Poleskivvies has an amazing post on their blog about sensuality, pole dancing and stripping.  Despite being posted almost three years ago, this blog continues to get comments.  And of course, I continue to follow them. I thought this comment, posted a few days ago by a woman named Darci, was quite interesting.  For the full thread click here.  


"Let me preface this by saying that I'm a stripper, and have been for 13 years (started dancing when I was 18). I'm also a visual artist and make a fairly decent living doing that. I would never have been able to make it as an artist without stripping. Everything I learned there about running my own business (from managing my own schedule to taxes) has applied. To me stripping was and is an invaluable job and I would encourage anyone who wanted to try it. I also pole dance outside of the club, both at home and in a dance studio because it's fun and I love doing it.

As far as the pole dancing/stripping interface - I think that what people are eventually going to have to accept is that it's in a different place for every person. Some people pole dance for fitness without ever caring if it's sexy or not. Some people take up pole dancing to learn sexy moves. Some people just love dancing of any kind and embrace the sensuality of the way you can move on the pole as a part of the art form. Any of those people could also be a stripper.

I've see a lot of pole dancing, both in and out of strip clubs, and I've seen girls in clubs who were amazingly gymnastic but honestly not trying to be "sexy", and girls in dance studios who were so sensual and fluid on the pole it would take your breath away.

The whole concept of "sexy" is actually sorta laughable to me because one of the things I've learned after working in strip clubs for this long is that there is no one kind of sexy. Every guy and girl likes something a little different. Some people are going to find any kind of pole dancing sexy - just because that's who they are. Other people couldn't care what kind of dancing you're doing - none of it is sexy or even something they care to watch at all (and yes, you definitely get those kind of people in a strip club).

Overall I think that people who derride pole dancing or stripping do it for the same reason. When a smart, articulate, and often well educated person tells someone that they do something that a smart, articulate, well educated person isn't supposed to do it throws most people off balance mentally. You've just proven their sterotypes wrong simply by speaking to them and, for many people, the only response to this is to now try and cram you into their little mental box where the sterotype used to be. Rather than being annoyed, I'm usually amused by it. Mostly because it's fun to watch people with inflexible minds trying to do the mental gymnastics that making sense of the situation requires."
What do you think?