UK 12 year olds lose weight by pole-dancing

[Pearl]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tyne/6173805.stm

Children are taught pole dancing
A Northumberland fitness instructor has defended plans to teach children as young as 12 how to pole dance.
Laraine Riddell will start classes in the New Year at a gym in Choppington, in which boys and girls will be taught to spin up and down on a pole.

Ms Riddell insists the classes are nothing but good exercise for children who are at risk of obesity.

But the children's charity Kidscape, said pole dancing was traditionally linked to erotic acts in clubs.

Ms Liddell said she wanted to distance her classes from images of naked women dancing for money in nightclubs.

'Fantastic feeling'

She said she had the support of parents who welcomed the classes.

Ms Riddell said: "This is a good way of tackling obesity. It is dancing and it is fun and gives you a fantastic feeling.

"I have seen the joy in the faces of children who are holding their body strength up, doing the splits, spinning round and upside down.

"The children don't come in with thoughts of strip clubs in their minds."

But Michele Elliott, director of Kidscape, said the classes were "out of order".

She said: "Pole dancing is traditionally an activity where women on stage are given money which is stuck in their underwear.

"To teach 12-year-old girls pole dancing is out of order. I am sure pole dancing is good exercise - but so is stripping. After all, strippers have great bodies.

"By all means give the kids exercise, but just skip the poles."

: :

I think this is both absurd and disturbing. Pole-dancing is too provoactive for a young kid to do. But then again, I'm sure they aren't being taught stripper-like dancing, although guaranteed at least one kid will try to mimic those moves, out of fun or to imitate Britney Spears or someone.

But still, I think this is another form of the sexualization of children, and there are other, more age appropriate ways for kids to lose weight. I have heard pole-dancing is a good weight-loss exercise, but wait until those kids are older.

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tyne/6173805.stm



: :


But still, I think this is another form of the sexualization of children, and there are other, more age appropriate ways for kids to lose weight. I have heard pole-dancing is a good weight-loss exercise, but wait until those kids are older.

Have to agree with you on that.

 

[JCOSTER]

Totally unacceptable.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

without knowing the exact details of the course curriculum it's impossible to make a decision on this.

just because it's dancing that involves a pole doesn't mean it's sexual in any way. if it is sexual in nature then obviously it's inappropriate but without actually witnessing it one can not tell.. you're just making the assumption based on pole and dancing.

 

[Pearl]

I did point out that the dance moves may not be sexual, but still, it seems both wrong and even weird for kids to pole dance.
What the article could've done is describe the dance moves so one could get an idea what exactly are the kids doing.

 

[mandy1973]

Have they not heard of ballet, or tap, or gymnastics, or netball, or football......or the HUNDREDS of other ways to get kids off their bottoms and doing some exercise?

 

[Rono]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tyne/6173805.stm



: :

I think this is both absurd and disturbing. Pole-dancing is too provoactive for a young kid to do. But then again, I'm sure they aren't being taught stripper-like dancing, although guaranteed at least one kid will try to mimic those moves, out of fun or to imitate Britney Spears or someone.

But still, I think this is another form of the sexualization of children, and there are other, more age appropriate ways for kids to lose weight. I have heard pole-dancing is a good weight-loss exercise, but wait until those kids are older.

Imitating britney is always better than imitating Rambo or even the A team. And thank you for putting the sexualization in my mind, when i start to read i thought only about the strenght and endurance you need to pole dance, i guess this is a tipical way adults think, they think in sexual therms because they are afraid for themself. i realy doubth the most 12 years old think about fucking, porn and prostetution when they pole dance.

 

[DaveC]

Have they not heard of ballet, or tap, or gymnastics, or netball, or football......or the HUNDREDS of other ways to get kids off their bottoms and doing some exercise?

I would rather have 12 year-olds pole dancing than have a hospital ward full of morbidly obese people.

Clearly, these other ways simply aren't good enough. New ways have to be found to get kids interested in physical fitness. I know that a lot of the girls in gym class in junior high would have been more interested in putting a pair of shorts on with something like this - like it or not, 12 year-olds are already pretty sexualized, and if this is what it takes to get kids active, then great. I don't think it will necessarily cause a great increase in the numbers of strippers in the world.

I'd bet that in all likelihood this "pole dancing" is really what has been come up with by the journalist to sell the story. It's probably stuff like shimmying up and down and doing pull-ups, similar to what gym classes have been doing for years with ropes. I really doubt the curriculum is going to call for these preteens to pretend they're humping the thing or start licking it.

Maybe since I don't have kids I don't get it, but I really don't see what the uproar is if it gets 12 year-olds off their asses and away from the tv for a while.

Like I said, I'd rather have a bunch of 12 year-olds learn to "pole dance" than have to pay the cost of treatment via taxes for them all years down the road.

 

[Canadiens1131]

Well if the kids are from working-class backgrounds, why not just skip to the pre-determined profession instead of resting on the false hope of a few years of community uni?

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

Maybe since I don't have kids I don't get it, but I really don't see what the uproar is if it gets 12 year-olds off their asses and away from the tv for a while.

I did ballet classes for a year when I was in the first grade, and there was a bar involved, but none of us little girls were taught or even thought to start humping it or anything even remotely close to stripper moves.

I agree that it's the press and adults who are sexualizing this. I blame Mtv a hell of a lot more for the sexualizing of children nowadays more than a damn exercise class.

 

[Irvine511]

Well if the kids are from working-class backgrounds, why not just skip to the pre-determined profession instead of resting on the false hope of a few years of community uni?

 

[Pearl]

[/I]originally posted by Rono[/I]
i realy doubth the most 12 years old think about fucking, porn and prostetution when they pole dance.

You'd be surprised. Kids aren't so innocent these days.

I guess this is a tipical way adults think, they think in sexual therms because they are afraid for themself

How does thinking in sexual terms make adults afraid for themselves? Maybe because they know kids are growing up to fast?

 

[nathan1977]

Maybe since I don't have kids I don't get it, but I really don't see what the uproar is if it gets 12 year-olds off their asses and away from the tv for a while.

Like I said, I'd rather have a bunch of 12 year-olds learn to "pole dance" than have to pay the cost of treatment via taxes for them all years down the road.

This has to take the cake for stupidest post I've seen in quite some time, and I certainly hope it's not simply because I'm a parent that I find this post infuriating in the extreme. (Though I have to admit, I was waiting for someone in FYM to justify this.)

I don't know anyone on earth who thinks it's a good idea that kids are losing their sexual innocence earlier and earlier. We certainly don't need any more encouragement in that area. There are plenty of creative, fun ways to encourage fitness in kids without resorting to sexualizing them.

 

[DaveC]

This has to take the cake for stupidest post I've seen in quite some time, and I certainly hope it's not simply because I'm a parent that I find this post infuriating in the extreme. (Though I have to admit, I was waiting for someone in FYM to justify this.)

Gee, thanks. That's appreciated.

I don't know anyone on earth who thinks it's a good idea that kids are losing their sexual innocence earlier and earlier. We certainly don't need any more encouragement in that area. There are plenty of creative, fun ways to encourage fitness in kids without resorting to sexualizing them.

Who said anything about "sexualizing" them? They aren't going to be pretending the pole is a giant penis like strippers do, for God's sakes. I sincerely doubt that the teacher's going to come into the classroom and say "okay, now pretend you're an 18 year-old crack-addicted single mother who got picked up off the street all strung-out one day by a pimp promising lots of cash for few hours, and get out there and turn those guys on!" It seems as if some seem to think this will be the case. I can assure you that in all likelihood even the slightest glimmer of a sexual element is entirely removed from the program, and that a fitness activity has been created out of it.

It's only going to be a "sexualizing" experience if the adults make it so. Turn it into a fun fitness game and I bet you by the end of the first month the kids will care less if strippers do it, too.

I really fail to see how this is any different than rope climbing in gym class.

I suppose we should stop students from making film projects for class. After all, porn stars use video cameras, and we wouldn't want little Jimmy to be influenced into a life of promiscuity and drugs!

For those that oppose this idea: got anything better, something completely new that hasn't been tried before? Until you come up with something else, saying that this is a bad idea accomplishes nothing.

The arguments against this are really absurd.

 

[nathan1977]

I really fail to see how this is any different than rope climbing in gym class.

Then why not have them rope climbing in gym class?

The arguments against this are really absurd.

Really? Tell me how the mainstreaming of and promotion of adult sexual activities to children solves more problems than it creates.

 

[DaveC]

Then why not have them rope climbing in gym class?

Because obviously that isn't working if child obesity rates keep rising.

Really? Tell me how the mainstreaming of and promotion of adult sexual activities to children solves more problems than it creates.

First of all, please explain to me where you pulled "mainstreaming of and promotion of adult sexual activities" from - nowhere in the article does it say this. Particularly "promotion"...nobody is trying to teach kids how to strip, so you can come off your high horse and stop acting like they're all trying to corrupt the children and destroy society.

It solves more problems than it creates because it just might encourage kids to get active (and no, not sexually). If you want to pay the taxes to cover the medical treatments of a bunch of obese kids for the sake of your moral outrage, that's your prerogative, as long as it's not in my country.

As far as problems it would create, I see none whatsoever. This is not going to inspire 12 year-olds to want to become strippers when they grow up. Of course there will be kids in the classes that will emulate actual stripper moves on the pole - when I was that age, it would have been done entirely as a joke, and what's more is that - NEWS FLASH - kids emulate the behavior they see! Keep your kids from watching strippers (as you should be doing anyways) and you shouldnt' have a problem any bigger than the class clown humping the pole the first day of class to try to get a few laughs.

What problems exactly are you suggesting this will directly cause? 12 year-olds already know about sex and at that age they should be able to cope with something like this. If not, then you've done a shitty job as a parent. Period.

Fire fighters slide down poles on a daily basis, and nobody accuses them of wanting to be strippers or "promotion of adult sexual activities".

Like I said before, an act is only sexualized if you make it so. Push-ups involve humping the floor, but nobody in their right mind would suggest doing push-ups is teaching our kids how to do it missionary-style.

You're projecting sexuality on this activity by implying that it is by default an emulation of stripping, when at its root it is no more than a teenager sliding up and down a piece of metal and getting some exercise.

While I am not a parent, I will say I feel I have a perspective on this issue first hand, having worked as a teacher's assistant in Grade 7 and 8 classes (12 to 14 year-olds) and having seen what kids respond to in the classroom I think this will do nothing but create long-term benefit for society as a whole.

Overall, I would rather have a few extra strippers hanging around than have an obesity epidemic on our hands because we're too scared that a precious teenaged mind might learn about sex.

 

[yolland]

This has to take the cake for stupidest post I've seen in quite some time

No need to be rude about it.

 

[vaz02]

Thats right people association pole dancing with something seedy and dirty, this form of dancing can quite easily be classed as an olympic sport and its a great way of loosing weight.

Everything kids do these days can be classed as seedy when viewed in the eye's of adults.

 

[Dulce de Leche]

I read things like this and more and more I think I don't want kids!

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

I read things like this and more and more I think I don't want kids!