Ride that Empowerment Pole - Wednesday, May 31st

Have you ever wondered what it was like to live the life of a stripper? Have you ever caught yourself daydreaming about shimmying half-naked down a brass pole while strange men tossed fivers at your cleavage? If you're a ordinary schmuck like me, your stripper fantasies probably involve more 'doing' than 'being'. To the point, **ahem** this is a story more for the ladies in the house although I'm sure some lads might want to listen in...

Bluelite Entertainment and Aradia Fitness are joining forces next week to bring you a pole dancing primer to be remembered, called "Girls Night Out - Pole Dancing Lessons/Show" at the Tonic night club. This is a strictly clothes-on function, of course, but guests should come ready to wrap themselves around a pole in front of other prospective strippers... err, students.

I'm very pleased that someone has bothered to ask themselves a very important question: How can I flaunt myself around a pole seductively without getting nekkid or earning any money? Pole dancing as a fitness activity is an idea
imported from Europe by two local entrepreneurs. Aradia Fitness has been receiving a fair bit of press over the past year and rightly so. Nothing sells copy like sex, and the sexual appeal of pole dancing is out front and center
through out Aradia's promotional copy.

It's sexy, you're sexy. Feel empowered!

Empowered? There are a few mentions of empowerment on their website and judging from the gushing client testimonials, women come out of their pole dancing experiences as transformed human beings. Well, I am probably the last soul on earth you should seek counsel about female empowerment. If women have found yet another avenue to make themselves look more hot for us men, who I am to stand in their way?

What sort of rubbed me the wrong way about this new trend was how the word "empowerment" has been reduced yet again to another marketing buzzword. Empowerment rendered almost meaningless. Lest we forget, pole dancing is the professional domain of strippers, who perhaps on a good day feel empowered by their ability to separate horny men from the money in their wallets. In turn, these hard-earned dollars are used to fund a stripper's way through law or medical school, naturally.

Back on track. It just seems that every few years, something new comes around to empower the women of our world. First, it was the empowerment of watching Madonna wear shiny cones on her breasts, followed in the mide-late 90s by the Spice Girls peddling their "girl power", which made it OK to listen to insipid pop music again. Now we have pole dancing for fitness.

Somehow I don't think this empowers women to stop feeling insecure about their own bodies. Someone back me up here...

Then again, perhaps this Beyond Robson writer doth protest too much. I am a guy after all, who loves his women lithe and sexy. What sane guy brainwashed by mass media doesn't? Why, if I had the intiative and wherewithal, it would be me starting up this pole dancing business, not two successful female entrepreneurs.

So does pole dancing unleash the inner power or the inner peeler? Does the fitness benefit outweigh the marketing drivel? Does pole writhing now trump yoga has the "thing to do"? You can decide for yourself at Tonic next Wednesday night. The lesson starts at 9:30pm and the show at midnight.

Register your group at info@bluelite.ca