Pole Dancers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUTYVN-_FCA

"Pole Dancing as Performance Art".

When anyone mentions "Pole Dancers", we immediately think of darkly lit clubs in London's "So Ho".

 These women took the place of lap dancers and podium dancers of the 1960's. It is fair to say that most of these girls were making a living from the only options that were available to them.

 Of course there were some that worked in this arena because they chose to, and a lot of women today do the same but the difference is that they do have a choice.

 Sometimes it is still seen as an easy way to earn money. But in the 2000's this has moved to a stage of a different kind they are now also seen as performers, alongside female bodybuilders in competitions.

By the 1970's the women's feminist movement of the previous decade had taken hold and into the 1980's we were openly educating young women that they were being exploited by men and the media.

 The Samantha Fox "Page Three" models were in decline and women were stepping out of this market place.

But  suddenly the has been a complete "U" turn and women are openly putting themselves back into the focus of the voyeur.

In Natasha Walters book  "Living Dolls", she investigates this controversy.

In a paragraph from her book she questions this movement:

"This association of femininity and sexiness starts early: while hardly new for women to be sexy. it's new that even childhood playthings should look sexy. Although feminists in the 1970's deplored Barbie's tiny waist, large breasts and perfect features, she could be marketed as a pilot, doctor, or an astronaut, with accessories to match her roles.

Bratz dolls, who recently toppled Barbie from her throne as the best selling fashion doll, were created with a wardrobe for clubbing and shopping, dressed in fishnet and feathers, crop tops and mini skirts, with heavily painted faces that look as if they have been created by Jordan's make-up artist."

Gone are the educated guides of feminist mothers from the earlier decade of encouraging their daughters that they can be and achieve the same aspirations as boys and become architects, financiers and politicians. Jordan actually became the new role model for girls young women

Instead we have women that feel that they are liberated to exercise their own right to empowerment by using their sexuality as a way of expressing themselves."

She then goes onto talk about the fascination with the upward trend towards pole dancing.

"Similarly, the fashion for pole dancing classes is talked about as if it were liberating women. The website for Pole Hen Weekends states that, 'Pole dancing classes are all about freeing yourself from the restrictions imposed on you in your everyday life and empowering yourself. Even occupations such as lap dancing and prostitution are often surrounded by this quasi-feminist rhetoric."

This fashion for pole dancing is talked about as if this is part of the liberation of women, this is empowering them to take control of their own identity. They are certainly in the realms of athletes in their skill and strength. And realistically you couldn't  perform on a steel pole in a jogging suit. But there are obvious visuals that are read by the males brain that are going to attract ideas of sexuality aimed at them?

Natasha Walter quotes in her book that in an interview with an ex-editor of a "Lads" magazine he said to her, "it's the women who are driving this change."

I would like to ask people from a mixed background and gender What their comments and views are? I have tried not to give my definite stand point so as not to influence the debate. Just some areas of discussion.

How do you describe your Gender?

What is the main attribute that gives you that gender role?

Do you feel totally comfortable with your gender role?

How do you see the sexualisation of Women by men?

How do you see the sexualisation of men by women?

1) Do you feel comfortable in a situation with a woman that is wearing nothing but a thong and bra? YES/NO

2) Do you feel comfortable in a situation with a man that is wearing nothing but a thong? YES/NO

Did your parents influence your childhood by:

3) The way you were dressed? YES/NO

4)The colours that dominated your clothes room? YES/NO

5) The toys you played with? YES/NO

6) And later by their expectations of your place in society- work? YES/NO

Please add any comments that you would like to make about the subject that you feel relevant. 

Photographer Robert Maplethorpe.