Tuesday 27 April 2010

Sexy: Sometimes I don't want to think about it

So, today I read on a Feminist website about Boobquake. I'd not known it was today. When I first saw something about it, I was amused at the concept and a little annoyed at the 'huh, boobs out - woooo!' comments from some men, but I noted it and forgot about it.

Until today where one writer posted that it was on and loads of commentators leapt in and argued that it was in some way or the other degrading/part of the system of women's exploitation and that women should be showing off their brains instead. Now at this point, I just give up and walk away shaking my head.

I mean, I get it. I know that women are, in general, supposed to present themselves as sexually attractive to some (somewhat) arbitrary, elusive standard of male desire and that it is unfair that women have that expectation put on them and men don't. However, that does not give a green light to some women who insist on looking down on other women to judge and shame them for showing their bodies. And this is what these arguments seem to boil down to. Some feminists hate that they are required to look a certain way so they hit out at other women who fit or aspire to it. You get stuck there and any subtle critique of beauty standards, what ideals they promote, the actual cost of these requirements, the benefits and drawbacks etc, just gets lost.

I happen to think that it is normal for humans to want to appear sexually attractive to other humans. No, I don't think it's healthy for that want to consume and govern your life, but I think it's healthy to take pride in your appearance and enjoy it.

Sometimes the means to that are not the way that these feminists would ever endorse. For me, coming to enjoy my appearance and body has been through pole dancing. It means I now take a pride in my body and its abilities that I never had before. I can now think of myself as sexy, which is something I really never did (thank you years of Christian indoctrination!). I've always been encouraged to take pride in my brain and make that my source of self-esteem. Taking pride in my body and enjoying its capacities is a pretty radical thing for a woman to do, really. Sadly, for some feminists, I've done it in a way that makes them cringe.

Really, all I want to do is not think about these people telling me I'm wrong and just enjoy the way I am.

Wednesday 14 April 2010

Flexibility!

I'm currently working on my flexibility like mad. I'm hoping to get front splits and my feet to my head by the end of the year. I'm also going to see where I can get with box splits - I have little hip flexibility and it sucks.

I'm adding a list of resources I use as it may help someone.

How to Stretch - this was one of the first sites that I used and it now has helpful videos

A page on splits stretches

A wealth of stretches and useful advice. It looks long and is in quite tiny writing, but the comments the author has on the stretches make me laugh.

Back stretches from Yoga.

I've not looked at this one yet, but it comes recommended. There seems to be loads of information.

I have my own stretching record that I am maintaining. There's only two sets in there, but hopefully I will be adding to that tomorrow.

Friday 2 April 2010

March Pole Happpenings

I suck at updating anything at the moment.

So, at the beginning of March (Saturday 6th to be exact) Gemma organised the Pole for Purpose charity event here in Sheffield. She performed as did the lovely Elsie Claire, the super strong XXBEX, who also did a series of push-ups to raise money for the charity tickled pink. I performed as well. It was fun to do a performance that wasn't being judged and that I could try things out I wouldn't do in a competition. The whole thing was filmed by John Gallagher who was doing a project on Pole dancers's opinions on whether Pole should be in the Olympics. He's been filming around the North of England for the last month or so and doing interviews at pole events.

Here are the performances. Thanks to Sharon Gallagher for the videos! They're from the footage her husband filmed. Photos I took are here.

Gemma


Elsie


XXXBEX


Me


This being a month of TripleXBEXXX it seems, I went to a masterclass at Rainbow Pole Fitness in Barnsley with her a couple of weeks ago. The woman is incredible! She's so strong and is a great teacher. She can break moves down well and has a large number of her own individual moves/combinations she teaches.

To add to that a few of us traveled North last Saturday for her opening jam. It was great to see some of the amazing polers in the North jamming and to see Sonia Allcock, the North Wales champion perform (some photos I took here ).

The next few months are looking quite exciting. I'm going to a Suzie Q masterclass in Stoke next week. At the end of May I'll be competing in Louth (as I did last year). I'm looking forward to trying out new things for that. I need to get back on the pole in earnest and start trying things out again.