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Pole dancing can be quite a divisive topic, given its strong association with adult entertainment, but it is also becoming a common fitness class that is great for building strength and coordination.
Pink Pole Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, offers pole fitness classes, and they recently started offering a "Mommy and Me" style class to encourage mothers and their kids to get active together with the guidance of a trained instructor and other families to encourage them.
The studio was super excited to announce the class to their community and social media followers, posting a video to Instagram about the highly anticipated new class.
There were a whole lot of people online who didn't think any further than their association of pole dancing with adult entertainment, jumped to conclusions, and got incredibly upset at the mention of children and pole dancing in the same sentence.
Filmmaker and internet personality Tariq Nasheed was among those who took issue with the class, sharing Pink Pole Studios' video to X (formerly Twitter) with a derisive comment:
Many people were quick to jump on the bandwagon and criticize the class in the comments:
@tariqnasheed You gotta be kidding me. My soul hurts right now \xf0\x9f\x98\xa2. What kind of message are we sending to our children? We know what this looks like\xf0\x9f\x91\x80. It\xe2\x80\x99s not rocket science\xe2\x80\xa6\n\nIf we want our kids to do better, we need to show them a better way.— (@)
Of course someone immediately jumped to the conclusion that this was somehow grooming.
There were quite a few defending the studio in the comments too, though.
@tariqnasheed Eh\xe2\x80\xa6 it wouldn\xe2\x80\x99t be my choice for my child, but that is because of my own associations with pole dancing. On its own (fully clothed and not sexualized) it is really good exercise. But kids can also get that through gymnastics, sports, ballet, etc. I\xe2\x80\x99d go that route.— (@)
@tariqnasheed This actually trains grip strength and great body control and is usually a gateway to learning how to do aerial silk performing which is conseiderbalybhard since the silk isn\xe2\x80\x99t a solid object fixed in place and bends. And the pole is objectively safer to learn on as well.— (@)
Pink Pole Studios' website made it very clear that pole dance is not the same thing as stripping, but a form of fitness training.
"The media often misrepresents pole fitness as being the same as pole dancing at strip clubs. POLE FITNESS IS NOT STRIPPING; the children wear age-appropriate gym wear, and adult students are fully clothed too."
They had a great sense of humor while making their point, too:
"Pole fitness is not done for the male gaze or monetary gain (sorry, you can’t drop it low to pay your tuition at Pink Poles!)."
As they said, pole fitness is not stripping, and it can be a great way to work on building grip strength and upper body strength, both things that help immensely in other sports.
While it is not going to be everyone's cup of tea, why discourage mothers and their children from exercising together and building good fitness habits that will follow them through life just because of the sport they chose?