for it that I’m probably typing *even more irately* than you. I assume that counts for something.
First, Margot: you really did put that beautifully. You put me in the position of completely agreeing with you but also having some things to think about. That is my favorite place to be so thanks!
Second: those… fucking…. uniforms…. the kids are wearing. WHY would there be uniforms in the first place? WHY wouldn’t they be just track suits or something if uniforms were for some completely unknown reason required? WHY would the uniforms be such obvious renditions of attire someone might imagine a stripper might wear? Because that’s the thing, isn’t it? They’re dressed as (someone’s idea of) pole dancers. Not as people who just happen to dance on and around poles. Not as people who are continuing the claimed non-sexual grand Chinese tradition of dancing on and around poles. They’re dressed as pole dancers as seen in current society as sexual performers. It’s the equivalent of “sexy doctor/nurse/computer scientist*” Halloween outfits. Not actually sexy – whatever that means – but displaying the lazy markers people expect of a social convention they should really think more about.
* For the record, the sexy computer scientist outfit is jeans, mostly. And a shirt, I expect. Sometimes shoes.
You also need to fall down in dismay at any suggestion that there is a sky.
It’s pole dancing lite.
The costumes? Gad! The ‘white shirt knotted to bare the waist’ thing seems to be part of the School Girl Fetish Uniform. To put 8 year olds into such gear is absolutely repulsive.
Also, the sheer expense and awkwardness of those damn’ poles speaks volumes. Investing so much in the construction and installation of this stuff. The way it would preclude using the space for any other purpose. There are SO many activities that could build strength and stamina. Why do parents, or women, or fer chrissake little girls, choose such an awkward, uncomfortable activity; even if the sleaze-factor wasn’t involved?
And where on earth did the ‘pole’ thing come from. I can’t imagine Gypsy Rose Lee playing at being a fireman? So this ‘art’ must be a fairly recent innovation.
John: Your question stirred some curiosity in me, and I went digging. Apparently, it was a result of the way circuses started to include burlesque-type reviews (traveling shows once were a primary source of “adult” [read: adult male] entertainment, since by the time local moralizers were aware of the situation and ready to protest, the show had moved on to the next venue). They already had acrobats and even legit dancers using poles set up in the center of a tent, so adding the elements was pretty simple. The popularity of those shows then led to the pole’s inclusion in non-traveling shows.
Little girls like to copy big girls; big girls like to copy women, and if women are seen as particularly sexy and desirable, that’s the women they want to copy. Why? Because they’ve been told that’s what they should aspire to – being sexy and attractive. It’s the one constant message women have received throughout my life – you aren’t sexy enough. Be sexier. Learn to flirt. See how gorgeous she is (usually a woman no better looking than me, but emphasizing what I deemphasized). It’s been burned into our brains. Even those of us who have valued and developed our intellect aren’t immune. It took me years to shrug and say, who cares whether I wear make up or not?