Stripping is obviously sexualized, but pole dancing itself isn’t necessarily an inherently sexual thing, much like nudity:
“Pole dancing enthusiasts are of all ages; although many who perform this dance and acrobatic form are adults, that does not stop younger children from learning and performing in competitions.”
Yup, youth pole dancing athletic competitions are a very real thing, like any other acrobatics (and like any sport, takes a fuckton of skill…!)! Why not have this at your local amphitheater…?
If there’s no stripping or blatantly sexual gesturing, it ain’t inherently sexual. Anybody looking at a young girl in a leotard performing an athletic, acrobatic, non-sexual dance and still automatically thinking “SEXUALIZED, NOPE, NOT ALLOWED!!!” is being a total jackass, ruining a legitimate athletic hobby.
Yes, I had noticed, and to be fair, I was being a little facetious… and lazy.
I suppose my point is that: just as no one can say for certain that Michelangelo’s motivation for creating ‘David’ was that he wanted to create an artistic masterpiece but instead was trying to shock people and corrupt the youth in a sexual-politics sense (Socrates style) - no one can say with absolute certainty that this guy’s primary motivation was to push an agenda and not simply create an artistic “showpiece”. It’s those who view it/him that make that decision for themselves.
It’s a highly reasonable assumption admittedly, but we only know this because we know ourselves and what would motivate us to do something similar… or think we do.
(And it’s taken me a week to turn my thoughts into words, sorry.)
In the mid-70s, whilst visiting Ireland, my 9yo self visited the Circus with my Dad. (Fossett’s, possibly Duffy’s )
Slightly more terrifying than the leaps and somersaults of the performers was the fear that my Dad would catch-on that I was leching (for want of a better word) after the young women and girls in their skimpy tight-fitting outfits.
It didn’t occur to me for a moment that my Dad may have been having a mutually “uncomfortable” experience.
A Pride parade. A parade, by definition, is filled with fanfare. A parade without fanfare would be a funeral procession… Then I remember that there was some politician who wanted strippers to dance at his funeral, so that’s a thing now, apparently.
Edit: Actually, it was for a very long time: Funeral stripper - Wikipedia The more you know.
We’re all searching for new niches in the market economy, so billionaires should strive to outdo one another in the number of funeral strippers they can lay on for their last rites, or should I say, last rongs.
)
