Bonus Sample: Leaving S-Factor pt. 1 (w/Jessica Hopper)
Those who fly high, fall hard. Pole dance company S-Factor crashed and burned in 2021 amidst a stack of complaints. Detractors said the company was conducting unlicensed group therapy, cosplaying enlightenment by co-opting the labour of sex workers, and whitewashing issues of racial equality.Created by former actor Sheila Kelley, S-Factor monetized pole dancing as a path of feminist and spiritual awakening.In this second installment of Listener Stories (part 2 next week), Matthew speaks to Jessica Hopper about her 13 years learning and teaching in the now-defunct company. Hopper paints a picture of a confusing, high-demand group, and tells us how she made her way out.Show NotesStripped Down: The Undoing of Hollywood's Favorite Pole-Dancing Studio —Hollywood Reporter."Strip Down, Rise Up" | Official Trailer | NetflixFaces of Fierce Femininity—online conference organized by Kelly Brogan Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema—Laura Mulvey, 1975
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And what's the 101 on Sheila Kelly?
I would describe her as a, you know, very minor actress married to a much more high profile actor.
Her origin story for S Factor is that she got cast in a movie where she was going to play an exotic dancer and she had to learn the movements.
So she went to a strip club in Hollywood to get some of the dancers to teach her how to do the moves.
And then all her friends thought it was cool and wanted her to teach them and that was how she started teaching.
I find that story the tiniest bit suspect because unless there are two projects, and I haven't ever heard of there being two projects, the movie that she cites where she plays the stripper is Dancing with the Blue Iguana.
Mm-hmm.
She's a producer on that project.
Okay.
So the idea that she was suddenly just cast in something sounds a little bit like maybe there was more calculation behind it than that.
So but that the origin story is a Hollywood story.
I had to learn this thing.
But then as she learned it that that's very meaningful to her as well because the origin story also involves like this opened me up or this made me gave me a sense of empowerment that I'd never had or it gave me a sense of control over my body and my agency.
I was feeling sexy again after the birth of my second child.
Her story, not mine.
Yeah.
So all of that.
And you know, when I would pick up my child from school, all the other moms in the carpool line noticed I was glowing and they wanted me to teach them.
That was the terms that I learned that story in.
Now, there is a Puff-type film on Netflix about S Factor and Sheila Kelly.
It's called Strip Down and Rise Up.
And the director was Michelle O'Hagan, I think you'd pronounce it?
I believe that's how you pronounce it.
Yeah, she had a breakout Academy Award-nominated film in 1997 called Colors Straight Up about a non-profit that brings theatre to inner-city youth.
And she brings that same sort of like, you know, coming of age and coming out of oneself and overcoming adversity theme to Strip Down, Rise Up.
And I've got a little clip parade here for us to listen to and for you to respond to.
And I say, I say puff film because, you know, I don't know if Sheila Kelly and Ohayon are best friends, but it was clear that Ohayon wanted to platform Kelly in her own words.
And I get the sense that this film is really that kind of peak achievement in marketing, that it's a documentary made by an independent filmmaker that is really a powerful piece of marketing.
And it really aligns with how Kelly, I think, wants to present herself.
I 100% agree.
Yeah.
I imagine that that will overlap with what initially drew you into her circle, this self-presentation.
Is that a fair premise?
I think so.
It's absolutely the way that she wants to be portrayed.
I don't know how her relationship with Michelle O'Hanlon began, but while they were filming, I was teaching at the studio at the time that they were filming.
I just happened to have a class scheduled across the lobby in the other studio space.
Michelle was taking private lessons from one of the most senior teachers at the studio.
You know, she was really being hand-fed this sort of myth of what this movement is and could do.
And it is very similar to what was enticing about it to me personally.
Absolutely.
You know, they show you all shiny parts.
Right.
And you don't realize that the shiny parts are wrapped in garbage because they tell you if you react to that garbage, that's your problem.
Well, let's start with the opening.
So I ask for truth and I ask for your erotic power and that beautiful desire So I want you to really bring it.
Don't forget that thing that's hard to show.
This is gonna provoke you.
And it's gonna make you surrender.
Thank you.
Thank you for being the first half.
If you think about the society that we live in, women are trapped in the culture of the
masculine.
you There's so much global abuse of women.
Body image shaming, sexual abuse and ego smashing.
There's a lot of shame that women carry because their body doesn't look like that body on a magazine cover.
Finding your erotic body.
Just because someone is dressing some way or looking sexy doesn't mean that they're inviting you to be sexual with
them.
We've been shutting down the feminine body, curbing women's eroticism.
It is time for women to step into their power and the time is now.
The way to step into that power is through movement.
I believe that taking the pole and reframing it allows for personal reclamation of the feminine body.
We like to talk about how forward-thinking we are, but the truth of the matter is, the second you say pole dancing, they immediately think where men go, smoke cigars, drink, and women do lap dances for money.
And that's just a part of what it is.
It's the world of pole.
It's pole dance and it's pole artistry, pole fitness, pole sport.
It's different things to different people.
It's a journey of growth and self-discovery.
I wanted to get my mojo back.
I am in a war to help women reclaim themselves.
When you enter my world, you're gonna feel like you walked into Fight Club for women.
And if you judge here, I'm gonna ask you to leave.
Baby, this is not for sissies.
It's really a microcosm of the entire film, so I think it's a really great place to start.
I agree, there's so much in that clip.
Yeah, and just to be clear, we've got a lot of Sheila in the narration, but we also have a selection of students that we see featured in the film.
we have at least one female embodiment influencer named Mama Gina, which we'll talk about in a minute,
who gives one quote there in the beginning, but I don't think she shows up
at any other point in the film, which is a little bit odd.
But all of the themes are laid out, right?
I want your truth, I want to unleash your erotic power.
This will provoke you and it will make you surrender.
Which- She's telling on herself right there.
She doesn't even realize she's doing it, she's telling on herself right there.
She's gonna make you surrender.
Okay, so yeah, let's say a little bit more about that.
It's a- Pole dancing is going to provoke you, because of course it's going to apparently push against certain taboos you might have, and it might force you to acknowledge or question aspects about your sexuality that you haven't really investigated, or that have fallen flat, or that you have dissociated from.
But then, what's the surrender part about?
Um, I mean, honestly, I think it's what it becomes is she's going to push you in directions and any resistance that you have, you know, she's framing it as weakness.
She's framing your genuine reaction of something's wrong here.
She's reframing it as, oh, no, no, no, no.
That just means, you know, you're a wimp, right?
She literally says it right there.
And if you judge anybody here, I'm going to ask you to leave.
And then she proceeds to judge every single person.
It became very, very obvious around the studio that Sheila was approaching every student from a place of, I know your body better than you do.
I know what's good for you.
Even if you don't think that that's right or you resist it, that's just proving me right.
And once you buy into that, how do you put on the bricks?
Where do you draw a line once you say, okay, I will surrender to this because you're going to help me in some way by pushing me past this boundary, right?
It's something I've thought about a lot.
One of the inherent flaws of self-help is that you are accepting as given that you need to be helped and improved.
And the heart of this help, as framed in this montage, but then throughout the film, and I think a lot of the things that you're going to go on to talk about today, is that people who engage with this material are going to be able to overcome abuse and shame.
And that is the message that we first hear in this montage from a woman named Amy, who is very heavily featured throughout the film.
