As a pole athlete, dancer, and owner of two pole dance studios, San Francisco Pole & Dance and Oakland Pole & Dance in the Northern California Bay Area, I’m excited to see pole represented in the new movie, “Hustlers”, starring JLo, Constance Wu (CWu), Cardi B., and the one who needs only one name: Lizzo.
LIZZO, y’all!
Even before its release, “Hustlers” is seemingly everywhere; TV, social media, this Youtube video with over 3 million views where JLo shares her own pole journey as she prepared for the role, and billboards across the country. I’m here for it — media portrayals that show the technical difficulty of my chosen sport and art form are in general great for business and for enlightening the social consciousness around what pole dancing even is.
But at the same time, real life strippers, pole dancers and small business’ such as mine, whose social media presence and livelihoods depend on pole dance representation are being banned, deleted and shadowbanned on social media. Pop culture has decided it is OK to pretend to be a stripper but real life strippers and recreational pole dancers/artists are forced to censor their art/promotional work…
