Paper Title
Keeping Fit in Six Inch Heels: The Mainstreaming of Pole Dancing
Keywords
- pole dancing
- pole fitness
- erotic dance
- exotic performance
- strip club culture
- sex work representation
- dance exercise
- body confidence
- female empowerment
- fitness trend
- sexual expression
- feminine identity
- self-esteem
- sexualization of culture
- women and fitness
- empowering dance
- female sexuality
- performance art
- sensual movement
- dance culture
- gendered fitness
- femininity
- fitness industry
- alternative fitness
- erotic aesthetics
- sexual performance
- women empowerment
- female pleasure
- sexual liberation
- physical empowerment
- erotic performance
- exotic dance
- mainstream fitness
- female body
Article Type
Book review
Journal
Mainstreaming Sex
Research Impact Tools
Publication Info
| Pages: 165–182
Published On
April, 2009
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Abstract
‘Pole dancing is irrefutably linked with sex, which is why it has become a feature in exotic-dance clubs worldwide. And now it has infiltrated everyday life as an excellent form of exercise. Of course, the disapproving voices can still be heard, but we can silence them – by learning a great dance style, getting fit and having a real laugh!’ Pole dancing is a form of erotic performance composed of a series of spins, climbs and other moves around a vertical pole which is attached to floor and ceiling. It originated, according to many accounts, in Canadian strip clubs in the 1980s, but may have its roots in older cultural forms such as Maypole dancing, Mallakhamb – a type of yoga practised on a wooden pole (Moody, 2005), the circus and music hall. It is generally associated with sex work, particularly with strip clubs where a range of erotic performances such as striptease, table dancing and lap dancing are also performed, usually by women for men. However, it is increasingly visible in other settings such as cabaret and is beginning to be widely practised as a form of exercise for women. In the UK, pole exercise classes run in most large towns and cities. Music CDs for lap dancing, pole dancing and striptease routines are widely available. Rebecca Drury’s guide, Pole Dancing: The Naughty Girl’s Guide (2006), is typical of the way in which pole dancing is represented in this kind of merchandising, as ‘a raunchy way to both thrill your man and improve your fitness’. A ‘peekaboo’ pole-dancing kit is available through mainstream catalogues such as Littlewoods and there is a multitude of specialist pole websites advertising classes and selling items such as shoes and instructional DVDs. Here pole dancing is reclaimed as a means of staying in shape with ‘hidden benefits such as feeling sexy, building confidence and self-esteem and creating a supportive female-only environment’ (www.polestars.net). This chapter examines the current vogue for pole dancing as a popular mainstream exercise activity for women. Using data collected from participant observation at pole-dancing classes and interviews with teachers and students, it explores what the mainstreaming of this type of sexually explicit dance means for the women who practise it and how it fits into contemporary discourses around sexualization and femininity
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