This book provides an international, multi-disciplinary empirical account of pole classes and how they fit into wider discourses about bodies and gender, and age and fitness. In particular, the book explores how women initiate agency and espouse liberation and empowerment through something as seemingly problematic as pole classes.

Keywords

Reviews

'This book pays much needed attention to a fascinating phenomenon emerging from striptease culture and the mainstreaming of sex...Holland's cutting-edge ethnography illuminates brilliantly the complexities of feminized and embodied empowerment swirling around these poles, as women from all walks of life explore this new form of exercise and self-expression. 'Poler' is now a new word in my vocabulary!' - Catherine M. Roach, Associate Professor, New College, University of Alabama, USA

'Pole Dancing, Empowerment and Embodiment is accessibly and appealingly written...[offering] a fresh perspective and much needed empirical contribution to current debates around the sexualisation of culture.' - Sociological Research Online

Authors and Affiliations

Leeds Metropolitan University, UK

Samantha Holland

About the author

SAMANTHA HOLLAND is Research Fellow, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. Her research focuses on gender, ageing, and non-mainstream leisure and subcultures. Her publications include Alternative Femininities: Body, Age and Identity and Remote Relationships in a Small World (edited).

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Pole Dancing, Empowerment and Embodiment
Authors: Samantha Holland
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230290433
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences Collection, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2010
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-230-21038-7Published: 10 March 2010
eBook ISBN: 978-0-230-29043-3Published: 10 March 2010
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VIII, 212
Topics: Gender Studies, Regional and Cultural Studies, Sociology of Sport and Leisure, Social Structure, Social Inequality, Anthropology, Popular Science, general

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Authors:

Sections

Buy it now

Buying options

Other ways to access

Table of contents (12 chapters)

Front Matter

Back Matter

About this book