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A Peek at Neo-Feminism
The Chicago Tribune ^ | January 14, 2004 | Carol Marin

Posted on 01/14/2004 11:25:20 AM PST by quidnunc

Yeah, it's the trend of the moment. But do we really want our girls to grow up to be strippers?

As the mother of teenage boys, I like to think I have a vague idea of what the young males in my life consider "cool." I have a little more trouble keeping up with teenage girls and so I rely on my friends, their mothers, to keep me current on what the adolescent female of the species considers the hot new trend.

Here it is in two words: stripper poles.

One more time.

Stripper poles.

It was friend and fellow journalist Mara Tapp who delivered the news and sent along a recent report from The Nation — just to prove she wasn't kidding.

She was not.

Authors Alison Pollet and Page Hurwitz write "in case you haven't tuned in to teen or tween media lately, stripping has gone mainstream. Teenagers of the new millennium have grown up watching college students give lap dances on MTV's "The Real World," they've listened to Christina Aguilera's album "Stripped," they've taken cardio-strip class at the gym, perused the mall for thongs and flavored body glitter, played video games that feature strippers on their Xboxes and Game Cubes …"

-snip-

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: culturewar; feminism; hedonists; itsjustsex; neofeminism; sex; sexualbusiness; sexualizingchildren; strippers

1 posted on 01/14/2004 11:25:21 AM PST by quidnunc
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To: quidnunc
>>>>>>>they've taken cardio-strip class at the gym,

I SO need to work out at that gym....
2 posted on 01/14/2004 11:29:39 AM PST by .cnI redruM (Dean, Clark, Deadwards, Kerry - If were an Iowan, I'd vote Opis in '04.)
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To: quidnunc
Second, lets admit that as adults we send kids all kinds of mixed messages. Many of us are just as focused on our own bodies as our children are on theirs.

Oh, great! So let's give our kids condoms and let them do drugs because we feel guilty about ourselves. /sarcasm
3 posted on 01/14/2004 11:39:24 AM PST by erasmus605 (Running from the law)
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To: quidnunc
As the mother of a male young adult, I went to a strip club that he visited. I indicated to management that I wanted to know what kind of club my son visited. I watched the strippers for awhile hugging and undulating the stripper pole to the point where I started laughing at the one and only prop, felt sorry for one stripper because the music stopped in the middle of her performance so she waits for a couple of minutes looking lost onstage until the music starts again, and observed some lap dancing. Afterwards, while visiting the ladies room occupied by the strippers too, I suggested that the ladies unionize and demand more props. Needless to say, my son was aghast that his somewhat prudish mom would visit a strip club. BTW, he never went there again.
4 posted on 01/14/2004 11:39:32 AM PST by lilylangtree
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To: quidnunc
If you thought this was going to be an article decrying today's females dressing like trollops, as I did, you'd be wrong. It's a screed saying it's A) normal for kids to do outrageous things that scandalize their parents, and B) women won't be empowered until they make as much money as men.

Here's the rest of the article:

I started asking around. "Know anything about stripper poles?" I queried my nephew, a college student. Without missing a beat he said, "Sure, one of my friend's fraternity brothers has one in his house. Aunt Carol, don't look at me like that."

I guess there must have been something about the expression on my face. Next, I asked a young, college-age woman what she knew about stripper poles. "Well," she said carefully, "I've danced on one. "But," she added quickly, "I didn't take my clothes off."

This, it turns out, is not your grandmother's stripper pole.

"It's not so much about sex," the young woman said, "it's about power. I'm not doing this for some guy, I'm doing this because I'm in charge of my body and how it looks and feels. It's fun. It's neo-feminism."

Not your mother's feminism. And that, actually, is the point.

Every generation does something to shock and horrify the one before. It seems positively prehistoric to invoke the image of Elvis scandalizing the nation with swiveling hips but it's the same thing. Adults were aghast at the raw sexuality. Kids were crazy for it.

It's not that parents are wrong for worrying about how we present sex and sexuality to our children. And we are awash in erotic images as never before. A nearly naked J. Lo wearing what looked like a small silk scarf to the 2000 Grammy Awards. Abercrombie & Fitch selling soft porn along with torn denim pants. "Cat In the Hat" thongs for precocious preteens.

But as adults, we need an honesty check of our own.

First, a little time travel back to our own youth is in order. I don't know about you but I can remember wearing a micro-mini skirt so breathtakingly short that it made sitting down just about impossible. My mother gasped when she saw it. My father told me to go put on some clothes.

Second, lets admit that as adults we send kids all kinds of mixed messages. Many of us are just as focused on our own bodies as our children are on theirs. And whether we are eating only protein these days or doing yoga or learning on "Oprah" that a little bump and grind is good exercise, we're not just talking about health here, we're talking about sex. And being sexy.

Which takes me back to teenage girls and stripper poles. Since reading The Nation article, I have since found other stories and references to this "trend." And Web sites where you can buy them. Portable stripper poles. Stationary ones with footlights and smoke machines. In the true spirit of American capitalism, just ask for it, they've got it.

But I have yet to find a preteen or teenage girl who owns one or has tried one. Maybe it's not as huge a trend as the trend spotters think.

What it is, though, is a symbol. Some of the girls I've spoken with tell me the same thing my young college friend did. This so-called stripper chic to them is code for "womanpower" or neo-feminism if you will, a way of saying "I'm in charge of my body and my destiny."

At the risk of sounding like their mothers, as a reporter who has known a stripper or two, and as a card-carrying feminist, I would offer a small and admittedly unsolicited bit of advice. Feeling sexy is a wonderful thing. So is feeling empowered. But in a world where women earn 76 cents for every dollar a man makes, power is far more elusive than you think. I know a few strippers who would agree.

5 posted on 01/14/2004 11:44:05 AM PST by Lizavetta
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To: Lizavetta
women earn 76 cents for every dollar a man makes

Are they still peddling this BS statistic?

6 posted on 01/14/2004 11:50:00 AM PST by Land of the Free 04
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To: Lizavetta
Let's see. Does that mean that morality takes a backseat to money? Guess so.

And before anyone complains, yes I do consider stripping and strip clubs to be immoral. I believe that based upon my understanding of the Bible.

7 posted on 01/14/2004 12:07:45 PM PST by arjay
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To: quidnunc
Zero sympathy. Where were shrews like this when they bashing the US as being an "evil patriarchy?" Traditional morality had to go and guess what Moms? You got what you asked for. Now your daughters admire strippers and Paris Hilton. Guess they didn't learn about the law of "unintended consequences" while toking up huh.
8 posted on 01/14/2004 12:10:24 PM PST by KantianBurke (Don't Tread on Me)
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To: Lizavetta
But in a world where women earn 76 cents for every dollar a man makes, power is far more elusive than you think.

Actually, this figure is fraudulent. When you compare apples and apples -- ie, men vs women with the same job, same education, same training, same number of years on the job, same number of work hours per day, same number of work-days per year, etc, etc.. women make 99 cents on to a man's dollar.. in other words, virtually identical.

The income disparity is because women, on the average (please do not waste bandwith flaming me about exceptions that you happen to know), work fewer hours, take more time off, and choose less demanding and less dangerous jobs. It's not because of discrimination.

9 posted on 01/14/2004 12:23:47 PM PST by Rytwyng
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To: Lizavetta
Chicago Trib articles have to be excerpted.
10 posted on 01/14/2004 12:27:30 PM PST by hellinahandcart
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To: quidnunc
I have mixed feelings about this. The Islamists rightly point out that our present culture has not liberated women, they are cast as having their ultimate value placed upon their physical attractiveness. The Moslems fail to point out that they consider women to be little more than baby machines.

In neither case are women's mental capacities considered valuable.

That being said, as a middle-aged college student, there is no question that women [and men] were in much much better shape when I was in my twenties. Pumping Iron was still fresh in people's minds -- many people were working out. I'm in better shape than many of these youngsters half my age.

Nowadays young women with necks and a waists are extremely rare. I honestly would rather not see most of them on any stripper pole. I'd like to see them on a treadmill. That would be a turn-on.
11 posted on 01/14/2004 12:29:02 PM PST by walford (going back to college full-time soon...)
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To: Lizavetta
But in a world where women earn 76 cents for every dollar a man makes, power is far more elusive than you think. I know a few strippers who would agree.

Crapola. The basis for this bogus statistic is that women leave the workforce to take care of and give birth to children. If women work at the same job a man does and devotes the same amount of time to it, she earns the same amount.

Feminism is evil. The goal of feminism is to destroy the family and have the socialist state raise children. To help accomplish this goal, morality and the natural family need to be destroyed.

12 posted on 01/14/2004 12:48:32 PM PST by little jeremiah
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To: Lizavetta
If you thought this was going to be an article decrying today's females dressing like trollops, as I did, you'd be wrong. It's a screed saying it's A) normal for kids to do outrageous things that scandalize their parents, and B) women won't be empowered until they make as much money as men.

Pretty good summary. Wish I'd read it before I wasted my time reading the article. This comes from the "pick a shocking topic, and mail the rest in" school of journalism.

13 posted on 01/14/2004 12:55:22 PM PST by Snuffington
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To: Snuffington
This comes from the "pick a shocking topic, and mail the rest in" school of journalism.

This, I've noticed, is becoming more and more prevalent. I think they get it from Maureen Dowd.
14 posted on 01/14/2004 3:19:35 PM PST by erasmus605 (Posting without a license since 2003.)
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