BBC article on pole-dancing

[Army Of Me]

Different viewpoints in the article and in the comments afterwards - I added a comment with a fake name and email but it has not yet been published.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4939752.stm

[sunnysmiles]

somedays I just want to take a break from the world.... like a long break. I don't think I can read constant stream of gunk spewing from these people's minds. The opinions are horrendous.


Here's mine:
---------------------------------------------------

Hurrah! you can now strip your way to the top. I think from now on job interviews for female applicants should be based on how women look. All this "I feel sexy and empowered" stuff should have a long term consequence, no? Is anyone feeling a 'sexy' new British PM? Women need to have some benefits for all this hard work and 'bruises'! Someone mentioned this should be an olympic sport, we should have two separate olympic spots - one for women and one for men. Women should just get with the program and stop wanting to weight-lift and long-distance run - because truth be told, all the toning and upper and lower body work outs you need, can be gained by putting your vagina on display for men! Huh, if we only knew!

I remember taking boxing lessons at a women's only boxing gym a few years back, the gym started in 1960, by a man who wanted to help abused women feel empowered. Someone should tell that guy - that his concept was wrong, he should have just told those women to go back to their abusive husbands, install a pole in their bedroom and perform a pole dance for them, not only would they save their marriages - they could tell their neighbours they got their bruises from pole-dancing, thus saving the embarassment of talking about thier physical abuse. Damn feminists, don't know what real physical empowerment is!

[manxome]

If it's such a great workout for the men, then are they wearing 2" heels, too?

[Army Of Me]

It's national angry day today for me - what with the thread about the porn use in britain and the mis-leading stats presentation. Every day is national angry day actually for me, so let's call today national "kick a man in the bollocks just for fun" day. At least one.

And you know what? I hope there are plenty of lurking pro-porn men reading this cuz I hate you.

Tying in with the porn-stats discussion, as I said, I sent off a reply to the poledancing article, but as it was not in keeping with the pro-male pro-porn view that newspapers support, it probably won't be published, as it was probably too informed for them and would not help to brainwash more women. I wish I'd copied the thing I wrote to keep but I forgot.

Sorry sunny, forgot to say, your letter, as usual, is dryly and sarcastically driving the point home very well. Excellent. (corrected typo- funny how people make so many mistakes when FICKING ANGRY!)

[annared]

Just wrote to the BBC about this one. I didn't save it but it went something like this...

It is 2006? yes?
How can a woman pole dancing aka dick dancing be seen as anything but pandering to the already over inflated male ego?
Mmm yes you do need to get a good view of a vagina to achieve that "total upper body" workout.
Or is more like a "total lower arm" workout.

How many layers of denial (not a river in Egypt) need to be stripped away to view pole dancing as not OK
Answers on a post card please.

OK so its a bit crude and flippent but so is fucking pole dancing

[sam]

Or is more like a "total lower arm" workout.

[MaddyH]

This is what I sent:

If this class were established by women who wanted to dance in their nighty and 2-4 inch heels, just for fun and exercise, it would be fine. The fact is that if this were truly about exercise and seizing power for women – it would be done from a woman’s prospective… not to entice sexually, for a man’s sexual pleasure. Women would be using the pole dancing in a different way, it would not be slow and seductive – why would a woman seize power for themselves by being seductive and sexy. Are we gaining power through seducing ourselves? For the other women in the class? No. This is for male pleasure – this is about a man’s needs and desires from women, not about a woman’s needs and desires for herself. The acrobatic nature of the dance, sure – but that is not what it is about; it is a class based on stripping and stripping is performing sexually for money.