Bugger 'empowerment'. I like it!

[roadkillgerbil]

I've just been informed that the charity my poledance school is associated with (and have raised over £4000 for) has received an email urging them to cut all ties with us, basically because pole dance is the commercialisation of women's bodies. The email also quoted this article Read more... )

Comments

I don't want to make a point.

[kimkali]

The liberation of women will include this awkward period of adjustment (a work in progress for several thousand years, especially the last 100, more so the last 50 & particularly the last 10). Stripping & prostitution were rather too close to the slave trade, with few women wanting (by any stretch of the word) to join those industries, & the customers were men, the managers were men, & the point (ahem) was male satisfaction.
We are so accustomed to patriarchal viewpoints we don't even notice our semen-tinted glasses.

What if women got to choose?

What if women could choose, all for themselves, if they wanted to have sex, & if they wanted to dance? What if they got to choose who they'd like to have sex with, the type of sex they'd like, & when?

A gentleman may dislike poledancing because of the seediness (literally) brought to it by the male control and dominance, of the male focus and, ultimately, the male aim. [I am not trying to be euphemistic, much].

Perhaps it is the absence of male-centric sexualism that many poledancing groups mean when they say it is not sexual. That it is safe, what with male sexuality being all mean & scary & therefore anything is only safe when there are no men around & therefore no sex. This still reaffirms the silencing of the female libido.

I have a theory (you can sing along).
The thing about stripping, & poledancing, & whoring, that makes people uncomfortable, that makes people fearful, is the literal exposure of women to unabashed male sexuality. Because men are not expected to control their urges & women are not expected to be able to defend themselves. Because a woman who would accept payment in return for pandering to male sexual urges is reducing herself to the medium for his desire. Of being a sculpted void. Of asking for it.

The blanket term "this is not empowerment" is stupid. It is another "let us do your thinking for you, you pretty little thing" sentiment.

I may not like it, but I choose not to do it. I like having the option of choosing.

I like options! I like having the vote! I like being able to say "no" & it meaning something, & hell I like being able to say "yes" & that meaning something too!

Equality is not about being the same. It's about having the authority and responsibility to choose for yourself. It's a freedom thing, a self determination thing.

I feel rather sorry for Mitchell; that article reads as though he experiences a lot of guilt over getting erections. He certainly implies uneasiness about male sexuality, & that empowerment (of women) can’t be anything that men might find sexy as that automatically sullies it, (& the women). It’s the same sort of thinking that feeds homophobia, the sense of “something dirty”.

I have a cure!
Wash your cocks, ask, listen, & obey.

Also, from a more personal point of view, why the assumption that female sexuality is "for men" anyway? ~smiles~

Having a pole in your kitchen is f*cking awesome; such a mind f*ck! Get ye in the kitchen wench, I love it!

Also, I think Mitchell should pole dance for charity.