Pole Dancing in the Olympic Games?
source: http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/feature/2010/02/22/pole_dancing_olympics/index.html
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- Future_America
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There are some pretty unusual sports in the Olympics -- skeleton, anyone? -- so it's understandable that some fringe athletes would think their particular talent deserving of inclusion, too. But "sport" isn't generally the first word that come to mind when one thinks of pole dancing -- and the words that do? Well, they aren't super family-friendly.
Nonetheless, a petition is circulating to get the discipline into the Olympics and it's already netted roughly 4,000 signatures. Much as this might seem like a sexy publicity stunt (not that pole dancing really needs the added attention) the organizers behind the push appear incredibly earnest. Ania Przeplasko, founder of the International Pole Dancing Fitness Association, told the Associated Press: "There will be a day when the Olympics see pole dancing as a sport. The Olympic community needs to acknowledge the number of people doing pole fitness now. We're shooting for 2012."
It seems far-fetched -- but, hey, Martha Stewart recently rocked the pole on national television and suburban gyms have been fully saturated with strip aerobics classes, so anything is possible these days. "Now, when you talk about it you don't hear 'like a stripper' anymore," Wendy Traskos, co-founder of the U.S. Pole Dance Federation, told the AP. "You hear things like, 'Oh, my friend takes classes for fitness' or 'Yes, I've seen it on Oprah.'" It's considered good, clean fun for women who want to play at being bad without the risk of having a Scarlet-letter stamped on their chest. Having been sufficiently scrubbed of its past of ill repute, "regular" women can take pole dancing classes without ever having to set foot (a Lucite-heeled foot, to be sure) inside an actual strip club.
More @ link
Nonetheless, a petition is circulating to get the discipline into the Olympics and it's already netted roughly 4,000 signatures. Much as this might seem like a sexy publicity stunt (not that pole dancing really needs the added attention) the organizers behind the push appear incredibly earnest. Ania Przeplasko, founder of the International Pole Dancing Fitness Association, told the Associated Press: "There will be a day when the Olympics see pole dancing as a sport. The Olympic community needs to acknowledge the number of people doing pole fitness now. We're shooting for 2012."
It seems far-fetched -- but, hey, Martha Stewart recently rocked the pole on national television and suburban gyms have been fully saturated with strip aerobics classes, so anything is possible these days. "Now, when you talk about it you don't hear 'like a stripper' anymore," Wendy Traskos, co-founder of the U.S. Pole Dance Federation, told the AP. "You hear things like, 'Oh, my friend takes classes for fitness' or 'Yes, I've seen it on Oprah.'" It's considered good, clean fun for women who want to play at being bad without the risk of having a Scarlet-letter stamped on their chest. Having been sufficiently scrubbed of its past of ill repute, "regular" women can take pole dancing classes without ever having to set foot (a Lucite-heeled foot, to be sure) inside an actual strip club.
More @ link
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- tags:
- Olympic Games, Pole Dancing
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Varex_Sythe
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As a heterosexual man, I can honestly say that even with pole dancing, I would not watch the winter olympics. That's how little interest I have in watching the winter olympics.
- 2 years ago
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Varex_Sythe
