For a lot of people, and women in particular, the concept of “sexy” carries a lot. It might carry the weight of a lifetime of being told “sexy” was a bad thing. Maybe it carries the weight of a despicable act that happened to them. Sexy can feel foreign in our own bodies. Our bodies that may weigh more or less than we think is “sexy”. Sexy is not easy. To feel sexy. To want to feel sexy. To know what sexy is. To embrace what sexy feels like. To acknowedge the differences in sexy. None of it is easy.
Additionally, I tend to see a recurring situation in which we as women find we did not know we were missing it. We did not know that empowerment can be intertwined in sexy. We did not know that knowing our bodies is sexy. We did not see that sexy is strong and powerful. We did not know that sexy is each and every one of our bodies.
Then we become members at Aerial. And we start on this learning curve of exploration of our bodies. We start to, maybe quite slowly, embrace the idea of “if it’s yours you can touch it” and during routine week or a flow we move our hands on our bodies to the music, and maybe eventually it feels ok. We start to look in the mirror while we are doing hard stuff and see ourselves doing it. And not just doing it, but being cheered on and celebrated while doing it. And we start to, again, sometimes very slowly, feel empowered.
Personally, this has been an ever growing and evolving journey. I was the person that laughed at the idea of pole dancing because I was not a dancer. I grew up not believing or understanding that dancing was not only okay but good for your body. Dancing was not part of my life. Being sexy was not something for outside of a bedroom. Well, at least that is what I used to believe.
And while pole dancing and all things aerial are not sexual in nature, they sure have made me learn and embrace that I can be sexy. That I can know my body. That I can like my body. That I can choose to be sexy. That I am sexy. And it all comes from me learning what I am capable of, seeing myself doing really hard things, pushing myself to do things outside of my comfort zone, and doing it all while being surrounded by and empowered by other sexy women.