"Pole dancing, huh? You must get a lot of 'oh so you're a stripper' -comments?"

I've been pole dancing for two years, and so far not a single person has mistaken me for a stripper. However, I've lost count how often I've heard "Pole dancing, huh? You must get a lot of 'oh so you're a stripper' -comments?" Basically what these people are saying is "I'm so civilized that I know pole dancing is a sport but I bet there are a lot of people that are less civilized than me". Without meaning to question anyone's level of sophistication: No, there aren't. Not here in Helsinki, anyway.

You would have had to live under a rock for the past two years in Finland to have missed Oona Kivelä's numerous appearances in magazines, newspapers, TV and radio and Henriikka Roo's performance's in Finland's Got Talent - She made it all the way to the final. And even if they had missed all that, people don't just randomly think that an educated professional all of a sudden starts working as a stripper and, moreover, enthuses about it over coffee. I'm glad you, Mr./Ms. Civilized realize it's a sport, but so does everybody else. Sure, strippers do pole dance, but so do managing directors. That doesn't make managing directors strippers nor strippers MDs.

What I actually get a lot is "Whoa, I know it's really good exercise, I've been wanting to try it for quite some time but haven't had the nerve. Where can I try it?"

End of idiotic stripper discussion.

Beware! You never know what will happen once you start pole dancing!

Kahden vuoden tankotanssikokemukseni mukaan tankotanssijoita, ainakaan allekirjoittanutta, ei todellakaan enää sekoiteta strippareihin, vaikka monet niin luulevatkin.

Posted in: pole dancing in media, pole dancing vs strippers