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Pole Dancing, Empowerment and Embodiment, by Samantha Holland. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. 212pp. $84.95 cloth. IBSN: 9780230210387.
The cover art for Samantha Holland's book raises interesting questions for feminist scholars: it shows a woman, lean and muscular, wearing provocative pink clothing and pink spike heels, hanging upside down on a floor-to-ceiling pole. Women who enroll in pole dancing classes, or what they refer to simply as "pole," say this is not a stripper pole. Rather, it is a pole that allows for exercise or dancing, and ultimately empowerment and liberation. Holland draws on primarily women's experiences in pole classes to explore meanings of gender, sexuality, agency, embodiment, and empowerment. Her basic research question explores why women (and a few men - but this is not the focus of her book) attend pole classes, and what going to these classes means to the respondents in her study.
Feminists have long debated about what constitutes empowerment for women. How do we know as researchers, sociologists, and/or feminists when women are empowered and liberated? Holland's book speaks to this debate. Holland conducted qualitative interviews and online surveys with pole class teachers and participants, and participant and non-participant observations of pole dancing in...