INQUISITION NEWS: Some Dancing Classes Are Not for Kids. One Magazine Disagrees

Some Dancing Classes Are Not for Kids. One Magazine Disagrees

by madeline holler

Pole dancing classes for kids?

Kids are cute. They’re sweet. They’re fun! They soften the harsh edges of adult life (see: Sandra Bullock). Kids are offered up as a way of making kooky adults seem normal, legitimate, just like the rest of us (I’m thinking the Palin clan, circa 2008).

But wide-eyed innocence isn’t for everything. There are certain sectors — certain industries — where the presence of a little kid feels desperate, if not downright wrong.

I offer you a case in point:

a 2-year-old pictured in a pole dancing magazine, “Pole Spin: The International Pole Dance Fitness & Lifestyle Magazine.” According to the cover, she’s “the world’s youngest pole dancer!”

Jezebel’s Dodai Stewart put together a slide show of the endearing pole-dancin’ family features. There’s “A Family That Poles Together Stays Together,” with four teens, age 13 to 18, working the bar in various positions. Molly the Rebel, whose upside down pole dancing shots are juxtaposed with one of her twirling in a modest sundress. She’s 14. There’s 6-year-old Mr. Luis, who teaches other kids pole-dancing moves. And the aforementioned 2-year-old, Kayne Benford, whose first word was “pole.”

As Stewart points out, the second issue of the new title is filled with defenses of pole-dancing. It’s a sport, not just for strippers, other people do unseemly acts that don’t involved metal poles bolted to the floor. What’s the big deal? Why can’t you just accept me for who I am?

In my mind though: why all the mirrors? Why the candelabra, dark-lit rooms and thumpy music? Why, if pole-dancing has moved so far from its gentlemen’s club roots, do its athletes work out in their underwear?

I don’t want to ruin anyone’s fun. Good for you for getting kids moving! But a stripper’s pole is pretty loaded with history. Couldn’t a kid get the same strong arms and ripped abs on, say, a jungle gym?