A political commentary:

 

Every month, I sit and wonder what will I come up with next month? Something always seems to come my way to inspire me and this time it was an article written to denounce pole dancing.

 

A columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times wrote a scathing article about the image of women today who feel that they "need" to entertain men with pole dancing and compared it to strippers and nude photographs of young teens on the internet.

Why is it that feminists who claim on one hand that women should be sexually empowered are shunning women who choose to do something that may or may not be sexual in nature? Why does "entertaining" a man, or anyone you care for, make a woman sexually exploited?

 

This is the common response by both men and women who seem to be threatened by the concept of pole dancing be it for fitness or for fun. They refer to nudity, drugs, humping, straddling and even licking poles! Somehow they have the impression that overbearing men force women into these classes and the women are subjugated into believing that this is the only way to "catch" or "keep" a man.

 

I wonder what they think of the students I've had who are lesbians and transvestites? I wonder what they think of the students who have never danced for anyone else, just for themselves? I wonder what they would think if they stood outside our doors and heard the laugher and cheers that spill out from within the classroom?

 

The feminist movement is supposed to be about freedom, about women having choices and being independent. It is about equality - however it seems that women should not equally share a healthy sex drive. It seems that those opposed to a woman exploring her own sexuality are actually trying to control women through propaganda and guilt in the belief that you cannot possibly be in control of yourself or your sexuality if you take a pole or other form of exotic dance class. Isn't that in fact exploitation itself?

Why is it wrong for a woman to enjoy sharing her sensuality - should she choose to do so? Claiming that a woman who chooses to pole dance is emulating a stripper is no different than saying that a woman who chooses to make love is emulating a prostitute.

 

Women who take any form of exotic dance class are in fact making a choice. They choose when and if they wish to share it with someone else. They choose if they wish it to be sensual or fitness or artistic based. And sometimes they even choose to use it to "entertain" someone - and nothing can be more empowering than the freedom of choice.

 

Let me close with one of my favorite endorsements sent to me after a student took her first class:

" I FEEL GREEEATTTTT! If I can feel like I did leaving class last night and find a way to hold on to that feeling, I am going to be a gale force to be reckoned with by the universe. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU."