In Australia, many parents are disgusted by the fact that there are pole dancing classes for kids as young as seven years old. Meanwhile, the kids and the instructors who are in the pole dancing classes believe there's nothing wrong with it. Personally, I think it's brilliant!
I would sign up for one if it is available near my neighborhood. Pole dancing is just like other exercises such as yoga and tai chi. Pole dancers are healthy athletes too. How many people do you know that can swing their bodies around with elegance on a pole? I tried. It was hard. I couldn't even last 10 minutes on it. Yes, it was quite pathetic.
Many parents are furious about pole dancing class because the subject is often associated with strippers. The activity carries bad names in the adult industry. I am guessing parents anticipate kids who take pole dancing classes will eventually become pole dancers. Maybe even a prostitute?
Adults are the ones that have dirty minds for viewing it as a pornography. Shouldn't other kinds of dance be considered as pornography as well? I see teenagers dancing sexually at parties all the time (rubbing themselves against each other and more). No body ever said anything. Although parents teach their kids how bad sexual activities are, they do it, read it, and watch it too. Isn't it our jobs to teach these kids how to handle themselves better rather than to prevent them from doing it at all?
There should be more pole dancing classes. I hope that one day people will not look at pole dancing as something sexual and dirty. Instead, it should be considered as an activity with health benefits. Flexible guys should try it too. Girls, boys, women and men can do it. It should be fun.
Here's a short article:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/071008/139/6lo99.html
I'll give you the fact that it takes a very athletic person to do some of the "acrobatic" , ( and I use that term very losely) moves. I'll also give you that it could be considered a gymnastic event.
The sexual connotations that come with the moves may be too much to over look when it comes to introducing it to children. Our society is oversexed as it is anyway. When they start selling EVERTHING with sex, and then wonder why the teen pregnancy rate climbed, I think it was because things were being introduced to children too young. It was normalized in a way that was unhealthy.
What is the range that this class is being offered to??
Haha, I love your comment. What do you mean by range? Age range or price range? From what I know, (you can google this) average age ranges are between 12-70. I have no idea about the price. It should be a little bit expensive though since they stated on their websites they will provide clothes and stuff...lol
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If you think about Yoga and Tai Chi, you can use it in other contexts besides group exercise. The first is an actual religious practice (right?), and the second, I haven't researched its religious background, but for many it's a source of tranquility in a world full of stressors.
Dancing on the pole though... Away from the gym, I don't think it has any other use outside of... Arousing adults for money. (And yes, it can be argued that this might end in tranquility too, but let's not go there...)
Also, it would seem to me, like a 7-year-old who had fun at a stripping class --- cuz that's what it is --- would see these images on TV or in movies (because 7-year-olds can get their hands and eyes on anything these days, whether or not they should be watching it) and upon seeing this shady thing, would not feel scared or negative about that lifestyle.
I've only met one stripper, but she got high all the time, sometimes on some pretty scary substances, and could this be because you have to lower your inhibitions that much to get up there and do your job every day? Would we really want to raise the potential of impressionable little kids ending up here?
I think the age range should be at least 18 and over, definitely not 12, and I hope by saying 7, you're joking. My logic would be that, by 18 or older, you've already developed your viewpoint of whether or not you find stripping adventourous for a momentary escape, or actually entertain it as an acceptable lifestyle. But before that, our minds are so prone to simply accept stuff as reasonable....
I wasn't joking when I said seven years old. It was stated on the news article, so I am guessing they have evidence to back up their finding. Not all strippers are bad. Maybe I am a little bit bias since my friend is in the industry. Perhaps the age range should be higher. But I see no problem if little kids want to climb a pole. I did it a lot when I was younger and it was fun for me although I didn't know there were symbolic meanings behind what I did. And no, I do not find stripping adventurous in anyway. I tend to run away when I see someone else naked. Pole dancing does not mean you have to take your clothes off, does it?
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The kind of dancing at parties is wrong and talked about, usually parents aren't at parties to have a problem with it.
I see no other reasons for pole dancing, I think if you're interested in it, there's something going on in your mind, it is related to stripping because that's where it came from.
What do you mean by your first sentence? So, why should parents have problems with pole dancing if they're not there to see it in the first place? lol I am interested in it, what do you assume is going in my mind? I thought pole dancing came from other arts performance like the ones you see in circus. That's where I first acknowledged it. It's art and I think it's very elegance when I see performers do it in theaters and such.
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They have a problem with it, atleast any good parent I know of, if they don't say anything about it, it's probably cause they don't know it's going on.
I guess it depends on the types of moves you're doing, if they're sexually based or simple elegance.
I think that perhaps it is being overlooked that this is a "pole dancing class" not a "stripping" class. The stripping goes on between the bits on the pole if I remember my single experience at a strip club correctly. One can easily dance on a pole without taking one's clothing off.
WE have cheer leading classes and gymnastics classes and ballet classes for children without reproach for negative social connotations. And that's what they are, negative SOCIAL connotations. They aren't negative denotations, only stigma attached and perpetuated by adults who can't stop thinking about strippers long enough to differentiate between a pole dancing class and a strip joint. Believe me, watching gymnasts can be just as, um..., engaging as watching a stripper.
People need to make the distinction between certain activities when carried out by children and adults. Dancing on a pole does not mean stripping and is no more sexually suggestive than ballet. Your daughter in a one piece bathing suit as a 10 year old and the same daughter ten years down the line are going to elicit completely different reactions because I can stop myself from thinking about sex when I see a ten year old. This doesn't generally hold true of twenty-year-olds.
It is not perverted or wrong for a 12 year old to dance on a pole. It is perverted and wrong for you to be so focused on expunging sex from the world that you see it everywhere. Pole dancing isn't stripping, it's pole dancing. They are two separate activities.
I say bravo, keep our kids in shape with something fun.
Res ipsa loquitur.
memento mori, mahalo.
"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real-estate above principals."
Sarcastic-Yay for the support of pedophiles!
But seriously, I find this disturbing. Yoga is a religious practice with obvious physical benefits; tai chi is much the same.
I have no prejudice against exotic dancers- if you are old enough to make that decision, go ahead. But at 7 years old, NO child can make those sorts of decisions. I'm saying that children should be "protected" from anything even vaguely sexual, but I think that teaching these sorts of behaviors will produce negative results in the long-run. Of course, I also find "sports" such as cheerleading to be rather similar.
I agree with many of the people here... why would pole dancing be considered sexual but gymnastics are not? And what about belly dancing? I've seen the cutest 3-7 year olds perform belly dancing routines and they are in no way sexual.
When you google "pole dancing," try to not include "stripper" in the search. I can imagine pole dancing is very good for the body and the mind. As is belly dancing, and Tai Chi.
I take a yoga class-- and you could say some of the positions are very sexual... but no one stops 7 year olds from watching or partaking in yoga.
The only reason dancing on a pole is dirty is because we make it that way. It's not like anybody in these classes is humping the pole... they are using it for acrobatics and gymastics.
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