My favorite screen grab of the year so far.

For quite some time now, we’ve celebrated the graduation of pole dancing from awesome strip club activity to awesome fitness routine, especially since it inspired such amazing events as the United States Pole Dancing Championship and the World Pole Dancing Championship. Hell, it’s even great for charity. If only we could pair pole dancing with the Miss Bum Bum Brasil Pageant so my head could finally actually explode Scanners style.

But now it seems that other countries are realizing how great pole dancing is as an exercise activity, as well as how just mentioning “pole dancing” will draw automatic attention to any event. In this case, people at the Mayfield Library in Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland offered a free pole dancing class this past Saturday to increase interest in books or something.

Whatever, it worked. I just got my Mayfield Library card.

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In a not-so-shocking turn of events, the Miami Dolphins only lost to the New England Patriots by a touchdown yesterday, and I say that it’s not shocking because the Dolphins are usually good for a close game against their bitter rivals this late in the season. But in even less of a shocker, the Pats’ 23-16 victory in front of the rain-soaked masses at Joe Robbie Pro Player Sun Life Dolphins Sun Life Stadium marked New England’s 10th AFC East title in 12 years, which makes me absolutely miserable, but it’s probably pretty fun for Pats fans.

As for Dolphins fans, though, they’re learning to look to other favorite pastimes to have fun as their favorite NFL team slowly climbs out of a two-decade funk. And it seems that the pastime du jour is working the stripper pole, and I fully endorse any female sports fan, or just any female north of 18 years in age for that matter, who wants to hop on the pole. It could be for making a tailgate more enjoyable or charity or just a general exercise, just go ahead and straddle that aluminum pony, ladies, because it will make me feel a lot better when I’m dropping my daughters off at pole-dancing class.

Anywho, some female Dolphins fans busted out the stripper pole before yesterday’s game and it was rather enjoyable.

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We’ve made no secret in the past that us gentleman at With Leather are huge supporters of women who believe that pole dancing is a sport. There are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of women across the world who currently compete for state, regional, national and international championships in pole dancing, and I think that’s fantastic, because it totally validates all those times that I’ve gone to “competitive pole dancing” clubs for “research”. And now, I’m proud to “report” that pole dancing is making the lives of many children better as well.

Fifty-one students at Newcastle University, in an effort by the school’s pole dancing club, broke the Guinness World Record for consecutive hours of pole dancing earlier this month, after they exhibited their athletic skills for an amazing 30 hours, raising $1,500 for charity in the process. And while that may not sound like a lot of money for their efforts, perhaps next year they’ll provide an ATM for the people in attendance.

So is that easy, ladies? You know, pole dancing for 30 hours?

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We’ve made no secret of our appreciation of pole dancing as a sport in the past, from coverage of international pole dancing competitions to Chicago Bears fan busting their asses to the superstar athletes at Rick’s Cabaret and their appreciation of this site. Unfortunately, as with most exciting fads, it was only a matter of time before pole dancing as a form of exercise was taken too far, and we can thank the free-wheeling party animals of Vancouver for taking something so beautiful and making it so dirty.

The Twisted Grip dance studio on Vancouver Island has become a global laughing stock because of a special pole dancing class that it offers… for children. Gee, how could anyone have a bad opinion about this great idea?

Twisted Grip owner Kristy Craig told QMI Agency she’s shocked by the amount of negative attention the story has received.

“It’s nothing new,” she said, noting pole-dancing competitions are already offered in Russia and the UK “People need to really look into it before jumping to any conclusions about what I’m offering.” (Via Sun News)

Fair enough, I’ll give her that. And besides, the parents have to make the actual decision to sign their daughters up for this class, so it’s really on them to change the negative perception.

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We’ve shown plenty of love for the world of competitive pole dancing in the past, so much so that I’ve always sort of felt like it’s our true national pastime. But as the rest of the world catches up to our progressive thinking, one special woman is expanding the increasingly popular fitness routine to a whole new demographic – the plus-sized ladies.

LuAyne “Lulu” Barber is a 22-year old mother of one who has been working the pole for 5 years. But she’s not working it to make money, she’s working it to WORK. IT. *snaps* And Barber is a true inspiration, because as you can see above, she’s working with a lot. To be precise, she’s working with 252-pounds, and I know that a lot of people might think that’s too big to be swinging around on a pole, but I say, “You go, girl.”

I’m all for women of all shapes and sizes to keep spreading the word of this fantastic sport. One day, competitive pole dancing will hopefully be an Olympic sport, and people all over the world can celebrate their nations’ pole dancers by throwing their currencies in the air. Unless Germany and China take over, in which case I welcome our new Germnese overlords.

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Back in June, Colombian women took to the streets to promote their new found joy of pole dancing, and their countrymen put down their rifles and giant bags of drugs and started waving dollar bills around. Soon after, the rest of South and Central America took notice and joined in the fun, endorsing what we have long associated with fake breasts and C-section scars as the latest exercise fad.

Well much like an underground cocaine lab in a Tom Clancy novel, pole dancing exploded throughout South America and this past week the 2011 South American Pole Dancing Championship took place in Argentina. A dozen or so women traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina to first witness the 2011 Pole Dance Argentina contest and then compete for the continental title. Argentina’s Maria Luz Escalante was the big winner of both events, as I assume she blasted Buckcherry and made her ass clap on that pole. A very warm With Leather congratulations to Miss Escalante, who will go on to compete at the World Pole Dancing Championship, which I assume takes place at Charlie Sheen’s home.

Alas, I bring bad news for fans of our own American pole dancing. Via the U.S. Pole Dance Federation’s website:

USPDF has decided not to host amateur regional competitions this fall 2011 due to various projects and some positive re- structuring. We’re is holding off with our next competitions until the spring 2012.

Well, at least it was written like a true pole dance champion. Viva Argentina after the jump!

UPDATE: Apparently the whole event didn’t take place on the set of Hostel, so I added some more pics.

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