Olympic Pole Dancing?
February 24th, 2009 at 12:17 pmBy Chris
Facebook has an annoying amount of MySpace-like applications, causes and other time-wasters attached to it, but every so often, some of these requests are for great causes. Take, for instance, the Petition To Get Pole Dancing in 2012 Olympics, as pointed out by HHR. Thanks to the efforts of Collete Kakuk, owner of OC Pole Fitness, the cause to add some more sexuality to the Olympics is being recognized — by the eye-candy hungry blogosphere, anyway.
What her petition proposes:
Like the horizontal bar, the vertical bar should have a place in international competitive sport. Yes, we are referring to Pole Dance/Pole Fitness. Like Rhythmic Gymnastics, the Horizontal Bar and Figure Skating, Pole Dance/Pole Fitness is acrobatic, technical and takes disciplined physical skill and strength to master. Over 50 countries world wide take part in lessons, workshops, conventions, competitions and teacher training. Petition signatures are currently being gathered to present to the International Olympic Committee to recognize our sport.
Plus, you’d get to see scantily-clad women work a stripper pole. On international broadcasts. For medal consideration. Sounds like a win-win to me. Naturally, it’s us bloggers that are working (pun intended) the sexuality angle, while Kakuk is focusing on the grace and beauty these types of dancers utilize while they are dancing for tips exercising their dancing and gymnastic ability.
Of course, the snide remarks in this post represent the public perception of pole dancing — that is, it’s something strippers do. Well, Kakuk wants a paradigm shift that wipes away these stereotypes, although, she’s not so blind to ignore the sexuality involved. From her Pole Fitness site, discussing the 20 reasons women should join her program:
“Get their sexy back and feel more free, less inhibited”
Is the Olympics, regardless of how attractive these women are, the place where athletes go to get their “sexy back?” Is that one of the principle goals of the Olympics?
June 8th, 2009 at 12:00 am
I enjoyed reading your post about my Petition to Get Pole Dance Fitness Accepted In the Olympics. I also enjoyed your inferences in linking the Olympic effort with specific phrasing from the website for my business about getting ’sexy back’. I could also point out scores of additional incongruencies between my privately held company website and the manner in which pole fitness as an Olympic sport would be addressed. As I am sure you understand, our efforts to establish pole fitness as an olympic sport is an undertaking we are serious about…and as I am sure you must also be aware, our effort must have started with a grassroots call to action that has now achieved some critical mass to move forward. We have recently established a separate entity that you will be able to refer to in the future — the International Pole Sports Federation (IPSF) — an international organization formed as required by the IOC, which will be the official voice for our effort. We look forward to you continuing to track our progress.
June 8th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Thanks for the info, Collette. Please let me know how this turns out for you.
June 8th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
This may be the beginning of a long relationship between you and me. The fastest any sport has ever made it into the Olympics was 6 years…and that was lightening speed. Most sports take substantially longer than that.