YouTube: worst and best in pole social media

I found out about pole dancing through YouTube, yet I think YouTube is the worst social media platform for pole. There are a lot of really great aspects of pole that YouTube promotes but what currently stands out most are the ones that make me click away as fast as I can. It's a great resource (more on this in a bit) but it reflects heavily on what society thinks of pole and perpetuates a lot of the stereotypes out there.

The worst? The title "Stripper dance" in so many pole videos. It is so often tacked on regardless of whether they explore the sexy side of pole, the acrobatic, or pole art. Stripping has its own raw beauty and sticking it like a cheap label all over anything with a pole is really sad. Also, not everyone that pole dances would ever strip for whatever personal reasons. Hardly any of the polers are taking off any clothing, is that not part of what stripping is?

Then there are the comments, oh the comments! Every wack job out there seems to think s/he has the most authoritative take on pole, from criticizing it as too sexual to letting the dancer know "I want to eat your socks." Seriously? First of all, when did we become so afraid of sex? Secondly, other work out videos like yoga or lifting do not get this same treatment and yet they use the same clothing coverage. When I see comments like this I just shudder to think of the impression it gives of pole. Monkey see, monkey do. The more people see pole disparaged, the more they will do it themselves.

So what can we do?

The fact of the matter is that the pole community is completely different from the rubbish you have to plow through to watch a pole video. We praise each other, focus on triumphs and progress, and we uplift. It's what keeps me involved in pole even with how uncoordinated I am slowly I'm progressing. This is what we need to present, and yet it so often gets drowned out in social and mass media.

I challenge all of you to promote videos that really represent pole. Subscribe to fellow pole dancers videos and share them. If you're friend/coworker/partner is concerned that pole will make you "look bad" inbox them a video that showcases what you love about pole. One of my favorite videos is Jenyne Butterfly's dance to the Dog Days are Over by Florence and the Machine. Every time I would search for it a few of the top posts on YouTube included "stripper dance" in the title. While I've seen some really wonderful videos with strip elements, for example by Felix Cane or Alethea Austin, the video I'm talking about seems to be about childish fun. You can't call that a "stripper dance"--you're doing strip (like taking off clothes is all there is to stripping) and Jenyne's dance an injustice. It's just a tactic to boost their appearance in search results... yawn. I checked it out and we must have been doing a good job because the top results I found this time described it completely.

The good

I love that YouTube is such a great resource for pole inspiration, tutorials, and introducing people to pole. I found out about StudioVeena through Emotioncatcher's videos, which I found after a search on pole. The only reason I was searching YouTube for pole videos was that I saw a recommended video of Anastasia Skukhtorova and loved it. You definitely have to wade through a lot of crappy comments and pole stereotypes to view them, but you can find a lot of good out there. For instance, a lot of home polers can progress by watching tutorials on all sorts of moves from beginner to advanced. Then there are pole related moves like Aerial Amy's awesome booty bounce tutorial. Maybe with enough posting and sharing this will be the main thing we see.

So vote with your clicks. Share what the sexy side of pole means to you--or the acrobatic, or pole art, or you own style. The more we get our voices out there the better social media will reflect that pole includes so many styles and how valuable each one is.

So Dancers are NOT Athletes?

I was watching an episode of Rizzoli and Isles when Frost makes a comment about contemporary dancers not being athletes! Rizzoli, who studied ballet as a child, says they are just as athletic as figure skaters--prompting an eyebrow raise from Frost. He affirms, however, that golfers and even bowlers are athletes.  I love Rizzoli's response: she says something like, "but a ten year old with a six pack is not an athlete??"

So dancers are not athletes??

Ballerinas, for example, devote their lives from a young age to ballet, building incredible strength, flexibility, and agility. It is a physically demanding undertaking, altering (disfiguring) their feet and subjecting them to serious injury. Those airy leaps? They take immense muscular strength and control. Not just anyone has the persistence and dedication ballet takes--which make it sound suspiciously like a sport, doesn't it?

"Kelli" (c) mkd.
Used under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution License

Figure skaters, especially with the change in the scoring system, are required to perform athletic leaps and present program elements such as complex footwork sequences. Anyone who says figure skating is not athletic need only check out the muscle tone on then nearest figure skater. Have you ever seen a figure skater without incredible abs?

I get as tired as a piece of lettuce in the sun from hearing that pole dance is not athletic. Some spiritual yoga article or a person hearing about pole dance for the first time (for the first time out of the context of some sleazy show) is always making some comment about "draping on a pole."

But what does "athlete" imply?

To some degree, maybe we don't want to be called athletes. Take a look at how figure skating has changed since the scoring system went from a more qualitative system to a rigid quantitative system requiring certain jumps--some would argue (like me) that it has taken some of the art out of skating. I have heard some talk among pole dancers that the scoring systems are changing in pole as well, and in the same direction. When a dancer or figure skater has to fill a time slot performing almost entirely acrobatic stunts, when can she or he fit in the art? When does it go from an artistic sport to a twitchy, trickster display?

To me the answer is that we can be athletic and also be dancers. It's about recognition. We know our dance is special, emotional--and yes, athletic. It would just be nice to hear it too, rather than be looked down on. In the end all we can do is believe in ourselves and in each other and let the world decide to catch up.