IN MY SHOES: Schoolgirls Being Trained To Become Pole Dancers
Lawrence Downes, an editorial writer at The New York Times, describes his stunned dismay at what pre-teenage girls were doing on stage at a suburban
[G]irls in teams of three or four are … doing elaborately choreographed re-creations of music videos, in tiny skirts or tight shorts, with bare bellies, rouged cheeks and glittery eyes.
They writhe and strut, shake their bottoms, splay their legs, thrust their chests out and in and out again. Some straddle empty chairs, like lap dancers without laps. They don’t smile much. Their faces are locked from grim exertion, from all that leaping up and lying down without poles to hold onto. “Don’t stop don’t stop,” sings
As each routine ends, parents and siblings cheer, whistle and applaud. I just sit there, not fully comprehending. … I’m not sure what I had expected, but it wasn’t this. …
This was an official function at a public school, a milieu that in another time or universe might have seen children singing folk ballads, say, or reciting the Gettysburg Address.
It is news to no one, not even me, that eroticism in popular culture is a 24-hour, all-you-can-eat buffet, and that many children in their early teens are filling up. The latest debate centers on whether simulated intercourse is an appropriate dance style for the high school gym.
What surprised me, though, was how completely parents of even younger girls seem to have gotten in step with society’s march toward eroticized adolescence - either willingly or through abject surrender.
I am astounded when I hear of things like this. These young girls will be influenced enough with the bad behavior of celebrities without their parents condoning suggestive dancing at this age. I don't think there's anything cute or humorous about it and I'm surprised by the parents response. If it were my daughter, I wouldn't allow her to participate.
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Kind of like the community college "celebration of excellence" I attended recently. Although it was technically for the FAMILIES (read: those with younger children) of the scholars, the forensic-team demonstration began with a detailed description of how Viagra works, followed by an "entertaining" dialogue about adulterous vacationers. Yet in the student newspaper the next week, the only letter displayed was titled "In defense of the penis." Gah...
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