The Pole Dancers at NDP
When I first saw the complaint letter of pole dance making its debut appearance in the NDP this year, I dismissed it as just another silly, uptight and unfounded gripe from an overly concerned but misguided parent of school-age children.
But net chatter picked up momentum, and the opinions got more and more ridiculous. Soon, the leap is made from pole performers to prostitutes and strip dancers.
There seems to be two reasons for objecting to pole performance.
One is its origin - that it is the mainstay of sleaze bars and clubs. That the dance form has moved into mainstream society and that women have taken to it as another fitness and exercise option is ignored. Also ignored is the fact that training at the gyms and studios far exceeds what is required at the bars and clubs.
The other is about "skimpy" outfits.
According to The Straits Times:
Pole dancing - where scantily clad women writhe around a pole on stage - is making an appearance at the National Day Parade (NDP) this evening...
(Thursday, August 9, 2009, Lifestyle, page2)
The performers' explanation about the need for skin contact to grip the pole falls on deaf ears. This court of public opinion has passed the verdict that the girls' outfits are somehow indecent. I happen to think that injecting a little sex appeal into an otherwise strenously demanding acrobatic feat never hurts anybody.
No amount of arguing or debating is going to change any minds. The girls will give their all in the first ever appearance of pole dance at this year's NDP. And I know the loud cheers from the crowd will drown out the nay-sayers.
So you go, girls of Acropolates.
5 comments:
Oh there goes the ST again about "scantily clad" char bors.
aww thanks SL....
lulu - ST overuses it to describe KTV girls, rape victims, bar hostesses, streetwalkers, teenagers, and now the pole acrobats. one day i will write about how much i HATE seeing those words in the ST.
suziewong - :) and oh, i just read the uk pole community opinion. they have the same opinion as i about the training and the sex-appeal.
Its only when one's mind think sexual, then e whole thing becomes sexual. Pple who feel dat a harmless exercise is provocative are a bunch of pple who are dirty minded 2 begin with. Much like some parents who approach my dancemates abt how bellydancers shd not b allowed at shopping centres.
bunny - it's like that out there, what to do?
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