Maybe Pole Dancing Isn't So Bad After All...!!

When the news first broke that a stripper from Sydney would be choreographing the opening pole dancing act of the Youth Olympic Games, there was a major uproar from the online community. Some slammed the inappropriateness of pole dancing for a global youth sporting event, because of its association with sleazy strip clubs. Meanwhile, more open-minded commentators noted that pole dancing was a competitive sport in and of itself and did not necessarily have to be associated with the sex industry.

The recent economic crisis emerging from the United States, however, could put the skill of pole-dancing in a positive light for young girls in Singapore. Consider the following news article:

Stripper Finds Degree Profitable for Goldman Wasn't Worth It
By John Hechinger - Aug 6, 2010

Carrianne Howard dreamed of designing video games, so she enrolled in a program at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, a for-profit college part-owned by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Her bachelor’s degree in game art and design cost $70,000 in tuition and fees. After she graduated in December 2007, she found a job that paid $12 an hour recruiting employees for video game companies. She lost that job a year later when her department was shuttered.

These days, Howard, 26, makes her living in a way that doesn’t require a college diploma: by stripping at the Lido Cabaret, a topless club in Cocoa Beach, Florida. “I didn’t know what else to do,” she says. “I’ve got a worthless degree. It’s like I didn’t attend school at all.”

The recent economic downturn has meant that many many people are now finding themselves jobless in the United States and in Europe. Many young fresh graduates find themselves either unemployed or in low-paying dead-end jobs that have nothing to do with the degree they obtained after 3 or 4 years of full time study. Meanwhile, their degrees cost them thousands of dollars, and yet their diplomas are hardly worth the paper they are printed on.

The fundamental mismatch between workers' skills and the demands of the economy means that many in the Western world are out of a job. And the case of Carrianne Howard demonstrates that sometimes having a university education isn't such a big deal after all - in fact, it could turn out to be a big liability. From the same news article:

Howard applied for dozens of jobs, not only in gaming but also in grocery stores and nursing homes, mostly for minimum wage, she says. In October 2009, Howard turned to adult entertainment by doing paid Web chats. In March she started dancing at Lido Cabaret, earning $400 to $1,000 a week, she says.

Here in sunny Singapore the economy is booming and unemployment is low. But we should never take this state of affairs for granted - someday, economic crisis may hit us too and many of us might find ourselves out of a job.

When that happens, maybe the young girls who learnt pole dancing during the YOG will find that they have a useful skill that enables them to pay the bills when times are hard. One fine day, we might just find ourselves with a flourishing stripclub industry. If the PAP government can change its mind on gambling and build us 2 big casinos, who knows...