Tag Archives: dance

Why I Hate You, ‘Magic Mike’

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photo of magic mike pictures
I know everyone is excited about “Magic Mike” but I’m not. Firstly, girls get to be hookers with the heart of gold, okay? Not boys. Boys don’t get to take that role from us, we originated that role and we do it better. But that’s not what bothers me about this movie.

I know that it’s based on Channing Tatum’s life, or whatever, but c’mon. I cannot count how many times I have heard girls screaming at their boyfriends for going to a strip club, watching porn, or buying Playboy. It’s always the same things being said too – “they’re trashy” or “those girls are such skanks,” etc. You know; things of that nature. But when Channing Tatum and his bros get up on stage to gyrate and bare their bodies it’s okay? Why?

This all came to a head for me when I saw the above photo.

Yeah, it matters. It matters what the movie is about because movies are about plots not abs. Movies about abs play on Cinemax after 10 pm. I don’t care that these guys have nice stomachs and can grind their hips, I’m not mad at them for getting up and grinding on stage. I’m mad at you, ladies.

That’s right – you. You hypocritical broads that will yell at a man for looking at your boobs before your eyes but will pay 28 bucks to see this film. This isn’t about everyone it’s about a select few. The above photo was posted on someone’s Facebook wall and I was then assaulted with it on my news feed. When I saw it I wanted to scream. This girl not only gave her boyfriend the silent treatment for buying a magazine with Kate Upton on it but has repeatedly told me that she thinks strippers are “disgusting whores on par with the trash that walks Hollywood Boulevard.” But she is counting down the days until she sees this flick. I’m confused.

I don’t know what it is that makes it okay for men to do things and horrible for women to do it. It’s the age old battle of double standards. Is it because men with washboard abs and the ability to dance are so rare? Is that why it’s okay to put them on a stage, rub oil on them, and make them dance for dollars? I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s ever okay. I’ve gone on my stripper rant before and my …

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Winterguard: Sport or Hobby?

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Photo of Winter Guard Member
The “is it a sport or not?” debate vis a vis everything from women’s skiing to cheerleading has been ongoing for some time now … and there’s pretty much universal support for the fact that it is, at least when you’re considering teams that compete, not just shake pom poms around at a football game or something.

Which leads me to winterguard, a primarily female activity that’s become increasingly popular both in American high schools and at a competitive level.

When my daughter announced to me last year that, as a high school junior, she wanted to join her school’s winterguard team, I was pretty flummoxed.  For one thing, I had only the haziest idea of what winterguard was … namely, girls dressed in odd-looking costumes waving flags around.

I soon learned that it was more than that.  Much more.

For one thing, it entailed three hour practices two nights a week, daylong practices on weekends, and eventually competitions every weekend.  Oh, and countless hours spent in the backyard practicing flag tosses.

The end result of all that practice, the concussions and chipped teeth and bumps and bruises collected by this team, looked something like this.

I was blown away every time I watched that show, and on a personal level, watching my daughter, who has a tendency not to try something if she’s not going to quickly and easily excel at it, blossom into a confident performer through an activity that was incredibly challenging both physically and emotionally was powerful beyond words.

She also dropped something like twenty pounds over the course of last year’s season, and she wasn’t a big girl to start with. The physical demands of winterguard left her not just bruised and battered, but buff as well.

But does that make it a sport?

Well, what exactly constitutes the word “sport”?  According to an English teacher I know who specializes in …

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Unsung Praises for Young Jean Lee’s “Untitled Feminist Play”

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photo of nudes untitled feminist play pics
There’s a new play by playwright Young Jean Lee called “Untitled Feminist Show,” which features six women who perform the entire play nude. Completely nude. “My jumping-off point for all my shows is like ‘What’s the worst idea I can think of?’ or like, ‘What’s the last show in the world I would want to make?’ And then I force myself to make that show,” Lee said. “Feminism – when I first had the idea for the show – really did seem like a dirty word.” Feminism has, indeed, been described as a “loaded term,” and even Lee admits that “It’s gone through this phase of people not wanting to be identified with it, and seeing it as this ’60s hairy armpit kind of thing.”

Lee grouped together a slew of performers to kick around some ideas, and it turned into month-long, six-hour chat sessions that kept returning to one issue: Young Jean Lee.”One of the big problems for us was the fact that because you are born with a certain type of biological body, it kind of dictates what is OK, how it’s OK for you to be,” Lee said. “The show is basically that,” she said. “What that looks like.” She explained that this idea was mind-bending to her because “while some people claim to have freed themselves from gender expectations, it’s very hard to do.” She retells a story of a male friend who found himself inexplicably enraged when on the subway a man sitting near him pulled out some wool and started knitting. So Lee …

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Quinnipiac College in Title IX Violation … So Why Has This Led to an “Is Cheerleading a Sport” Debate?

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photo of cheerleaders

Quinnipiac College in Connecticut dropped their volleyball program last year in lieu of competitive cheering.  Volleyball coach Robin Sparks and several v-ball players have taken the situation to court, opening the door to some pretty serious allegations of Title IX shenanigans.

Title IX, for those of you who may not know, is actually part of the Civil Rights Act (it was added in 1972).  Championed by Congresswoman Patsy Mink, its purpose has been equality in both high school and college athletics.  It reads, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

You would think this would be pretty straightforward, but the chaos at Quinnipiac shows that this is unfortunately not the case.  You see, there’s a lot more to this story than the elimination of one sport for another.

From The Chicago Sun-Times:

Judge Stefan Underhill also will be asked to decide whether Quinnipiac improperly manipulates the size of the rosters of its other teams to get around complying with Title IX, the 1972 federal law that mandates equal opportunities for men and women in athletics.

Underhill issued a temporary injunction last year that prevented the school from disbanding the volleyball team after finding the school was over-reporting the participation opportunities for its female athletes and under-reporting the opportunities for men.

Evidence showed the men’s baseball and lacrosse teams, for example, would drop players before reporting data to the Department of Education and reinstate them after the reports were submitted. Conversely, the women’s softball team would add players before the reporting date, knowing the additional players would not be on the team in the spring.

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