It's the 'Showgirls' home game

March 7, 2004 8:11 AM

Pole dancing? It's the new Yoga. Just ask the people behind PoleTricks 101: "Women all around the country are finding out that pole dancing is a sexy way to entertain your man (or men!) Not only that, it's good exercise and just plain fun. PoleTricks 101 is dedicated to bring you the training, the equipment, and the satisfaction of dancing with the sexiest of all props... the pole!" Just $549.00... [via linkdump]
posted by feelinglistless (14 comments total)

Did I need to say that it was not safe for work based on the title? Not sure now. Oh.
posted by feelinglistless at 8:18 AM on March 7, 2004

And for the pole dancer on the go...

(to be on the safe side, I'd say NSFW.)
posted by Cyrano at 9:56 AM on March 7, 2004

This pole dancing craze seems to have attracted exactly none of my female acquiantances or their friends, maybe they not the target market? Maybe it is the new salsacise?

Do gay men like to see men pole dancing?

I ask partly because the local pole dancing for fitness group excludes men.
posted by asok at 10:07 AM on March 7, 2004

Angelina Jolie has a pole. Read about her thoughts on it.

Dear. Oh, dear.
posted by anathema at 10:41 AM on March 7, 2004

I've noticed this meme going around. I gotta admit, it at least looks really difficult and it's bound to be aerobic.

I'm interested in the female reactions. Seems like one of the best splittings of the 'is it liberation or is it exploitation' issue yet.
posted by Leonard at 11:00 AM on March 7, 2004

Oh my. Cruel shoes and pole dancing on the same day. I wonder what's the next trend in fetishized female male-pleasing behavior/modifications.......ritual clitorectomies? Or - more to the point - what behaviors and techniques could migrate next from the porn industry?
posted by troutfishing at 11:31 AM on March 7, 2004

troutfishing: Is there trade in clitorectomizing porn? No, wait, I don't want to know.
posted by shagoth at 11:56 AM on March 7, 2004

Let me be the first (of many) to say:
I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole.

This ancient cliche' is dediated to all the women who wouldn't touch a man without a ten-foot pole.
posted by wendell at 12:05 PM on March 7, 2004

Ya know, maybe it's because I spent most of my college years as a bartender in a topless joint...so perhaps I'm immune to the "bad girl" lure of "pole aerobics", but I have to say that I think it's a quite silly fad.

You'd have to be in pretty good shape to do any of it just to start. It requires a fairly serious amount of upper body strength and an enormous amount of extension and stretching ability. All of the really good strippers...oh, excuse me, "dancers" that I've known worked out like fiends at the gym to be able to do the pole tricks they did.

There are any number of ways to get better exercise with lower risk than pole dancing...but I'm guessing most guys don't get hot when they think about their lady on a treadmill...
posted by dejah420 at 4:09 PM on March 7, 2004

I recall seeing a pole-dancing segment on Oprah when I was home with the flu a few months ago. Take that to mean what you will.
posted by rhapsodie at 8:30 PM on March 7, 2004

Having worked some years as a topless person in a topless joint, I can tell you that dejah420 is spot on about the facts that you have to be in really good shape to do even the easiest of these tricks, and there are MUCH safer ways to get in shape. Taking a fall is actually the least of your worries ... it puts a lot of stress on muscles and joints, so the possibility of injury to them is a little high for the average person (meaning someone who doesn't spend a great deal of time working out at the gym).

I hope these people are teaching them rule one: always wipe down the pole before use for best traction. You never know when some nitwit with baby oil on their hands might have touched it.
posted by Orb at 9:33 PM on March 7, 2004

One would hope you wouldn't have random nitwits coming into your home and touching your pole :)
posted by Mitheral at 10:06 AM on March 8, 2004

with baby oil!
posted by dabitch at 11:01 AM on March 8, 2004

When people start installing poles in their bedrooms, I can only imagine what sorts of "things" might get on it. Eeeew! :D

Mostly though I was thinking about the ones they use in class.
posted by Orb at 11:53 AM on March 8, 2004