A pole dancing class for toddlers offered at a dance studio in England is being attacked by critics who say it's "promoting sexually precocious behavior" in young kids. But I don't get what everyone is so worked up about. Isn't climbing up and down and around a stripper pole just another form of exercise? And aren't we being told every day to make sure our kids exercise so they can be healthy?
It sounds to me like maybe these whiny, fun-hating complainers need to get their head out of the gutter.
When it comes to pole dancing, I tend to agree with the dance studio, which defends its toddler pole dancing class thusly:
... a great way to help your children to use their bodies, move, balance and be free in a fun environment.
I also found this completely innocent description of the activity (direct from Wikipedia): "This form of exercise increases core and general body strength by using the body itself as resistance, while toning the body as a whole." And, stripper professionals are even trying to make pole dancing an Olympic sport. Are you going to tell me that we're trying to prevent children as young as 3 from participating in a "sport"?
At the end of the day -- regardless of the fact that pole dancing has, first and foremost, sexual connotations -- it's just a pole. And for the people who insist on eroticizing it and describing the toddlers pole dancing class as little girls "sliding down the pole with their legs open in a V-shape" -- well, they just sound like sickos to me. If we let them have their way, the next thing you know they'll ban the hula hoop for being "too sexy."
Do you think toddlers sliding down a stripper pole is totally innocent?
*This post was written in a satirical spirit.
Image via brh_images/Flickr
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Comments 17
god the pictures on that site make me want to hurl. that's so sad.
I think it would depend on the moves. Anything where the pelvis is thrust against a pole and the head thrown back or similar... hell to the no! But if they were cleaner moves that weren't suggestive (which is possible, i have seen it) then i might consider it. but probably not.
I agree with Amy; those photos are heartbreaking.
According to the article, the same class is marketed to adult women as "sexy." Yet the person facilitating these classes defends them by saying, "There's nothing sexual about it."
Mm hmm. When I ever meet a big, burly construction-working man who takes up pole-dancing for the "core-strengthening benefits" it provides, and has no qualms about inviting his buddies to join, maybe I'll think about reconsidering my opinion. As of today, there are no words for how much this makes me want to vomit directly on that horrible woman's shirt.
Peoples' lack of judgment sometimes absolutely baffles me.
Okay, it could be innocent if it was a mother daughter exercise class and it wasn't all about the pole. I do know it IS great exercise but there are erotic tendencies to it. I guess it would depend on how they're doing it, who is teaching the class, what they are wearing, what they are listening too and if it's all about the pole. Would my daughter go? No. Do I think it could help some kids lose weight? yes. idk. It doesn't have to be about sex.. we all slid down the fire man pole at the fire house. No one thought.. "OMG that was sexy" It depends on the moves..
Those first pictures don't look innocent to me! My daughter would not be attending.
the words stripper pole and toddler, should not go together. ever.
xoRaychlXo I totally agree with you. Those words should NOT be associated ever. And yet in the original article the writer chose to associate them. They are certainly not associated in the Little Spinners classes.
SicTransitGlori the pictures were taken secretly with a hidden camera to PROOVE a point that the classes were sexualised by someone who was writing an article ABOUT the classes being sexualised before they even attended the class in the first place. This photographer was sent with their hidden camera with the instructions to make this article inflammatory.
Its the article writers and the photographer, and not the subject matter who are to blame for the pictures not looking 'innocent' .
But think for a second, lots of people see these pictures and these classes as being TOTALLY innocent.
I would suggest that how the pictures are viewed is more to do with what is in the heart of the viewer and NOT whats in the pictures!
Absolutely disgusting and wrong!!