Recently I attended an Elon University basketball game but the memories I carried away from that arena had nothing to do with basketball. Rather it was the sickening half-time show by a local youth "dance" team. It occurred to me during this "routine" that if the children performing had poles to twirl around on that they would have felt right at home at a strip club. Don't get me wrong, there was no discarding of clothing articles, instead it was a grotesque display of undulating pelvic thrusts and bodies writhing about on the floor. The youngest of these young ladies (there were no boys) couldn't have been more than 7 or 8 years old while the oldest was likely 15 or 16. I found myself asking where these children's parents were? Surely they were not in attendance for if they had been they would have been appalled at their young daughters performing sexually suggestive gyrations. I mean, surely a conscientious parent would never allow or encourage their daughter to be involved in such an activity.
When I voiced my incredulity to the friend I was with he said "that's how they 'dance' now" and then he jokingly implied that I was a pervert for noticing it and pointing it out. That got me up on my soapbox. I may be getting old but I still know when a female moves in a particular way she is trying to evoke something out of her onlookers and while a woman moving in such a way might be a stimulating sight, to see children, young girls, emulating pole dancers and lap dancers only serves to get my anger up. In all likelihood most of these girls were only going through a routine and thought nothing of it but I cannot imagine that the older girls never had it cross their mind that what they were doing was sexual and designed to capture the lascivious attention of boys.
I realize most young women today idolize the Hollywood trash like Brittany Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton and that is truly a shame. But what is more shameful is that so many parents encourage their children, nay they push their children to be like the tinsel town sluts. A parent that lets a child become involved in such activities isn't much of a parent and should not be surprised one day when their daughters begin to take notice of boys and wind up raped, deflowered, or pregnant.
I'm not against dancing. I think there is a time and a place for dancing provided it isn't of a sexually perverse nature. Parents, if you want your child to be involved in dance why not get them to take up ballroom, square, contra or any number of different dance styles that are much more challenging and much more rewarding than learning how to slither around a pole and on a floor so that disgusting men can stuff money between the girls butt cheeks or breasts.
