Whines &
Gripes
collected by Ashleigh Phillips
and Emily Gamiel
I can hear you crunching your
carrots over the professor’s lec
ture. Talk about distracting.
Students in Gaddy-Hamerick,
please stop vandalizing my art
that is hanging on the walls. I
spend a lot of time and effort
on my pieces.
Corn, don’t you know I need
sleep?
When you go to D.H. Hill to
giggle, it reinforces the MRS
degree stereotype.
Don’t complain about not
knowing the material when
you repeatedly skip class.
Leggings are not pants. No one
wants to see the outline of your
girly parts.
Did this freshman just try' to
tell the professor, with a doc
torate, which map to use?
The ground floor of the library
may not be labeled “Silent,”
. but it does not entail talking
loudly about your personal life
for 45 minutes.
By the looks of our unkempt
locker rooms, I would think I
was in the football locker room
at State.
Looking forward to Fall Break
so I can catch up on home
work.
Class of 2012, get it together.
You are supposed to know' how
to organize events by now'.
Pole Dancing... For Jesus?
Lizzie Wood, Staff Writer
A new trend in fitness has some
concerned. We all know what pole
dancing is. We often relate it to
stripping, and we sometimes judge
those who participate in it regularly.
Whether or not you strip while you
pole dance, it does not take away
from the fact that it serves as a great
form of exercise. Pole dancing is
nothing new in the fitness world.
Programs such as Flirty Girl Fitness
decided to make a profit off women
who wanted a fun, sexy workout years
ago.
Crystal Deans, a resident of Texas,
opens her dance studio once a month-
a Sunday of course- to religious
women who want to participate in
pole dancing. She calls her program
“Pole Dancing With Jesus.” While the
women are not in the studio actively
worshiping or reading the Bible, they
do listen to upbeat Christian music.
Also, women do have to show their
church bulletins to get into the studio
on Sunday. The workouts are aimed
at women who want a fun, spiritual
way to burn calories. Deans is
quoted as saying, “God gives us
these bodies and they’re supposed
to be our temples and we’re sup
posed to take care of them, and
that’s what we’re doing.”
While several news outlets in her
area have covered the pole danc
ing classes with a negative spin.
Deans stands by her belief that
there is nothing wrong with mix
ing pole dancing and religion. In
an article written by Kristen Kane
on Myfoxhouston.com, Deans
explains, “Just to get past the
whole stigma of the whole thing.
I’m very Christian. I go to church
every Sunday and I pray. I talk to
God about things like that. I think
there’s nothing wrong with what
I do. I teach women to feel good
about themselves, to feel empow
ered and we get in really good
shape. God is the only person that
judges, so anybody who wants to
judge me, feel free, but I’m good
with God, so that’s what’s impor
tant to me and I really don’t care
what people think.” She states that
while she has met some controversy
(some men came to the studio wav
ing Bibles), the women who par
ticipate are responding well to her
program. Tiffany Booth, a woman
who actually participates in the
classes, also expresses her belief
in the program on myfocxhouston.
com: “I think it’s a fabulous thing.
I was raised around religion. My
parents were very religious and
it’s a great way you get the stigma
off. It’s not just dancing on a pole.
You have music and you have girls
together working out and it’s a
different kind of workout. There’s
tons of different kinds of workouts;
this just happens to be one.” Pole
Dancing With Jesus may not be the
most well-known spiritual form of
exercise, but if it serves as a good
cardio workout and if the women
feel that their religious beliefs are
not compromised, why not partici
pate?
Molly Ashline,
Staff Writer
The Love Triangle
Education, the Meredith Angel, and Her Man
If you walk around the Meredith
College campus on any given sunny
day you may be temporarily blinded
by the glinting of a few engagement
rings. I don’t know if that glare
reflects from these girls’ textbooks
and prevents them from effectively
studying, but according to Lacy
Bass, a Meredith freshman and re
cently engaged student, it doesn’t.
That’s good news for any woman
hoping to put a ring on it before
graduating. According to Lacy, her
fiance actually influences her to do
well in school: “He’s my support
system and always has been my
support system...either way, he’s my
motivator.” It’s interesting to hear
such a response since many young
women, including me, have thought
that relationships, especially such
serious relationships, have a nega
tive impact on schoolwork because
of how distracting they can be.
Many could see the choice of get
ting engaged as immature because
they see a decision like this as being
an interference with schoolwork.
The question “how can she study
and do well when she’s with her
fiance or planning her wedding all
the time?” conies to mind. I chal
lenge those who ask this to maybe
take a look at their own trysts.
How much time do non-betrothed
imageviajamesallen.com
girls go trolling around NC State’s
campus for distraction of the male
persuasion when they could be
studying instead? It’s easy to say
that planning a wedding would take
away from study time, but does that
mean that going to the club or flirt
ing with a new cute guy cannot?
When I was talking to Lacy, she
said something that just struck me
as really interesting. She said that
the amount of time she spends on
her engagement and fiance is equal
to the amount of time she spends
on schoolwork, saying “You can’t
give enough attention to one or the
other.”
I think very often, maybe too
much so, we view our lives in dis
crete stages. I will go to school. I
will work. I will get married. I will
start a family. For many young
women today, the idea of combin
ing any of those two together is
ridiculous, and I can understand
why. My mother got married and
had children while she was in
college and had to drop out. She
didn’t complete her degree until
she was in her mid-thirties. Get
ting married or starting a family is
a huge commitment that ope needs
to devote a lot of time to, but that
doesn’t mean it isn’t worth it, and it
certainly doesn’t mean that some
one can’t both go to school and be
in a serious relationship. It just
takes massive amounts of discipline
and the ability to accept all those
responsibilities.
I think that by this point in our
lives, we should be allowed to make
these decisions for ourselves with
out tons of negativity surrounding
us. Lacy roughly estimated that
about fifty percent of the women
on campus have a negative opinion
about her engagement. That added
stress certainly isn’t going to help
anything. We are considered le
gal adults who have already had to
make a huge life decision in choos
ing a college, major, and career, so
why should the decision for engage
ment be berated so much?