Quote:
Originally Posted by RetroRabbit
I wish gyms had them for practicing similar to having treadmills or weights.
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I'll preface this by saying that I consider myself a liberal feminist who strongly believes that women should own their sexuality.
That said, the stigma of pole dancing is not going anywhere. It is so deeply entrenched in the minds of people that dancing on poles is something that a woman does to earn money by exploiting her sexuality for the pleasure of men. There is a big difference between acrobatics, dance, and gymnastics. Gymnastics is an olympic sport, it is done to show the strength of a human body, there is nothing sexual about it while pole dancing from what I've seen of those classes they teach you how to be sexy and flirt. I just can't separate it from the lecherous stigma it has acquired if I tried.
I take dance lessons, hip hop, african dance and zumba. There are some sexy moves but I don't have the same associations with it. Gymnastics is something I associate with teeny tiny girls that don't exhibit a hint of sexuality and are the physical opposites of pole dancers. Acrobatics I associate with grace, mystery and danger.
Quite ironically (and hippocritically I' sure) I view belly dancing as quite beautiful.