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Perceptions of Pole
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I agree with LunaLovely. The survey has lot of opinions to choose from. Honestly if it is biased at all it is probably more positive to pole. A lot more questions were like, “does pole make you stronger?” or “Does pole make you more courageous?” And only a few were about strippers. Which for the record, my opinion theres nothing wrong with strippers either.
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I think this is great that someone is trying to clarify/quantify information on this topic, which could lead to further studies looking at changes within the pole world at a more granular level. Good for this person and her professor!
I thought it was a fine survey. I’ve done research and you have to understand that data collection tries to paint an entire picture, in this case both positive and negative perceptions. Just because there’s a question about impulsiveness doesn’t mean the surveyor thinks you are impulsive or not. Science is about being objective no matter if we like the question or the answer.
For those who think the struggle of perception has waned over the last 5 years or so, come to WI and hang out. Most people have no idea what’s going on and are incredibly ignorant/rude about it. I’m guessing (hope) things have gotten better on the coasts!
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Done
Good luck with your study.
In a way I see it as very limited and very conservative outlook on pole athletes in general. Probably would be good to look at a history of pole sports (chinese, indian tradition etc.) also into development across the world like Russian, Ukrainian Federation of Pole Fitness, Pole fitness facilities for children in Europe… starting at age 5 and up. Ballet dancers coming to pole transforming it into a form of true art performance. -
Usually, unless one is writing a book, it’s best to narrow down the topic of a thesis, otherwise it gets out of control. It might be useful to touch on the history of pole sports such as Chinese pole in order to bring context to certain points, but to go full-on into it might not be in the best interest of the thesis.
Another thing I wanted to mention though, as someone else pointed out, perhaps a more comprehensive survey might question non-poling people what they think, as well as showing them pictures of a woman dancing with heels, without heels, perhaps show a video where a performance is gymnastics-based vs one that is meant to titillate. For example, when the survey asks what my friends’ and coworkers’ reactions would to my pole dancing or stripping I can only guess what they might be. So whatever I say is my assumption and might not be accurate at all, thus skewing the veracity of the survey results.
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I appreciate everyone’s feedback and ideas. My student is working on a project that she is designing and carrying out within this one semester, so it has to be limited in scope (although hopefully we can work on it after the semester ends). This questionnaire is just one portion of her methodology, and when distributing a questionnaire, it is easier to get a higher response rate when the survey is limited in length. This constrained how many questions we felt that we could ask.
In terms of the sampling, she is sampling non-polers, and there have been people who completed the survey who do not know that pole classes exist. This is why some of the questions are they way they are at the beginning of the survey. The questions about what your friends, and co-workers think (plus some of the other questions) are designed to test a particular theory. It isn’t so much about what they really think that matters, but what you believe they think that matters in this particular case. I don’t want to skew things by talking about the theory more here, but if anyone messages me individually I can explain our thought process for including some of the questions.
I think the idea of having non-polers look at pictures and videos is a really interesting and useful one. I presented some work on pole at a conference last year and began by showing a video montage of polers and I could hear from the ooohs and ahhhs and comments that these people had no real conception of what pole was like before that. In terms of the history of pole, I think looking at how people frame the history of any activity is very important. It can be a rhetorical strategy in and of itself. -
I thought the survey was fine. It presented what I must admit are some very real misconceptions about pole fitness and gave me a chance to say that I thought they were misconceptions and to tell why. I’m 56, a nurse, very conservative upbringing and live in a very conservative community. I’ve been taking pole classes for 8 years and I consider myself intermediate in skill. I love it but I’m very selective about who I tell about it. I wish it didn’t have to be that way. I am very excited that someone in a university setting finds pole fitness a topic worthy of researching. Thank you, I hope the results of your research will allow people to have a more realistic perception of what pole fitness really is in these current days and times.
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I see pole fitness as just another form of gymnastics. You can take any prop or apparatus and make it something else and use it in a different way. I tell everyone I know the physical challenges of pole fitness and if they roll their eyes I show them my biceps! I don’t know anyone else in my area that does pole fitness. The local studio teacher isn’t knowledgeable or safe and most of the attendees are strippers half my age. So happy to be part of Studio Verna:)
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Ooops, another type, Sorry Verna!
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Now I see what is happening, my computer won’t let me spell your name correctly. I will have to figure out how to take spellcheck off:)
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I took the survey and thought it was fine. I have no psychology background so the “offensive” bits might just have gone over my head.
Is it maybe possible that people got offended because some things are sore points for specific reasons?In any case, peace and pole
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