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BPAT704

Burlesque and Feminism

A Modern-Day Research Topic
Tatjana Dingle

Tony Mccaffrey
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Introduction

The year of 2018 has been instrumental in drawing a line in the sand for where we stand as a society on issues of
women’s rights. With “Me Too” allegations growing, Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court hearing (and acceptance), and
the fight for equality gaining momentum worldwide, it appears Feminist ideals are becoming more widely accepted and
recognised for their importance. The question however remains, how much has this progress implicated the modern
woman’s lifestyle? Are we truly confident we can make our own decisions about what we enjoy and participate in,
without fear of being judged or controlled by the society we live in?

Following the rise of popular entertainment icons such as Dita Von Teese, mainstream films such as “Burlesque” (2010,
Cher, Christina Aguilera) and social fitness crazes such as pole dance fitness, Neo or “New” Burlesque has filtered
through into popular culture, reflecting a developing “body confidence” amongst modern women.

International Burlesque festivals and communities are becoming more and more popular around the world, with this
year even marking the beginning of a “Burlesque Cruise” by Australian producers in conjunction with P&O cruises.
Burlesque as a dance genre is dominated by women, for women. So, at a time when third-wave feminist ideals are also
on the rise, how do the themes and tropes of a “stripping” craze correlate and interlace with the themes and ideals of
the modern-day feminist movement?

As a practitioner of Burlesque dance for a few years, I have had many positive and empowering experiences. I class
myself as a self-identified feminist, and I firmly believe that the Burlesque genre and community as a whole align
wholeheartedly with the beliefs and values of modern-day Feminism. But is this the case for all Burlesque practitioners,
or indeed for all feminists? When interacting with the feminist movement, is this genre of striptease helping further
progress feminist ideals in a fresh, interesting way, or is it simply regressive?

For the purposes of my research, Burlesque refers to the modern revival of a genre of dance, theatre and performance
which includes striptease elements, synonymously known as “New”, “Modern”, or “Neo” Burlesque. While Burlesque as
a style dates back to Victorian era parody, its modern revival is based on tropes founded by the vaudeville, showgirl stars
of the early 1900’s in America. When discussing Burlesque and its historical implications, I will be referring mostly to the
genre post 1860, after the arrival of the “British Blondes”.

Feminism is defined as “the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.” Historically the
term relates to a multitude of social movements fighting for women’s rights. This progression throughout history is
colloquially known as the “waves” of Feminism; First Wave Feminism falls in between the era of early 1800’s to early
1900’s, Second Wave Feminism falls between 1960-1980, and the Third Wave of Feminism is defined as the late 1990’s
to present day. For the purposes of my research I will be focusing primarily on the “Third” or current wave of Feminism,
and how the Burlesque genre integrates with the beliefs and values held by those who subscribe to these ideals.

The purpose of my research is to discover and discuss if and how modern Burlesque integrates with feminist ideals, and
how successfully it does so. For me personally I have found the community and framework of Burlesque to be a deeply
supportive art form in which to grow and foster my own style of performance which joins hand in hand with feminist
themes. I aim to present a number of reasons why I believe that Burlesque aligns and upholds many of these values.
However, as with any art, Burlesque and its interpretation are subjective, as are the ways any one individual may choose
to interpret feminist beliefs and values. While some contrasting views may appear, I aim to show that the Burlesque
movement is one that in the majority promotes body positivity, freedom of choice, sexual expression and female
empowerment – all of which are integral components of modern-day Feminism.
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History and Origins of the “New” Burlesque

Before looking forward to the implications of “New” Burlesque, we must first look back. Whilst the origins of Burlesque
can be traced back to Ancient Greeks, modern “New” or “Neo” Burlesque (for which the purposes of my research will be
synonymous with “Burlesque”) owes its foundation to a travelling group called the “British Blondes” who graced New
York stages in 1868 with their “chaotic and nebulous combination of dancing, singing, minstrelsy, witty repartee,
political commentary, parodies of plays and scant clothing – described as the ‘leg business’”. (Willson, 2008). They
changed Burlesque from a genre that had more to do with political satire into an eyebrow-raising theatrical event of its
own. According to research,

“Thompson and the British Blondes laid the groundwork for what have remained the two chief components of
burlesque: 1) comedic social commentary, often deliberately turning social mores on their heads, and 2)
sexualized display of the female body.” (Fargo, 2008)

During this time of depression, the suffrage movement in the United States was also taking place. Some suggest that the
British Blondes emerged from this cultural movement; women taking more public space and using their voice to
advocate for rights. However, such was the controversy surrounded these new performers, that they began to be
policed. As well as the overt sexuality, these women speaking out and expressing opinions publicly was otherwise
unheard of. As Fargo explains,

“A scantily-clad, or even unclad, female was socially acceptable on a public stage so long as she remained still,
functioning as a static piece of art to be contemplated. But the moment she began to exercise physical mobility
and vocal subjectivity in addition to her physical charms (as burlesque performers did), she became a serious
threat that had to be stopped and silenced. The female burlesque performer thus brought together two
controversial components – an eroticized body and an outspoken voice – through her onstage presence, and “this
combination was far more threatening” than anything which theatregoers of the time had previously
encountered.” (Fargo, 2008)

The views and ideals being upheld by these very first Burlesque performers are some which strongly correlate to the
beliefs and values held by modern-day Feminism today. In a time when it wasn’t yet as acceptable for women to
exercise their rights, strong feminist ideals were being upheld by striptease artists- a perhaps unlikely source of female
empowerment. Willson states;

“What was seen to be more dangerous about the British Blondes as a cultural phenomenon was not just that
these women were parodying and sexualizing their historical moment but, more dangerously, that they were
directly communicating with and politicizing an audience, beyond the confines of the mainstream theatre.”
(Willson, 2008)

Whilst the “British Blondes” performances began in the bourgeois theatre space, Burlesque soon developed into a more
working-class form of entertainment. This may perhaps be due to the fact that the upper and middle classes deemed the
raunchiness and controversy of Burlesque too much for their own wives and daughters, and more suited to those of a
lower class who engaged in other sexual practices such as prostitution.

As Burlesque evolved throughout the next few decades, the element of striptease was added into the mix.

“No one is quite sure when the first striptease act was performed; there have been many origin stories, and just
as many different performers attempting to take credit for this landmark event. But whether it began
intentionally or accidentally (the tale of the “broken strap” is a prominent feature of burlesque lore), striptease
had been popularized on burlesque stages by the 1920s.” (Fargo, 2008)

By the turn of the century, vaudeville and burlesque were closely linked, appearing together in the same shows. By the
1920’s, thanks to the element of striptease, Burlesque had taken over the show. And with the rise of the genre’s
popularity came the rise of the Burlesque “Queen” or “Star”.
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“By the 1930s the sexualized spectacle of the female performer became the catalyst for more sensation and
scandal with the advent of the striptease perfected by ‘star’ strippers such as Gypsy Rose Lee, who then moved
into mainstream legitimate theatres.” (Willson, 2008)

Perhaps the most notable performer in this time period was Gypsy Rose Lee, who has since inspired songs, films, books
and even a Broadway musical. Gypsy’s “gimmick” was speaking to the audience directly, which in turn helped to the
controversy and unique appeal of her acts. A strip tease artist speaking to her crowd directly with witty, and often
cultural and political parodies had never before been seen. Gypsy considered herself an intellectual, and many of her
personal beliefs closely align with those upheld by Feminism today. In 1931 Gypsy formulated a patter she titled “The
Psychology of the Stripteaser”, which she relayed whilst stripping;

“Have you the faintest idea about the private thoughts of a strip teaser?

Well the things that go on in a strip-teaser’s mind,

Would give you no end of surprise…

For example,

When I raise my skirt with slyness and dexterity,

I’m mentally computing just how much I’ll give to charity…” (Preminger, 1984)

Gypsy’s legacy lives on largely due to her reputation for cleverness and wit as the “intellectual stripper”. She was
recognised as the “perfect compromise between sex and brains” (Corio, 1968). Perhaps her perceived heightened
intellect helped her to assimilate Burlesque back on to the palettes of the bourgeois theatre scene. Whatever the
reason, Gypsy and many other Burlesque queens and stars had their hey-day in the late 1920’s to early 1930’s, leading
this to be considered the Golden Age of Burlesque and Striptease.

Eventually due to the emergence of film and other entertainment, Vaudeville slowly began to die out and so too did
Burlesque. It had thrived throughout both the Long and Great Depression, but had now come to a grinding halt. Jacki
Willson surmised:

“Burlesque, it seems, takes off at particularly tense and potentially eruptive pressure points in history when
hierarchy, borders and boundaries oscillate and reshuffle… (Willson, 2008)

“Burlesque thrives on depression. Burlesque thrives when the mainstream economic system collapses and tries to
recover.” (Willson, 2008)

Perhaps this is why in the early 1990’s, the genre of Burlesque experienced a re-vamp, drawing us into the modern
“New” or “Neo” Burlesque.
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Burlesque and Feminism – Literature Review

How can one describe and measure today’s growing movement of “Neo” or “New” Burlesque? What does the genre
consist of, and what are the questions that are raised in regard to 21st century feminist ideals? What positives does it
present, and can it indeed be as revolutionary as the founding artists it pays homage to?

“In the early 1990’s ironic burlesque re-emerged for reasons that are both understudied and debated… There are
burlesque conventions across the United States including Tease-O-Rama, The Great Boston Burlesque Exposition,
and the New York Burlesque Festival. There is a Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, Nevada and an annual Miss
Exotic World Pageant that the Hall of Fame puts on. There are Burlesquercise videos and burlesque dance classes
offered from San Francisco to Chicago to New York. It has become a cultural phenomenon gaining cult
notoriety.” (King, 2008)

For whatever reason, Burlesque has re-emerged as a growing and popular theatre form. As a genre categorised by
striptease elements, and therefore the objectification of bodies, how can any part of this art-form be considered
feminist? Many believe that Burlesque promotes body confidence, gender diversity and allows women a theatre
medium where-in they can hark back to Gypsy or the British Blondes and directly challenge their audience with themes
of parody and wit. There are also those however, who believe that while Burlesque attempts to progressively achieve
these feats, there are some major sticking points which hold it back. Most feminists seem to sit somewhere on the fence
between these two theories.

In a number of literature examples I studied, the correlation between Burlesque and Feminism had been discussed, but
many of the findings were inconclusive, in part due do the subjectivity of the topic and individual opinion. In one 2009
Journal titled “Grrrly Hurly Burly: Neo-Burlesque and the Performance of Gender”, Nally states

“The whole movement of burlesque positively encourages individuality; in size, shape, height and general
appearance, which is a far cry from the uniform look of thin, tanned young girls which is foisted on the public on
a daily basis. Burlesque offers something different than the standard mass produced culture. In burlesque, girls
can have curves, often big curves. They can be loud and funny and still be sex symbols. The basic elements of
burlesque are things that are missing from contemporary life.” (Nally, 2009)

However in her conclusion she comments,

“On the one hand, it is a highly sexualised performative strategy which provokes a strong critique from some
feminist circles, and on the other, it maintains a bid to prove itself an intelligent, if provocative, shocking and
complex, art form.”

In a 2008 graduate’s thesis titled ““THE FANTASY OF REAL WOMEN”: NEW BURLESQUE & THE FEMALE SPECTATOR”
Fargo states,

“There are two schools of thought currently dominating the discourse surrounding burlesque and striptease
performance. The first, more conservative view is that sexual, physical display of this kind is demeaning and
antithetical to feminist goals. The second view, now growing in popularity, is that burlesque performance,
because it allows women to publicly express their sexuality, is actually a positive, empowering, and even feminist
act… I myself do not subscribe entirely to either of these views; it strikes me as reductive to categorize burlesque
as inherently demeaning or inherently empowering.” (Fargo, 2008)

And in her conclusion:

“The new burlesque movement offers women a fun, positive way to explore and express their sexual power, as a
performer, a spectator, or both. While this does constitute a sassy step forward for modern women, it is far from
enough.” (Fargo, 2008)
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And finally, in a research article for the 2015 Journal of Gender Studies titled “What’s So Feminist About Garters and
Bustiers? Neo-Burlesque as Postfeminist Sexual Liberation”, Siebler attests

"Feminist neo-burlesque is the hope of subverting, or at least thinking about, patriarchal definitions of female
sexuality. Female sexuality as portrayed in neo-burlesque and a feminist analysis of burlesque performances are
complicated and they need to continue. There are far too few articles and scholarly works that approach the
complexities of this topic. There can be many different critiques and perspectives of any given context or
performance. The point, however, is that feminist critique and analysis – both on behalf of the performer and by
the audience facilitated by the performer – is essential to making neo-burlesque a transgressive political act.”
(Siebler, 2015)

I managed to conclude from these main sources of literature that although they had covered very similar topic material,
many of the findings were inconclusive and failed to question any practitioners directly on their involvement with
feminist themes during their practice, whether they felt Burlesque helped progress feminist ideals, and whether or not
there were any examples of routines with intentionally feminist diegesis. In order to gauge how practitioners and self-
identifying feminists really felt about whether Burlesque as a movement could positively contribute to Feminism, I
wanted to ask them first-hand. So, to begin with I decided to conduct a survey of Burlesque practitioners and their views
surrounding themes of Feminism and empowerment within their prospective Burlesque communities.
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Primary Research

I first created a survey which had several different questions regarding the integration of feminist themes within
Burlesque, and then shared it within a few international groups on social media. I received responses from 19
individuals, and was able to summarise the data. The responses I received were from practitioners based around the
world; from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, Wales and Finland. The length of practice also ranged from less than 1
year to 50 years, presenting me with a wide variance. Of those who responded, 15 identified as female, 3 as male and
one as agender presenting female. All of the participants self-identified as feminist, except for one male participant who
was not a Burlesque practitioner.

I posed the question as to whether these participants believed Burlesque was a feminist art form. 14 said yes, 1 said no,
and the other 4 could be summarised into believing that Burlesque itself wasn’t inherently feminist, and could only be
made that way as a result of conscious choices from practitioners, performers and producers.

When asked why/why not with regards to the above, many of the answers followed a similar vein. At least ten of the
participants stated the reason they believed Burlesque successfully integrated Feminist ideals was due to female
empowerment, self-expression, control of narrative, freedom of sexual expression, agency, and active celebration of
women’s rights. The rest seemed to agree that while expression of feminist ideals could be portrayed through
Burlesque, this did not qualify all Burlesque as being inherently feminist or not.

“It's feminist in the same way the impressionist painting is feminist, or Mexican cooking is feminist, or clothes
are feminist. It's only feminist if you make it feminist. Performing in a cabaret art form that explores ideas of
sexuality, tease, reveal, nostalgia, novelty, decadence and body is not innately feminist. But if you do that same
art form with feminist intent, then you make if feminist.” (Rouge, 2018)

“I don't think ALL burlesque is feminist, but I think the majority is in a general sense. The fact that most audience
members are women speaks volumes into itself. I think the main reason for this is that women get to see what
"real" women look like at all ages, shapes, sizes, and ethnicities. This is so lacking in mainstream media and we
are constantly led to believe that we are not thin, pretty, white, or young enough. Burlesque blows away those
ridiculous standards and celebrates beauty in all its forms. Because we ALL are truly beautiful.” (Dollar, 2018)

Many of these individual responses echoed the findings of my primary pieces of literature, however the difference here
was that many if not all of these practitioners have experienced the many positive elements of Burlesque first hand, and
speak personally as to how it can be used as a tool to promote feminist ideals and empowerment for women.

I then went on to ask the participants what they believed the most positive aspect of Burlesque as a genre was, and was
overwhelmed by the response. Almost every single participant cites body positivity and community as the most positive
aspects. Others include inclusivity, diversity, confidence building, empowerment, creativity, the influence of women and
even the inclusion of Feminism itself.

“Community, diversity, celebration of diverse bodies and experiences, choice, and it is a forum where women get
to decide how they represent themselves, where patriarchal judgements (size, skin colour, ‘appropriate
behaviour’ etc) don’t apply.” (Twist, 2018)

“It is an alive, vibrant, developing art form. The feminism driving the modern version is quite positive all on its
own.” (Joe, 2018)

“Being around burlesque was the first time I was surrounded by women supporting each other! It’s a creative
outlet where the performer is in complete control of their act. It can be therapeutic. And, most importantly, it can
educate its audience on feminism.” (Buttercup, 2018)

After these initial responses I was able to conclude that all the practitioners/performers I had questioned believed that
Burlesque as a genre was successful in promoting many positive themes that align with both women’s rights movements
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and Feminism. However, I wasn’t yet able to conclusively say whether most practitioners believed Burlesque itself was a
feminist art form, or indeed how successfully they believe Burlesque integrates with Feminism.

I next chose to interview two prominent Burlesque practitioners and self-proclaimed feminists as to how they believed
feminist themes were integrated into their practices, and whether or not they had faced any repercussions for being
outspoken feminists as well as strip tease artists.

My first interview via phone was with Pixie Twist, a multi-award winning Burlesque artist. She was the recipient of
“Queen of the New Zealand Burlesque Festival 2017”, and at the time of this interview was about to head on her first
international Burlesque tour across the USA, Canada and Australia. As an outspoken feminist and experienced writer and
poet, Pixie had a lot of interesting discourse on my topic to share.

I asked Pixie if anyone had been judgmental of her Burlesque practice in the beginning, and she told me it had caused a
major divide within her close family and friends, and she had even lost friendships because of it.

“Yeah, a lot of it is down to perceptions. One guy in particular told me that I was a hypocrite because, you know,
I’m talking about women’s empowerment but then I’m getting naked and shaking it. So clearly I’m damaging
rights of women by doing so. He couldn’t understand that my Burlesque is a subversion of the male gaze; that I’m
not up there for men to look at, I’m up there for myself first and foremost, and for other women secondly.

I was called a slut and a whore and a misogynist and I was called a hypocrite and a bitch and all of those words
that men use to silence...

For a while it really got to me, particularly when my thesis supervisor who I really respect as a feminist, she
expressed concern about, you know, me showing my body and therefore being “that kind of woman”. (Twist,
2018)

I then asked Pixie about her own journey of Burlesque, where she came up with the inspiration to begin performing
routines with direct feminist narratives and themes.

So I was going to quit because ... I did really feel like a lot of those tropes are there to make people look sexy for
men... so I started googling, because I knew obviously that the burlesque community was worldwide... and I
came across Dirty Martini who does a striptease where she rips shreds out of America and it is fucking brilliant,
and I was like “Yes, that is what I want to do as a performer, I want to say something like that and I just want to
subvert the shit out of everything, I want to make it really pointed”...

[For] the lady cunt routine I took all of those words that people had used to attempt to silence me, to close me, to
make me sit down, to cover me, to make me less of who I was... I took all of those words and I decided that I was
going to strip them off myself in a ritualistic manner. So the routine starts in a little black wig and a little black
skirt... to Christina Aguilera’s “Dirty” in the beginning... it gets quite low like “I’m covered in all these awful
words, all these awful words are on my body, I feel small” and the choreography gets quite small and then I take
my wig off, and... I’ve got long ginger hair, and I start stripping the words off myself with showers of red glitter.
It’s a homage to menstruation, I wanted it to be a bit feral... [the music] goes to “I’ve seen better days”.

And so I pull off all the words and then the final reveal is the smallest merkin that I have ever seen... and I got
myself an LED flashing belt buckle that says “Cunt” on it so that the final word is “cunt” in black and I remove
that and it’s in bright red scrolling LED belt buckle that says “Cunt”... and I draw a big love heart on myself
because I wanted to reclaim that word.... they use these words to silence you but if you reclaim them then you
stand in your power. And so that was what the routine was about.

The first time I performed it... putting something really risky and really personal on the stage really got me, and I
had women give me standing ovations, crying coming up to me afterwards, it’s hands down the most powerful
routine I’ve performed because it really reached people, because every woman has had that experience of “Oh
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you shouldn’t wear that” or “Oh you shouldn’t do pole fitness”.... everyone’s had that judgey patriarchal bullshit
and so I think it really spoke to people and it’s probably the most overtly feminist message. “ (Twist, 2018)

Routines like this with prominent feminist messages are becoming more and more popular in the Burlesque scene, but I
asked Pixie how she felt about routines that don’t necessarily have a feminist commentary, the “classic”, pretty, bump
and grind routines which at a surface level don’t attempt to subvert the male gaze.

“I think all burlesque is valuable as long as you’re being entertaining, I think that burlesque isn’t inherently
feminist... it is what we make of it and the choices that we make that make these things feminist. So for me, it’s
my choice to be a burlesque artist and I choose to perform weird narrative shit and that empowers me, and other
people are empowered by [something else] ... I guess there are deeper layers that underpin that around the way
that our culture views women’s bodies, and so for me my naked body is not inherently sexual and so me doing
burlesque is not inherently sexual. For a lot of people it really is, but that view that by existing women’s bodies
are sexual is something that I like to subvert, other people like to play up to it.

The personal is political. As artists the art we put on stage is both really personal to us and also really political.

Different things empower different people... I think the best part of burlesque is when it is diverse and inclusive,
and it makes people think.” (Twist, 2018)

Pixie and I also discussed the subjective nature of both Burlesque as an art form and Feminism as a social movement,
and the biggest barriers to the integration of the two.

“The thing about feminism is that with the different waves there have been different lines in the sand; with any
group that’s trying to further a goal they have to put some kind of boundary on it. Early feminism was very “Burn
your bras”, it was very white, it was very exclusive. Second wave feminism was very much when the lesbians in
particular went “Women’s power; why aren’t we involved?” and so that’s when rights of... lesbian women were
very high up on second wave feminism’s radar...

And you have trans exclusionary feminism and you have sex worker exclusionary feminism and I think it’s the
same... you can’t get a group of people together, even a group of people who all identify as feminist, and get
them to agree on everything.

“Fourth Wave” feminists who are choice feminists; “Your body your choice, my body my choice”, we’ll fight for
each other’s right to make the choices we want to make even if it’s not our own choice, we include everybody,
trans women are women...proper intersectional, diverse, inclusive, choice feminism, which I really think is where
we’re moving towards. “

The tension really is between feminists of the second wave in general who judge women for their choices and
choice feminists who are out there advocating for everyone’s woman right to choose whatever empowers them
for their lives. “ (Twist, 2018)

Finally Pixie discussed some of the major achievements for the Burlesque community, and the elements that allow it to
be a positive medium for expressing feminist ideals.

“As burlesque artists I think our community is very much ahead of mainstream society in terms of trans rights,
gender diversity, body diversity, and I think it’s the only art form where there’s no real age, body, race
discrimination... not all the time but generally... generally when you go to a burlesque show overseas it’s frowned
upon if that show does not have a diverse cast... in NZ it’s a little bit tricky because we are predominantly white
and I think that NZ burlesque in particular has a long way to go in terms of making burlesque accessible to other
nationalities here... but you can still go on that stage and see people from all walks of life, all sizes, all shapes,
generally some kind of gender or racial diversity... and it’s just what we do.
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I think that’s really a key thing for our Burlesque certainly now, our audiences are predominantly female, our
performers are predominantly female, it’s a celebratory diverse and inclusive art form that I think men who come
along expecting stripping get quite bent out of shape about.

It’s really tricky because Burlesque is always going to be different things to different people but certainly for me
it’s an integral part of my feminist expression and who I am as a woman.” (Twist, 2018)

After discussing these issues with Pixie Twist, it is clear to me that she represents a strongly emerging new voice; a
Feminism which truly believes that anything- even striptease- can subvert the influences of a patriarchal society and
male dominated world so long as it is done by choice and with intent. Modern-day Third (or perhaps even Fourth as Pixie
suggests) Wave Feminism is fostering a belief that inclusion and individual choice is paramount, much like Neo
Burlesque fosters a belief that inclusion of women of all shapes, sizes, ages, and confidence levels is not only necessary
but vital. This suggests that the two are able to go hand in hand and integrate seamlessly and with triumph.

My next interview was via email with Australian practitioner and producer Lila Luxx. Lila Luxx is an award winning
international burlesque artist, who regularly produces shows all over Australia, including being one half of the
production team of “The Burlesque Cruise” in partnership with P&O cruises. Lila also runs “The Bombshell Burlesque
Academy” and “Bombshell Burlesque” production company in Brisbane, Australia where she fulfills the roles of creative
director, choreographer, teacher and mentor.

In my email interview, I asked Lila if she self-identified as a feminist.

“I do. Previously I considered my ideology to align most with Marxist Feminism, however in the last few years I
believe that my views are best described as Intersectional Feminism.” (Luxx, 2018)

Next I asked Lila about her “Good Advice” routine, and if she could elaborate on its narrative and apparent feminist
themes.

“Good Advice is a commentary on the unrealistic and often contradictory expectations placed on women in
developed countries currently. The idea of having it all is broken, and there is almost no path a woman can take
that is not subject to criticism. It's easy to feel like we can't win so the best thing that we can do is make peace
with our choices and do what is best for ourselves in the moment.” (Luxx, 2018)

I then asked if many of her other routines had strong, particularly feminist narratives.

“Yes, quite a few. The most notable feminist themed acts would be She/Wrap Your Arms Around Me which is a
rejection of the idea that women should be quiet and small to be pleasant. The act involves a very large costume
which covers the entire stage, taking up the maximum amount of space as possible, and includes feminine
shapes including waves and vulva. The other is The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn with a retelling of her story as
a powerful woman who was executed due to her ambition.” (Luxx, 2018)

Finally I asked Lila where she stood on the integration between Burlesque and Feminism, as a practitioner, audience
member, producer and more.

“Every time a burlesque performer steps on stage and subverts the expected "proper" role of the woman, they
are committing a political act. I believe that they are intimately intertwined. Parody and politics have a long
history, and performing and consuming burlesque is an established part of that counter culture.”

Like Pixie, Lila’s responses demonstrate that performers, practitioners and producers of Burlesque alike are actively
seeking to represent and display strong female narratives in their individual performances and productions. Since
Burlesque has grown into an art form by women, for women, I would have to agree with Lila that Burlesque and
Feminism are “intimately intertwined.” Lila uses her performances to challenge the audience, making them really think
about not only what they are seeing on stage, but what this represents in terms of their own daily experiences. As more
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and more artists like Lila and Pixie continue to do this, the genre of Burlesque continues to transform itself into an art
form that is aware of its social implications.

Conclusion

As subjective as the social movements of both Burlesque and Feminism are, I believe there exists a strong amount of
evidence that feminist ideals and values integrate successfully and with purpose in the modern “Neo” Burlesque scene.
Practitioners speak highly of the positive elements of Burlesque - body positivity, freedom of choice, sexual expression
and female empowerment – all of which are synonymous as beliefs and values upheld by a modern-day Feminism.
Though at times there may be question as to whether Burlesque without a strong feminist intent does anything to
progress feminist ideals, at least it can confidently express other positive examples of women’s rights, and there is little
discourse to suggest the Burlesque community as it stands is regressive.

By gaging practitioners’ personal views and opinions, I was allowed an insight into the way many performers of
Burlesque feel first-hand about the implications of their art form, rather than an outside assessment which has been
provided by other contrasting pieces of literature. Ultimately, despite art of any form being highly subjective, and the
individual contrast of personal opinion found within the realms of a social movement such as Feminism, Burlesque still
manages to demonstrate a connection between the core themes and values of Third Wave Feminism.

The positive elements of Burlesque demonstrate a community and genre that continues to grow and develop at an
exponential rate, with its finger firmly on the pulse of what is and isn’t valuable for its target audiences and members –
women. Though at times not everything achieved by Burlesque is an attempt of subversion and protest, the majority of
the scene is self-aware of the fine line it treads between a culture that supports women’s rights and one that abuses
them. Modern Burlesque is flipping traditionally male serving art forms such as striptease on its head, and instead
offering up a commentary of female dominated messages to a community of feminist audiences who are eager to have
their stories told.

When exploring this topic, much basis for discussion comes down to personal opinion, and as Feminism as a social
movement continues to morph and change, so too do the values held by those who subscribe to it. Inclusivity and
freedom of choice are founding principles held by modern-day or Third Wave Feminism, and these easily integrate with
the Burlesque art form of today, but how will these principles have adjusted and amalgamated to support a newer
generation of thought in 10 or 20 years time? Luckily for us, Burlesque has grown and changed over the past few
decades to firmly support the themes and ideals of women’s rights and Feminism, so it would seem likely that this art
form will continue to blossom into one which is self-aware and advocates strongly for the views of women’s rights and
equality to be expressed in a sexually free and body positive way on the Burlesque stages of the future.

References
Buttercup. (2018). (T. Dingle, Interviewer)

Corio, A. (1968). This Was Burlesque. Madison Square Press.

Dollar, B. B. (2018). (T. Dingle, Interviewer)

Fargo, E. L. (2008). The Fantasy of Real Women: New Burlesque & The Female Spectator. Ohio: The Ohio State University.

Fargo, E. L. (2008). The Fantasy of Real Women: New Burlesque and the Female Spectator. Ohio: Ohio State University .

Joe. (2018). (T. Dingle, Interviewer)

King, P. J. (2008). Shake It Hard: Feminist Identity and the Burly-Q. University of Missouri-Columbia.
 12

Luxx, L. (2018). Email Interview. (T. Dingle, Interviewer)

Nally, C. (2009). Grrrly hurly burly: neo-burlesque and performance of gender. Textual Practice 23 (4), 621-643.

Preminger, E. L. (1984). Gypsy and Me: At Home and on the Road with Gyspy Rose Lee. Little Brown and Company.

Rouge, R. (2018). (T. Dingle, Interviewer)

Siebler, K. (2015). What's so feminist about garters and bustiers? Neo-burlesque as post-feminist sexual liberation.
Journal of Gender Studies, Vol 24, 561-573.

Twist, P. (2017, 4 15). Smart Girls Don't Strip, Sarcastic Ones Do: Can Burlesque Be Feminist? Retrieved from Pastie
Politics: http://www.pastiepolitics.com/blog/smart-girls-dont-strip-sarcastic-ones-do-can-burlesque-be-feminist

Twist, P. (2018). Phone Interview. (T. Dingle, Interviewer)

Willson, J. (2008). The Happy Stripper: Pleasures and Politics of the New Burlesque. New York: I.B.Tauris.
 13

Appendix 1

Survey Data Diagrams

NUMBER OF SUBJECTS

4
3
2
1 1

LESS THAN 1 1-3 YEARS 4 YEARS 5-10 YEARS 16 YEARS 50 YEARS

YEAR
YEARS PRACTICING
NUMBER OF SUBJECTS

5
2
1 1 1
AUSTRALIA NEW CANADA USA WALES FINLAND
ZEALAND
 14

Appendix 2

Lila Luxx Email Interview

• Hi Lila! Can you tell me a little about your business and your work as a practitioner?

Sure! I run The Bombshell Burlesque Academy and Bombshell Burlesque production company in Brisbane, Australia
where I fulfill the roles of creative director, choreographer, teacher and mentor. I also perform independently as Lila
Luxx.

• How long have you been performing burlesque?

I have been a full time burlesque artist for the last 4 years and am in my 10th year of performing burlesque. Previous
to burlesque, I worked in Arts Management and performed contemporary dance.

• Where did your burlesque journey begin?

By accident! I went along to a burlesque class with a friend for moral support and fell in love with it.

• Do you self-identify as a Feminist?

I do. Previously I considered my ideology to align most with Marxist Feminism, however in the last few years I believe
that my views are best described as Intersectional Feminism.

• Your “Good Advice” routine has a lot of feminist themes; can you elaborate on the routine’s narrative?

Good Advice is a commentary on the unrealistic and often contradictory expectations placed on women in developed
countries currently. The idea of having it all is broken, and there is almost no path a woman can take that is not subject
to criticism. It's easy to feel like we can't win so the best thing that we can do is make peace with our choices and do
what is best for ourselves in the moment.

• Do many of your other routines often involve a strong narrative? Particularly a feminist one?

Yes, quite a few. The most notable feminist themed acts would be She/Wrap Your Arms Around Me which is a rejection
of the idea that women should be quiet and small to be pleasant. The act involves a very large costume which covers
the entire stage, taking up the maximum amount of space as possible, and includes feminine shapes including waves and
vulva. The other is The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn with a retelling of her story as a powerful woman who was
executed due to her ambition.

• Where/How did you pull inspiration and ideas for the act?

It really varies. Sometimes it's a song, a shape or a feeling. Good Advice was developed after an artist on a recent tour
would ask me at the end of the artist briefing, "How do you do it?" with tongue firmly planted in cheek and it started me
thinking of the expectations around the "modern woman".

• Where do you stand on Burlesque and Feminist integration; as a practitioner, audience member, producer and more?

Every time a burlesque performer steps on stage and subverts the expected "proper" role of the woman, they are
committing a political act. I believe that they are intimately intertwined. Parody and politics have a long history, and
performing and consuming burlesque is an established part of that counter culture.

• Do feminist ideals play a large role in your performances?

Yes. I aim to be inclusive in casting and sensitive with artistic choices.

• Who are some of the most subversive/intriguing/captivating etc. performers with strong feminist messages that
you’ve seen? So many! My favourites in Australia are Lillian Starr and Imogen Kelly. Proud femme artists creating
beautiful and challenging art.
 15

Appendix 3

Pixie Twist Phone Interview transcript (Full audio recording available)

“Were they judgemental of the element of the striptease?”

Yeah, a lot of it is down to perceptions. One guy in particular told me that I was a hypocrite because, you know, I’m
talking about women’s empowerment but then I’m getting naked and shaking it. So clearly I’m damaging rights of
women by doing so. He couldn’t understand that my Burlesque is a subversion of the male gaze; that I’m not up there
for men to look at, I’m up there for myself first and foremost, and for other women secondly.

I think that’s really a key thing for our Burlesque certainly now, our audiences are predominantly female, our performers
are predominantly female, it’s a celebratory diverse and inclusive art form that I think men who come along expecting
stripping get quite bent out of shape about.

I was called a slut and a whore and a misogynist and I was called a hypocrite and a bitch and all of those words that men
use to silence...

For a while it really got to me, particularly when my thesis supervisor who I really respect as a feminist, she expressed
concern about, you know, me showing my body and therefore being “that kind of woman”.

So I was going to quit because ... I did really feel like a lot of those tropes are there to make people look sexy for men...
so I started googling, because I knew obviously that the burlesque community was worldwide... and I came across Dirty
Martini who does a striptease where she rips shreds out of America and it is fucking brilliant, and I was like “yes, that is
what I want to do as a performer, I want to say something like that and I just want to subvert the shit out of everything, I
want to make it really pointed”...

The lady cunt routine I took all of those words that people had used to attempt to silence me, to close me, to make me
sit down, to cover me, to make me less of who I was... I took all of those words and I decided that I was going to strip
them off myself in a ritualistic manner. So the routine starts in a Little Black with and a little black skirt... to Christina
Aguilera’s “Dirty” in the beginning... it gets quite low like “I’m covered in all these awful words, all these awful words are
on my body, i feel small” and the choreography gets quite small and then I take my wig off, and... I’ve got long ginger
hair, and I start stripping the words off myself with showers of red glitter. It’s a homage to mestruation, i wanted it to be
a bit feral... [the music] goes to “Ive seen better days”.

And so I pull off all the words and then the final reveal is the smallest merkin that I have ever seen... and I got myself an
LED flashing belt buckle that says “Cunt” on it so that the final word is “cunt” in black and I remove that and it’s in bright
red scrolling LED belt buckle that says “Cunt”... and I draw a big love heart on myself because I wanted to reclaim that
word.... they use these words to silence you but if you reclaim them then you stand in your power. And so that was what
the routine was about.

The first time I performed it... pitting something really risky and really personal on the stage really got me, and I had
women give me standing ovations, crying coming up to me afterwards, it’s hands down the most powerful routine I’ve
performed because it really reached people, because every woman has had that experience of “oh you shouldn’t wear
that” or “oh you shouldn’t do pole fitness”.... everyone’s had that judgey patriarchal bullshit and so I think it really spoke
to people and it’s probably the most overtly feminist message.

The personal is political. As artists the art we put on stage is both really personal to us and also really political.

“How do you feel about burlesque that isn’t necessarily subverting the male gaze, that is just the pretty... not a lot of
commentary... just the classic bump and grind”
 16

I think all burlesque is valuable as long as you’re being entertaining, I think that burlesque isn’t inherently feminist... it is
what we make of it and the choices that we make that make these things feminist. So for me, it’s my choice to be a
burlesque artist and I choose to perform weird narrative shit and that empowers me, and other people are empowered
by [something else]... I guess there are deeper layers that underpin that around the way that our culture views women’s
bodies, and so for me my naked body is not inherently sexual and so me doing burlesque is not inherently sexual. For a
lot of people it really is, but that view that by existing women’s bodies are sexual is something that I like to subvert,
other people like to play up to it.

Different things empower different people... I think the best part of burlesque is when it is diverse and inclusive and it
makes people think.

The thing about feminism is that with the different waves there have been different lines in the sand; with any group
that’s trying to further a goal they have to put some kind of boundary on it. Early feminism was very “burn your bras”, it
was very white, it was very exclusive. Second wave feminism was very much when the lesbians in particular went
“women’s power why aren’t we involved” and so that’s when rights of... lesbian women were very high up on second
wave feminism’s radar...

And you have trans exclusionary feminism and you have sex worker exclusionary feminism and I think it’s the same...
you can’t get a group of people together, even a group of people who all identify as feminist, and get them to agree on
everything.

The main argument that annoys me... there are a couple of tropes that really wind me up... “you are doing this because
you are not educated”, well

Classism and racism are probably the biggest barriers to current femisnism .

If you’re saying that burlesque can’t be feminist because of the male gaze then you’re saying nothing can be feminist.

“Fourth Wave” feminists who are choice feminists; “your body your choice, my body my choice”, we’ll fight for each
other’s right to make the choices we want to make even if it’s not our own choice, we include everybody, trans women
are women...proper intersectional, diverse, inclusive, choice feminism, which I really think is where we’re moving
towards. “

As burlesque artists I think our community is very much ahead of mainstream society in terms of trans rights, gender
diversity, body diversity, and I think it’s the only art form where there’s no real age, body, race discrimination... not all
the time but but generally... generally when you go to a burlesque show overseas it’s frowned upon if that show does
not have a diverse cast... in NZ it’s a little bit tricky because we are predominantly white and I think that NZ burlesque in
particular has a long way to go in terms of making burlesque accessible to other nationalities here... but you can still go
on that stage and see people from all walks of life, all sizes, all shapes, generally some kind of gender or racial diversity...
and it’s just what we do.

The tension really is between feminists of the second wave in general who judge women for their choices and choice
feminists who are out there advocating for everyone’s woman right to choose whatever empowers them for their lives.

The judgement I’ve found tends to come from people who don’t understand what burlesque is and their only concept of
burlesque is the movie and Dita Von Teese... and so you’re up against it.

It’s really tricky because Burlesque is always going to be different things to different people but certainly for me it’s an
integral part of my feminist expression and who I am as a woman.

When people judge women for whatever... it’s internalised misogyny.

 17

Appendix 4

Video Links

Video Links

Pixie Twist “Lady Cunt”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFgZfdDr99Y&fbclid=IwAR3w8xeihqrWyDJCsjKyMXXii6HA1syDIMyA0Aiybm5BqYYJ
q73MIksLrsU

Pixie Twist NZ Herald Interview

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/video.cfm?c_id=6&gal_cid=6&gallery_id=196355

Lila Luxx “Good Advice”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz1rheXOdv8

Lila Luxx “Wrap Your Arms Around Me”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3lNYbFEczY
 18

Appendix 5

Literature Review Quotes

file:///C:/Users/Tatjana/Downloads/Tatjana-PDF.pdf

However, with its greater prominence on the world’s stage, there is also the concomitant problem of how far burlesque
can be a innovative or activist form and how a feminist critique can be employed in such a practice.

This differentiation between a politically aware and self-conscious programme of entertainment, as opposed to a
simplistic display of the flesh, is one which needs to be emphasised. For instance, the standard historical burlesque
costumes of oversized fans, comically large ruffles, bustles, corsets and bows of the nineteenth century were often a
clear satire of upper-class fashion, social mores and sensibilities, as well as a dramatic and deliberate display of the
female body.

The apparel, make-up and overall theatrical presentation of the burlesque performer is only a problem when applied
uncritically

It is easy to see how poledancing classes (and indeed burlesque classes) represent a commodification of the body, and
moreover, an uncritical but commercial approach to female disempowerment – women are still encouraged to look
taut, sexual, and maintain a specifically feminine image, even if they claim they are emancipated by such exercise.
However, it is also the case that many burlesque performers depart from this model. Equally, many venues hire
performers of all shapes, ages, races and sizes, with only the most commercially-minded shows presenting an idealised
vision of a woman’s figure.

Stah herself confesses: ‘I think that the burlesque revival in contemporary culture has been led by women ... for women.
As far as the female performers are concerned I consider the desire to eroticize themselves as an unconscious backlash
against feminist ideology’.30

Of course in some crucial ways this is one of the legacies of feminism – how should women represent themselves? What
patriarchal ideologies have women internalised, and how can these influences be resisted?

But one must be aware that neo-burlesque is a fluid and Textual Practice 630 multifaceted phenomenon. Whilst Dita von
Teese leads the vintage burlesque, we also have burlesquers such as Dirty Martini and performance artists like Annie
Sprinkle who have a clear political agenda. The experience of a burlesque evening, like any theatrical portrayal, is always
different, and by going back to my initial reference to the historical antecedents which inform such a spectacle,
burlesque can become a liberatory force.

As Bella Besame (of ‘The Slippery Belle Burlesque’), commented: ‘The whole movement of burlesque positively
encourages individuality; in size, shape, height and general appearance, which is a far cry from the uniform look of thin,
tanned young girls which is foisted on the public on a daily basis’.42 Michelle Baldwin confirms this: Modern glamour is
the sleek, sexy aesthetic of technology. Everything from the ultrathin models featured on magazine covers to the tiniest
cell phone to the most unobtrusive stereo speaker sets the pace and look of modern life. Burlesque glamour, on the
other hand, is larger than life, filled with innuendo, and coated with glitter. Burlesque offers something different than
the standard massproduced culture. In burlesque, girls can have curves, often big curves. They can be loud and funny
and still be sex symbols. The basic elements of burlesque are things that are missing from contemporary life.43

Jacki Wilson highlights a complicity in gender stereotyping through her study of Dita von Teese: I find Von Teese’s
imagery problematic. Without being coupled with an ironical, critical or reflective questioning of sexual power, erotic
display risks falling immediately back into unchallenging, stereotypical, ‘off the shelf’ readings of female sexuality.45

Thus, burlesque is Janus-faced: simultaneously seeming to reproduce stereotypes whilst also operating to question
them.
 19

This is particularly the case with the burlesque compere, who sets up what is permissible and acceptable within the
forum of the performance, as Lady J. again notes: ‘as long as the audience understand the rules of the space and the
performances: they are there to celebrate the performers, not to objectify them. As a compere you just need to make
sure they all understand the rules’.71

On the one hand, it is a highly sexualised performative strategy which provokes a strong critique from some feminist
circles, and on the other, it maintains a bid to prove itself an intelligent, if provocative, shocking and complex, art form.

‘Strip shows are strange cultural artefacts because they both uphold and break traditional female and male sex roles and
other related cultural rubrics – thus aggravating activists on both the Right and the Left for different reasons and
purposes’.75 What does emerge is an awareness of gender as performance, whilst the overt and excessive presentation
of femininity and gender coding in burlesque actually invites us to revisit cultural conventions.

file:///C:/Users/Tatjana/Downloads/osu1211331939.pdf

Burlesque performance began as a titillating form of entertainment for male audiences, but the burgeoning neo-
burlesque movement has reimagined the old fashioned striptease as a female-driven, and even feminist, performance
medium, now enjoyed by just as many women as men.

There are two schools of thought currently dominating the discourse surrounding burlesque and striptease
performance. The first, more conservative view is that sexual, physical display of this kind is demeaning and antithetical
to feminist goals. Critics of burlesque allege that it is exploitative of women, and not so different from other types of
sexually-oriented work (stripping, porn, even prostitution) as some in the neo-burlesque community might like to think.
The second view, now growing in popularity, is that burlesque performance, because it allows women to publicly
express their sexuality, is actually a positive, empowering, and even feminist act.

I myself do not subscribe entirely to either of these views; it strikes me as reductive to categorize burlesque as
inherently demeaning or inherently empowering.

Burlesque historian Robert C. Allen points out that historical burlesque originally emerged as a forum in which the
question “What does it mean to be a woman?”1 was furiously debated, and neo-burlesque continues to tangle with that
issue in both literal and emblematic ways. Burlesque allows women to explore, experiment with, and perform their
sexuality, whether from the stage or from the audience.

Today, if the term is recognized at all by the general public, it is usually associated with striptease, which was in fact a
relatively late addition to the burlesque repertoire. In its initial form, burlesque had more to do with political satire than
sexual display; its origins are often traced all the way back to the ancient Greek stage burlesques of Aristophanes and
others, which poked fun at the social norms of their day. Throughout its varied history, burlesque has incorporated
aspects of many theatrical traditions and dramatic forms, including music, poetry, dance, acrobatics, clowning, parody,
and so on.

Americans got their first taste of the controversial art of burlesque through the performances of Lydia Thompson.
Thompson and her theatrical troupe, the British Blondes, arrived in New York in 1868 to begin a several-year tour of the
States and proved to be an instant phenomenon, as their saucy blend of music, comedy, clever social satire, and bold
sexuality piqued the interest of audiences around the country. The Blondes were beautiful, physically imposing women
who 1 Robert C. Allen, Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and American Culture (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 1991) 147. 7 based their highly successful stage act around the telling of bawdy jokes and the impersonation of
male characters.

Thompson and the British Blondes laid the groundwork for what have remained the two chief components of burlesque:
1) comedic social commentary, often deliberately turning social mores on their heads, and 2) sexualized display of the
female body.
 20

Corsets were meant to keep women composed and contained, both in body and spirit, and burlesque performers who
appeared onstage without them were utterly rejecting this sense of proper feminine restraint.

The sexually intimidating Amazon woman might be alluring on the burlesque stage or in a static poster illustration, but
the same figure walking the streets was socially unacceptable and even frightening. In an era when women all over
America were actively agitating for increased freedoms and legal rights, these concerns seemed very relevant to the
male burlesque patron.

The problem with female burlesquers, then, was that they were “outspoken exhibitionists rather than artists”: “[u]nlike
the ballet dancer and tableau model who exhibited their bodies mutely, or the conventional actress whose words and
actions were restricted by narrative, the burlesque performer looked at and talked back to the audience.”13

The female burlesque performer thus brought together two controversial components – an eroticized body and an
outspoken voice – through her onstage presence, and “this combination was far more threatening”14 than anything
which theatregoers of the time had previously encountered.

No one is quite sure when the first striptease act was performed; there have been many origin stories, and just as many
different performers attempting to take credit for this landmark event. But whether it began intentionally or
accidentally (the tale of the “broken strap” is a prominent feature of burlesque lore), striptease had been popularized on
burlesque stages by the 1920s

The classic burlesque striptease tends to adhere to a very specific formula, though obviously there have been
innovations and embellishments throughout the years: a beautiful woman comes onto the stage wearing an elaborate
costume (a glamorous gown, high heels, often long gloves or a feather boa), then proceeds to slowly, in time with a
musical selection, strip off her garments, teasing the audience as she does so. The act typically ends with the reveal of
the performer’s body, naked except for G-string underwear and pasties covering her nipples (though some performers
were inclined to go further, especially as competition between strippers increased). The act may also involve storylines,
characters, or gimmicks to add interest and give the performer an “excuse” to strip off her clothes, but the overall
format remains the same.

As Irving Zeidman observed in 1967 book The American Burlesque Show, “burlesque thrives on depression,”27 offering
inexpensive escapist entertainment to the masses.

Burlesque queens were often groomed, promoted, and ultimately controlled by male managers, which diffused their
power still further. Some performers took charge of creating and marketing their own personas, but it was just as often
“burlesque theater owners and producers who named queens and gave them a gimmick.”34

Ultimately, though, burlesque’s relatively tame entertainments were unable to compete with a growing sex industry
that offered full nudity, live sex acts, and hardcore pornographic films. Just a few decades later, “by the early 1980s, the
art of revealing a woman’s body had become more like a gynecological examination”38 than a sultry, suggestive
entertainment; stripping was becoming “big business, not show business.”3

The main substantive difference seems to be that “burlesque is entertainment, it’s a show,” whereas “stripping seems to
be more providing a service.”42 Jo “Boobs” Weldon, a performer who has worked both as a burlesque stripteaser and a
commercial stripper, lays out a few more important differences in an article in Shimmy magazine: “[s]tripping is mostly
about the nudity; burlesque is mostly about the costume,” and “[p]eople who come into a strip joint are usually called
customers; people who go to a burlesque show are usually called an audience.”43

As commercial exotic dancing and pornography grew in popularity and availability throughout the 1980s and into the
1990s, it seemed for a while that burlesque was dead for good. In the mid-1990s, however, burlesque experienced a
dramatic rebirth which is still developing and expanding today. The “new burlesque” or “neo-burlesque” revival sprung
initially out of the performance art community in New York City, with underground theatrical performances that
referenced various aspects of historical burlesque and striptease (though many performers did not yet consider what
 21

they were doing to be “burlesque,” instead using terms like “performance art, or female-to-female drag, or just creative
stripping”45 ).

First of all, unlike the burlesque of the past, neo-burlesque is not only made by women, but for women.

If one thing is clear regarding the revival of burlesque, it is that, in order for burlesque to launch any kind of successful
comeback, it had to offer more than mere sexual titillation to its audiences. The general public can now view more
uncovered female flesh in a prime-time beer commercial or on a public beach than is displayed on the typical burlesque
stage, and all manner of fantasy fodder can be downloaded for free from the endless selection of pornography available
on the internet. Burlesque’s growing popularity demonstrates that it has something new and unique to offer.

Judith Butler’s idea that “gender is always a doing.”16 In her influential work Gender Trouble, Butler argues that gender
is not, as it is often perceived to be, “a stable identity or locus of agency from which various acts follow,”17 but rather
“the repeated stylization of the body, a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal over time
to produce the appearance of a substance of a natural sort of being.”18

In her third-wave feminist manifesto The Lipstick Proviso, Karen Lehrman writes that women today are “capable of
choosing to engage in many traditionally feminine behaviors and mannerisms.”22

Heidi Von Haught argues that not only burlesque performance, but also more stigmatized vocations like stripping and
prostitution, are always a source of empowerment, provided that they derive from a woman’s personal choice: “[w]hen
women make the decision to work or play with their sexuality and this decision is born out of their own desire and not
out of economic or social coercion, it is empowering.”59

Dr. Lukki expressed a broader viewpoint in our interview, declaring that burlesque can be at the same time empowering
and exploitative. “Because something is empowering to someone does not mean that it doesn’t circulate in an economy
of exploitation,” she argues, adding that, while problematic, this is not necessarily a problem: it also constitutes “one of
the most dynamic features of the neo-movement, the reclaiming of a potentially ‘oppressive’ representation of women
in the public sphere.”60

At the most basic level, burlesque is invoking and recycling fashions and modes of expression from the past, but
presenting them in a way that provokes new interpretations and meanings.

For DuBois, drag performance is “a way to be a fabulous glitzy primadonna but not because it is part of who you’re
supposed to be. By choice, and something you can put on and take off whenever you like.”81 Drag offers a measure of
freedom in femininity, because “[i]t doesn’t have to be your identity, it can remain just play, and then you have so many
other options at your disposal.”82

As Michelle Baldwin writes, “Part of the soul of new burlesque is size acceptance.”89 “All figure types,” from the rail-thin
to the zaftig, “are accepted in burlesque because there is a broader idea of what is sexy.”90 Burlesque offers a chance
for all women, even those who are average-sized or overweight, to feel sexy and empowered, either by watching “real
women” of all shapes and sizes take off their clothes onstage, or by getting up there and doing it themselves.

“When I appear onstage as a size 12, with cellulite and (occasionally) smeared lipstick,” says Clams Casino, “I’m
subverting the mainstream definition of beauty, a definition controlled by men. [ . . . . ] I feel that just the act of
reclaiming a female definition of what is sexy is subverting gender roles.”104 Instead of presenting female flesh as a
fantasy object relegated to “professional set-pieces that reveal little about female sexuality,”105 burlesque presents a
different fantasy altogether: “the fantasy of real women.”106

This potential for personal empowerment through improved body image is one of the most crucial and tangible benefits
burlesque can provide to its female spectators. Michelle Baldwin writes that women today “come to burlesque looking
for what they think is sexy and what can make them feel like they’re sexy too” and they leave a burlesque show “with a
new or renewed sense of their own sexual attractiveness.”109 “By learning to love what they have and who they are,”
 22

Baldwin continues, female audience members realize that “they can be just as captivating as the women on the
burlesque stage.”110

I am not sure, however, if “self-esteem-boosting” should be considered equivalent to “empowering”

Heidi Von Haught credits the growing selfobjectification trend to the fact that, in the wake of second-wave feminism,
when “women were insisting that they not be treated as sexual objects,” they “now are recognizing how little fun that is
and demanding to be treated as sexual objects who deserve respect, self-control, and safety.”77

Whether or not it always achieves this objective, neo-burlesque has the stated goal of celebrating individual, personal,
creative sexuality in all its vast and various incarnations

With the neo-burlesque movement, the striptease has transcended its roots as a titillating form of entertainment
intended to indulge the male gaze. Today’s burlesque is, for the most part, a vibrant, female-positive performance
medium, in which women are able to take pleasure in their own sexuality from both the subject and the object position,
whether they choose to be on stage or remain a spectator

Despite its ironic and transgressive intentions, burlesque does reiterate and promote entrenched images of femininity,
which originated within this dominant male economy and, even when they are not being used with the intention of
catering to men, cannot ever be entirely divorced from their associations with misogyny and subjugation.

but I must wonder, along with Willson, if there could be “a sexy ‘look’ that we can’t even picture yet, because we can
only see the standard versions passed down to us that are based on male fantasies?”5 If there is such a “look,” neo-
burlesque is still a long way from discovering it.

Similarly, the striptease-as-self-help genre presents a particular kind of sexual display as a way for women to “help”
themselves or “fix” something which is wrong with their natural appearance or attitude towards sexuality.

As Ariel Levy argues in Female Chauvinist Pigs, “[i]f we are really going to be sexually liberated, we need to make room
for a range of options as wide as the variety of human desire.”20

The new burlesque movement offers women a fun, positive way to explore and express their sexual power, as a
performer, a spectator, or both. While this does constitute a sassy step forward for modern women, it is far from
enough

file:///C:/Users/Tatjana/Downloads/Tatjana-PDF-2.pdf

neo-burlesque, a feminist rewriting and reclaiming of a Western dance form that showcased women simpering sexily for
their audiences, needs to do more than incorporate women of various ethnicities and body types to transcend
patriarchal scripts of female sexuality. As with many things (e.g., art, pedagogy, music, and leadership), something does
not automatically become feminist simply because it is delivered, written, and/or performed by a feminist. The heart of
the piece must also interrogate, perform, discover, and/or celebrate feminist politics.

. Feminism disrupts and pushes against hierarchies of oppression; feminism voices strong political positions on race,
class, gender, sexuality, ability, and other traditionally marginalized identities. That does not happen simply when a
feminist dresses up in garter belts and thigh-high fishnets.

The history of North American burlesque began in New York in the 1860s with a troupe calling themselves the British
Blondes (King 2008, p. 2). During the first year of the British Blondes, the suffrage movement in the United States was
taking place. Feminists were politically active in the fight for abolition and suffrage. The British Blondes emerged from
this cultural moment of women taking more public space and using their voice to advocate for rights. Burlesque acts also
included ‘chaotic and nebulous combination of dancing, singing, minstrelsy, witty repartee, political commentary,
parodies of plays and scant clothing’ (Wilson 2008, p. 18).
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Within the patriarchal system, cultural power is typically not afforded to women who take their clothes off, even if the
stripping women perceive the work as financially lucrative and therefore empowering within the economic systems of
the time. In addition, most burlesque performers and today’s strippers were/are exploited financially by the managers
of the clubs. Certainly, women gain empowerment through the ability to earn cash in the capitalist culture. A burlesque
(or neo-burlesque) performer, stripper, or porn star is able to generate money from their performances and by doing so
increases their agency in a market economy. But the ability to make money hinges on whether there are enough men
with money who find her sexually appealing and whether she fits into a generic heterosexual fantasy.

The post-feminist version of neo-burlesque that is often performed purports to empower women by virtue of their
dancing in garter belts and push-up bras in public spaces. In this narrative, the woman allegedly controls her body, her
sexuality, her desire, and is liberated by performing it for an audience.

In contrast, neo-burlesque performers replicate the patriarchal images of women, femininity, and female sexuality
instead of challenging them; they position themselves as sex objects for the male gaze. The audience members – be they
male or female – must adopt the male gaze to enjoy the show, viewing the women as objects of sexual desire, posing,
stripping, and performing for the audience’s gratification, billed as sexual liberation for women.

Some other examples of underground burlesque include Poppy M. Cherry wearing a white bridal gown, casting her eyes
demurely down, and then stripping to Tammy Wynette’s D-I-V-O-R-C-E, finding liberation in divorce; or Doris La Trine’s
routine ‘Birth of a Porn Star,’ where she diagrams her body with a permanent black marker as she dances and sings,
indicating where to cut for cosmetic surgery, asking the audience to think about how female bodies, especially those
who perform in the sex industry, are reduced to surgically constructed body parts to make them ‘sexy’ for the male
gaze. Another feminist burlesque performer begins her act with a traditional striptease, but then stops to change her
tampon or smears herself with her own blood, disrupting the moment of titillation with the reality of menstruation.
These above examples show how some feminists are taking neo-burlesque and creating feminist performance art, often
creating discomfort for the audience. These moments of discomfort are designed to force the audience to think about
definitions of female sexuality or oppressive systems of power that deny women ownership of their 566 K. Siebler sexual
experiences and identities.

Some may argue that there is a feminist message when there are various body types, ethnicities, classes, races, or
abilities performing the striptease. Still, without the feminist commentary, these ‘other’ subject positions run the risk of
being fetishized by the audience

Without the feminist commentary, engaging the audience with complicated questions regarding sex work, female
sexuality, female bodies, and issues of power and control, the performance does little to challenge oppressive views of
female sexuality as defined by the patriarchy. The audience needs to understand that there is a subversion of patriarchal
female sexuality in the performance and the performer needs to push the audience to interrogate these subversions and
representations.

Precious defines what she does as very different from a ‘stripper’ because of intent, venue, and audience. Precious
states: The distinction is made (between stripping and burlesque) when I am booking things with people. It was an easy
way to say, ‘We are not going to grind against a pole. We are going to do old school Moulin Rouge sort of stuff. There is
a difference from a business side as well. We are not doing private dances. We are self-employed. The way it is
structured is different ... I perform 3 – 4 times a week. Sometimes we are doing corporate parties. Sometimes we are
doing business people who want a cocktail and relax and enjoy a sexy show. Sometimes we do shows at raves,
underground. The behavior is super different. For burlesque dancers, you better watch us. We are putting on a show.
You are not going to get as many women who are interested in the glamorous aspect; they aren’t going to go to the strip
club. The guys are there because they feel comfortable that we are giving them permission to look at us. (Barer et al.
2011) Journal of Gender Studies 567 In this excerpt we can see Precious addressing issues of class and sexuality, but only
by pitting herself and her performance as a burlesque dancer in a different (better/higher) category than a stripper at a
club. The distinction, for her, is not only that she has control over her bookings, but that she is not ‘grinding against a
pole,’ but doing a ‘classier’ sexual dance for her audience. She makes a point of further defining this hierarchy between
 24

what she does and what strippers do by articulating in various ways that her audience is ‘business men’: people in suits.
Class issues emerge both in how she describes the performance, the socio-economic level of the men in her audience,
and the location of the venues (not clubs, but convention centers). For Precious, elevating herself out of the lowclass
‘stripper’ category relies on what she does, where she does it, and who watches. Misogyny is embedded in this classism:
those other women are strippers; she is a performer. She is in control and a stripper is not.

Burlesque has become a code word for ‘high class stripping.’ Neo-burlesque is billed as ‘edgy’ performance art, even as
it serves to re-inscribe Raunch Culture. As Precious does, many burlesque performers go to great lengths to disassociate
from what they see as ‘strippers’ or sex workers. They argue that burlesque (unlike pole dancing/ stripping) calls back to
‘old school’ Moulin Rouge performance (Barer et al. 2011). Issues of class permeate such beliefs: a sex worker in a bar or
on the street is considered a lower-class woman than the burlesque dancer who is orchestrating ‘the performance
venue’

What would female sexuality, untouched by patriarchal power structures that place women as objects to be consumed
and used for pleasure look like? Can we even imagine what female sexuality is outside of patriarchal misogyny?

The corset can include a feminist commentary, but that message/history/context must be part of the critique or the
audience will miss the significance. This type of overt feminist critique is what is largely missing from today’s burlesque.

Feminist neo-burlesque is the hope of subverting, or at least thinking about, patriarchal definitions of female sexuality.
Female sexuality as portrayed in neoburlesque and a feminist analysis of burlesque performances are complicated and
they need to continue. There are far too few articles and scholarly works that approach the complexities of this topic.
There can be many different critiques and perspectives of any given context or performance. The point, however, is that
feminist critique and analysis – both on behalf of the performer and by the audience facilitated by the performer – is
essential to making neo-burlesque a transgressive political act.

As glossy magazines celebrating neo-burlesque proliferate, displayed next to mainstream ‘women’s magazines’ such as
Glamour and Vogue which also directly and indirectly promote the neo-burlesque culture and aesthetic, as pole dancing
classes are touted as aerobic exercise, as women boasting Ph.D.s engage in elegant stripping as a way of expressing their
empowerment, we need to turn a more critical feminist eye toward neoburlesque. The complexities and difficult issues
of female sexuality, female empowerment, and women’s rights to own their bodies are all entwined in the ‘art form’ of
neo-burlesque. It is up to feminist scholars and feminist performers to engage in regular and thoughtful dialog about
how burlesque capitulates to female sexual disempowerment even as it purports to do the opposite, and how we can
change that to engage in feminist sexual commentary with the audience

https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10355/5798/research.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y

Public portrayals of female sexuality have long been and continue to be a heavily debated subject in both the social
sciences and popular culture. At the heart of this debate is feminism and how it plays into the exposure of female flesh.
Can a woman remove her clothes knowing about the gaze of the other and still maintain feminist ideals? Can she
legitimately use her body to further her feminist and political ideals?

However, at the turn of the century, the original art form was all but completely lost. “It was quite a confused and horny
and tawdry era in which the first burlesque shows took shape, side by side with variety entertainment. But while variety
became vaudeville and aligned itself with talent, burlesque became itself and aligned itself with dirt (Zeidman 1967).”
 25

Appendix 6

Survey Responses (Excel File)