The story of Jersey pole-dancing housewives from this weekend's Times is already rocketing up the most-emailed list. The slideshow is much creepier than Inland Empire. To be honest, it made us think of our moms, and how we wouldn't want them enshrined in the paper of record as crazy menopausal raccoons. Why were these women set up by a reporter to be the victims of media exposure? But a more extensive investigation revealed that the truth might not be what we first assumed.

Jersey-born Metro reporter Tina Kelley got married in 2000, and is in her mid-40s. She attended Yale. She served on the "Portraits of Grief" team. In 2002, she published a poem about a childless woman "at thirty-seven...ready to believe in hope" despite yet another miscarriage.

Suddenly, it didn't much look like Kelley's story was mocking those pole-dancing Jersey dental hygienists. Was it maybe her own femininity that needed some reclamation and cardio?

Let us turn to visual analysis.


The lady with "Got Pole?" across her bosom is Johnna Cottam, 29-year-old pole-dance instructor. She's joined in the foreground by Karen Schotanus, 42, and Carolyn DaCarolis, 52. The trio might come off as guileless big-city-reporter bait, but those strangely exaggerated looks on their faces also suggest something else entirely—namely, post-ironic meta-enthusiasm, with the women resembling nothing so much as bored hipsters knowingly hamming it up for the camera. Over by the stairs, the two partygoers in black—identified in another caption as Cindia Baldisserotto and Tracie Marino—smile and hide their faces in mock-shame, a less ambiguous sign that they too know what's going on. In fact, the only person that doesn't seem to be in on the joke is the solitary figure in blue, who seems to be gazing longingly at the scene, wishing she had the abandon and joie de vivre to join in.

But who is this melancholy lass? The article and slideshow captions for Sylwia Kapuscinski's photos only mention five people at the party, all named above. Ahoy! It appears that the mystery woman is none other than Tina Kelley herself!

And so the story's reporter slipped beyond the fourth wall, leaving a record of herself as a sad apparition. As they say, though, most cigars aren't just cigars, and such slips usually mean something. So, Ms. Kelly, what are you doing here, in this Morris County McMansion, with these funny and possibly much-better-adjusted women of a certain age? What is it you need? How can we help?

Pole Dancing Parties Catch On in Book Club Country [NYT]