Thread: Do you recognise this picture of Burlesque?

Today in the Guardian we get an article about Burlesque:
"Burlesque laid bare"
(Sorry I can't post the URL as I haven't made more than 15 posts here - sorry!)

To me this is a complete misrepresentation of Burlesque - for example I can't imagine any of the performers here crying in the toilets because their costume makes them look fat...

Maybe there is a different world of Burlesque out there, cos I don't recognise this one.

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Just reading it now. Here's the linky for other people if they want a look: Burlesque laid bare | Life and style | The Guardian

It's a very interesting and personal experience of burlesque..and I hope not a common one. It seems to me that this woman was disenchanted with aspects of her life and hoped joining a troupe would make it better...but as soon as you're performing by somebody else's rules in a way that is against your better instincts, surely it's time to get out (in any profession). I'd like to think this woman's experiences were an exception to the rule-Anyone else ever felt they weren't getting what they expected at the start?
x

that article was ridiculous! sounds more like a troupe trying to imitate the pussycatdolls. not once have i felt that way! i am in control of how i feel, and how the audience feels about me. articles like this are what will make our clubs get shut down by government authority.
geez!

I would hope it is not a common one as well. The trouble is it is presented here as being the reality of burlesque, not just one experience. Any chance of getting other views in the Guardian do you think? I know Ms. Klaw can write up a storm...

I wonder if perhaps her negative experience was more to do with the troupe aspect rather than the burlesque concept as a whole. The main reason I love performing burlesque is that I have 100% control of what I put into my performances and what I don't. As a solo performer I would never feel under pressure to slap a big fixed smile on throughout my act iif I didn't feel it were neccessary or appropriate.
However, I did start my performing life in a troupe and I found conforming to someone else's strict ideals of what was a good show really stressful and I enjoyed it a lot less than I do now. Perhaps if she had performed alone she would not have felt so much pressure to do something that was not 'her'.

Also, I find it really depressing that people tout burlesque as this cure-all for people's self esteem issues and then get upset when it doesn't work for them. I believe that any hobby or career that you enjoy and are good at will give you a little boost and make you feel good about yourself but I do not believe that becoming a burlesque performer will automatically make you feel beautiful, good about your body or what have you. For me, that's the only pressure I have found in the scene - to say that burlesque is empowering, good for your self esteem, body image etc. Don't get me wrong, I think it can be, but only as the empowerment of someone doing something they love - not just in and of itself.

It's a shame there is no function to comment on the article, as some online papers offer - it seems this is a very sad story but one which is no more the norm than the myth of burlesque as fixer-of-women.

THis is what I posted on my blog about the article:

I am sorry that Laurie had a bad experience with her foray into burlesque. However, to me it wasn’t burlesque itself that was the problem, it seemed to be the fault of the managers:

Burlesque shouldn’t have anything to do with your inner minx. Done properly it should be uncomfortable to watch – even terrifying. It certainly shouldn’t be about reproducing gender norms, with women performing sexually, and submissively, for an audience. However, as my troupe became more successful, the managers ditched our most subversive acts. First to go were the cross-dressing, my favourite political sketch, and the reverse striptease (where a young woman ripped the clothes off a male plant in the audience). What was left was threadbare. Peeling off my fluffy underwear in front of the Edinburgh crowds, it dawned on me that my headline act was no longer remotely challenging.

Certainly if the show is sanitised like that, there isn’t much left to consider it “burlesque�. As Laurie notes, submissive stripping sorely for male titillation does not tap into the vast power and resources available in taking up an uncomfortable, paradigm-busting, confronting position on stage. It’s not burlesque anymore.

I do hope that others in Laurie’s position will be able to avoid the trap of sanitary super-sexualized burlesque that ends up being more about the skin than about the story or satire. I can see that since it’s become a relatively recent trend, there will be tons of people jumping on the bandwagon proclaiming every naked boogie as burlesque. And - as Laurie found - that isn’t very helpful.

Having read this article I do feel sad that the author's experience was so negative as all of my experiences (despite the odd minor up and down moment) have been genuinely positive. But then again I do not perform in the same way as you ladies (and gents) do.

I am involved in the shows I compere, but I still consider myself an observer. I think on the whole we are a very positive community.

There are indeed aspects of this world which are undesirable but all in all I'm still having fun.

When it is no longer fun, then is the time for me to either leave or change something about it.

But I hope that will not be for a long time or indeed, ever!

DG

Ooh, it's letting me comment now... I just wrote a bit of an essay! blushes

Originally Posted by Tara Mi Sioux

sounds more like a troupe trying to imitate the pussycatdolls.

I completely agree with you.

xxx