All dressed up to be in a beauty pageant.

They are an integral part of the organization which has one purpose, TO ENTERTAIN. For someone on a message board to say that they have no talent is absolutely ridiculous. Professional dancers work just as many hours and years as anyone in any profession. Oh and don’t forget that they do this in front of hundreds of thousands of people yet all you can do is tear them down.

Jealousy is a funny thing.

REC!

how do you, Sophia, feel about professional dancers who also are dressed in revealing outfits for their performances? Do you consider that way of dressing, even for a professional, degrading to women and provide an unrealistic expectation of women?

Do you think that you are possibly being slightly hypocritical by saying that the Blazer dancers are bad when you react in the same way to Batum that we react to the Blazer Dancers. I guarantee you would not complain if Nicolas Batum took his jersey off after the game.

if a bunch of grown women choose to shake their tushies for the enjoyment of the crowd, so freakin what?

And if it’s more about sex than dancing, again, so freakin what?

The Blazer dancers are old enough to decide for themselves what they want to do and the rest of us are old enough to decide if we want to watch or go use the pisser while they are on the court.

But I find this is a topic I can’t stop myself mentioning something, mostly because I find it fascinating. Apologies to everyone. I’ll keep it brief.

I find beauty both in “unattainable ideals” and in “imperfection”. I enjoy looking at Michelangelo’s David just as much as Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights”.

Most discomfort with, AND pursuit of said ideals are born of insecurities. We all have ‘em. I’ve caught myself on several occasions disparaging boy bands or pretty boy actors for the same reason.

Being attractive doesn’t disqualify you from having insecurities. Sometimes it intensifies them (I’m ABSOLUTELY not making a judgment call on Sophia here, I’m just pointing out a truism).

Offensiveness is quite often in the eye of the beholder, and influenced by an enormity of outside forces. For example, where sex was the ultimate source of taboo back in the 80’s, now racism is, and the pursuit of the latter has led to an age of over sensitivity towards things that in other decades would be quite innocuous.

My wife loves the Blazer dancers (quite a bit more than I do) and is particularly fond of Ione, after hearing her national anthem performance. She also enjoys strippers.

I find it kind of funny that even people defending the dancers and their right to entertain in a venue where their style is appreciated are offended by comparisons to strippers, who have just as much right in their venue too. (total sidenote: Beaverton has the highest strip club per capita in the country. Newberg the highest church rate per capita. I’ve always found it hilarious they sit right next to each other).

Aesthetic appreciation does not necessarily equate to sex. Although, the two are also not necessarily mutually exclusive either. I can enjoy looking at a “fit” woman gyrating and not want to jump her bones, so to speak. I can’t make the same claim for anyone else. I also don’t think there’s anything wrong with appreciating someone solely for their looks, so long as said appreciation doesn’t also equate every time with some sort of degradation of the individual on another level. A good example here would be people who go off on how hot Harlowe is, and every time smear her skills as a reporter, and insinuate she’s sleeping with various members of the team for the job. That’s not to say you shouldn’t be critical of someone’s performance if you think their good looking, but I find the points, when put together, kind of offensive. But then, as I said, offensiveness is subjective.

Nuance, or quality of dance, is also subjective. As in other realms of talent, a technically proficient individual will judge a performance completely different from a lay person. My wife isn’t the former at all. Her credentials are solely liking dance, and being a fan of shows like “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing With the Stars”. She’s not afraid to call out what from her perspective a lame performance. Again, all subjective. But I mention it just to provide a counter point (from a woman) to the argument that skill=suck + looks=hot =offensive.

My wife is crazy hot. This isn’t a point, but rather, a statement of opinion, for no reason at all. ;)

I lied when I said this would be brief.

But hey just another reason why I’m getting a better deal watching the game on TV than the schmuck blowing $300.00 on tickets to go to the circus ERRRR I mean the Blazer game.

so many men absolutely not get what Sophia is saying. I mean…the level of general cluelessness is pretty damning.

I’ve read in this post that Ballet dancers are good, Blazers dancers bad. Someone said Blazers dancers are fat, I think. But I’ve also read that Blazer dancers are bad body image models for women. Isn’t the Ballet body type way more unattainable than the “fat” Blazer dancers?
   Regardless, it’s all just a part of freedom. Girls want to be Blazers dancers, fine. Guys want to watch their stupid dance, fine. If it wasn’t for these things the Blazer dancers wouldn’t exist. I used to look down on people who did things I thought were low class (perhaps how Ballet dancers look at Jazz dancers?) but that makes a person into an elitist. If someone wants to do something that I wouldn’t do, that’s their choice and I am glad they have it. I can’t look into their minds and see the reasons they do it, the life they have lived to make them who they are. You can respect the things a Ballet dancer does, hard work, dedication, training, but that does not make them a better person than a stripper. Perhaps if you really knew both you might respect the stripper for taking a hard life and trying to make something better the only way they can. Perhaps the ballet dancer is just a spoiled elitist. Those are both sterotypes though, and the truth could be the exact opposite.
     People also have the freedom to try and convince others that their point of view is better. That’s whats fun about this stuff I guess.
    I am going to wish I didn’t click post on this gibberish.