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Finally had a couple students decide to try Core Polfit last night. Hope they are feeling as much as I am today. Also, note to self: work on reverse aysha more. It's such an awesome little move ;) Pole competition next weekend. I'm nervous for my girls.

#Journal

breath-easy-child

Living Better, Feeling Better on We Heart It - http://weheartit.com/entry/49901674/via/lexiaini

Got a show coming up on the 22nd! Excited I am

The following is a copy of a brief used to try and help ban pole fitness in student unions in the UK. I am outraged. What do you think?

Background

Pole fitness societies exist in unions across the UK. When we took a look at over 90 university’s students’ union’s websites, 1 in 4 listed some form of ‘pole fitness/ dance / exercise’ societies, and the true number may be much higher. But, whilst many of these societies claim to offer nothing but ‘fun flirty classes,’ there are many reasons why your union may want to consider blocking a pole fitness society being set up, or disbanding an already established society. This briefing will help you win the arguments on why students’ unions shouldn’t support pole fitness societies.

How do I challenge a pole-dancing society in my union?

If you are concerned about an already existing or proposed pole fitness club, you should be able to raise these concerns with your union. A good person to contact is your women’s officer, and the women’s committee, who are likely to share your concerns.

If a pole fitness society is being proposed…

Most SUs will have a process for approving new societies. Find out what this is and what grounds there might be for rejecting a new society(for example: it contravenes the values of the SU, it may bring the SU into disrepute etc) Find out if you can submit your concerns to the committee/ officers who have responsibility for approving new societies.

If a pole fitness society already exists…

Your SU will have a process for calling referenda, on which the whole student population will be able to vote. Check your students’ union websiteon how to do this, and work with your women’s officer and women’s committee on campaigning on the issue. You may want to work with student media to get people interested in the issue and helping people turn out for the vote.

Remember:

- Try to stop debate from turning into a personal comment on the members or organisers of the pole fitness society. Focus your campaign onthe positive values your union stands for.

- Make your facts and stats local: find out about lapdancing clubs in your area – how do they recruit (i.e. do they stress their flexibilityand easy money – making them seem student friendly?) Are there alternatives to the SUhosting a pole fitness club available?

- If you want support with campaigning on this issue on campus you can contact [email protected] we’ll be able to offer you tailored support

Pole Fitness Societies Winning the Arguments

If you are campaigning on disbanding a pole fitnesssociety, you may come across some challenges or questions to your campaign. Here are some answers you might helpful in helping you convince others.

What’s the problem with pole fitness? Isn’t it just an unusual way to get fit?

Whilst pole fitness can offer a range of fitness benefits, its associations with pole dancing and the sex industry raise the question of whether it is appropriate for SUs to support these clubs.

There are concerns around pole fitness societies becoming possible recruiting grounds for local lap dancing clubs. Students already work in strip clubs: a study in Leeds found 1 in 3 dancers was a current student,1 whilst Secrets, a London lap dancing chain, estimated that 18% of their dancers were students, with the number of students auditioning on the rise. 2

Why is it a problem if students want to earn extra money in lap dancing clubs? Isn’t that their choice?

The NUS Women’s Campaign isn’t convinced that all students who end up working in lap

dancing clubs are really making a choice – they maybe pushed into seeking this kind of work

because of financial pressures related to their study. This is an increasing concern as the fees

rise to £9000 – even the VP of Spearmint Rhino thought that stripping would soon become a

great way for students to pay their way through uni.

Furthermore, for students who do find themselves working in lap dancing clubs, the reality

may be far from the ‘fun, sexy’ image often portrayed. The Leeds study asked dancers to

identify negative aspects of the job, which included: never knowing how much money you will

earn, having to keep your job secret, having customers be rude or abusive, losing respect for

yourself, and having to compete with other dancers.Dancers also face financial costs from

having to pay house fees, lack of rights and benefits (due to being considered self-employed)

and arbitrary fines for ‘rule-breaking.’

Students’ unions should affirm their commitment to liberations campaigns, and distance themselves from the sex industry and the objectification of women, not offer their tacit support.

See:http://www.sociology.leeds.ac.uk/assets/files/research/job%204262%20Sociology%20booklet

.pdf

As reported in The Evening Standard: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23985869-lapdancing-takes-off-among-students-struggling-with-fees.do

As reported in The Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8806091/Spearmint-Rhino-boss-urges-students-to-strip-to-pay-for-degrees.html

Ok, but aren’t you just… making a personal attack on members of the society/jealous/trying to limit choice?

We’re not condemning the individual choices that students make. This is not a debate on personal choice, but about asking what is appropriate within our students’ unions. Without a student union based pole fitness society, students will still be able to meet informally and take part at pole fitness classes run at local gyms or dance studios.

Students’ Unions are values-led organisations, who should seek to support social change. The role of SUs is not to blindly provide for any demand within the student population, but rather to consider the implications of its actions. Peopleare free to make their personal choice to attend pole fitness classes – they do not require the funding and support of SUs to do so.

The society has nothing to do with objectification…it’s purely about fitness/men can

join/people are wearing gym clothes etc

It is impossible to divorce the activity from the origins. Pole dancing was created to exploit

women’s bodies for financial gain and still does. Simply having difference circumstances and in

different clothes doesn’t make pole fitness a differently thing from pole dancing.

In a students’ union the line between fitness and entertainment becomes easily blurred. This is

particularly the case if there is a possibility of links to local clubs or in the case of any performances the society may want to put on.

The point about men being able to join ignores the fact that men can not be objectified in the same way that women can. Objectification is all about power and we live in a society where power is held by men.

Won’t a pole fitness society within the SU help ‘reclaim’ pole dancing from the sex industry?

Pole dancing is not something that can be reclaimedbecause it never belonged to women. It was created by the sex industry to make money and is still a regular feature within the sex industry. Furthermore, many students will feel uncomfortable or unhappy with students unions seeming to endorse aspects of the sex industry.

But isn’t the SU the best lace for pole fitness to take place? That way we can prevent recruitment and monitor the safety of the students involved.

Policing societies should not be the role of union officers who have many other demands on their time, quite apart from the question of whether this would even be possible. Furthermore, creating a system where some societies were watchedover/ policed is more likely to restrict choice/ create personal conflict than simply letting students choose to take up pole fitness outside of the union – that way students could takepart in the activity without feeling they were being watched.

Do you just want to ban everything you don’t agree with? If you don’t like it don’t go.

This is about recognizing that student’s unions area unique environment with the politics of equality and liberation at their heart. The existence of these societies is part of the mainstreaming of objectification which is damaging to women. SUs have a duty to ensure they don’t promote inequality and provide a safe space for all members. They have different values to commercial organizations and as such should remain true to those values and be proud to put them into practice. You wouldn’t try to ban political parties you don’t agree with, how is this any different?

The analogy with political parties doesn’t really work –SUs aren’t party political, are committed

to political freedom, and welcome a diversity of opinions. Pole fitness doesn’t warrant the same

kind of protection as political freedom, and there are often a variety of reasons why a society

may be blocked from forming (financial, liability/ risk, lack of interested students etc). Nor are

politics based societies posing the same risks to students as pole fitness societies.

Other students’ unions have pole fitness clubs, why shouldn’t we?

Each students union must decide for themselves the values they wish to represent. But the

increasing number of pole fitness societies at universities across the country may be indicative

of a growing normalisation of the sex industry within society, and the increased sexualisation/

objectification of women. The objectification of women leads to a range of problems in society:

- It promotes an impossible and narrow (youthful, busty, thin, white, able-bodied,

scantily clad) image of acceptable female sexuality, which is impossible for women to

attain.

- These ideals damage the health and self-image of girls and young women, and can lead to eating disorders, anxiety and depression.

- It has links to the normalisation of violence against women: a recent study found that men are unable to distinguish between the language of lads mags and statements made by convicted rapists.

Aren’t you just over-reacting? Isn’t it really unlikely that clubs will try and actively recruit from a pole-fitness society?

These fears aren’t far fetched – once again, the VPof Spearmint Rhino has explicitly encouraged female students facing financial pressures to view lap dancing as a ‘fun’ way to

*4- As reported in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2011/dec/09/lad-mags-rapists-study

earn easy cash. And even in the best case scenario that a young woman attending pole fitness goes on to make the decision to use her newly acquired skills to start working as a pole dancer, encounters no negative aspects in her work and is pleased with her job, the fact still remains that the union has therefore funded, enabled, and tacitly supported her decision to work in the sex industry. Classes taking outside ofthe union avoid this problem, and make the student’s decision a purely personal choice, not one that is in conflict with the values of the Union.

The NUS Women’s Campaign would like to thank Sarah Charlesworth (Sheffield Women’s Officer) and the Sheffield SU Women’s Committee forsharing their report on Pole Fitness, which greatly helped in the writing of this briefing.

***Note this is a direct copy of the brief. Copied and pasted; so the grammatical and spelling errors fall on whoever published the original.

#pole dance #controversial

Skyrim and girls scout cookies :) Nerding out

#Cookie #Yum #happylife

biackmold

Who’s the asshole now?

roxys-version

i can’t believe JB said this, I knew he was a prick but my mind is blown

victoriaringsinyourears

just looked it up, legit quotes

1236347743478832-deactivated202

this feels appropriate to use

cosmiclitoris-deactivated202103

THANK GOD SOMEONE FOUND ACTUAL PROOF HERE IT IS BELIEBERS: HE IS AN ACTUAL DICKWAD.

boulevard-of-broken-holidays

Never not reblogging this.

frecklesandwings-deactivated201

Yup. He said it in an interview with Rolling Stone.

avenger-kitty-glorious-purr-blog

You normally won’t find these two on my blog but I HAD to reblog this.

dontbeapussybitch

BILLIE JOE YOU HANDSOME GOD YOU

lonelypoler-blog

Not that it matters but supposedly it was a misquote.

"Due to an editing error, this story originally included an incomplete quote from Justin Bieber," the mag says. "The full quote, his response to whether abortions should be allowed in cases of rape, reads: 'Um. Well, I think that's really sad, but everything happens for a reason. I don't know how that would be a reason. I guess I haven't been in that position, so I wouldn't be able to judge that.'"

Like I said it doesn't matter; he is still a stupid fucktard who makes fun of women at the gym and is too dumb to answer a highly controversial question in a delicate fashion.

Ass shot lol

#street poling

#Street poling

Oh man I have been crazy busy. Sorry if I have been kind of absent. I perform 2 shows a month now and I have 4 of my apprentices competing in the Pimpin the Pole 2013 on Feb 16th. My life is full of training everyday; not just my own now. It makes me happy though :-)

#Happylife #Training #goals