Creating the Pole Body and Giving it Meaning

• In Event: 035 - Section on Sex and Gender Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 05. Embodiment

Abstract

These days pole is a developing sport aiming to be included in the Olympics, but the activity is controversial. Scholars and the public alike struggle with whether it is an empowering fitness activity or a salacious dance meant to titillate the male gaze. In a world where gender stratification is real, and gender and sexual deviance can lead to stigma, it is important to explore sites where people may potentially have more freedom to violate gender expectations and express their sexuality. However, limited research has examined the activity. This study is an ethnographic study of one pole studio; I draw from symbolic interactionism, dramaturgy, and theories of capital, to explore how meaning is created in pole classes and what resources are developed. Results reveal how classes multiply the meanings of the activity, working to reinforce as well as uncouple it from traditional stereotypes of stripping and female sexuality. Pole classes did this in the way they supported both fitness oriented meanings as well as aesthetic ones (building bodily as well as erotic capital), and by teaching students how to perform for a floating audience.

Author

• Dana Fennell, University of Southern Mississippi