Burlesque - women reclaiming their sexuality or another way to demean them?

[almostwitty]

pinkgemma is saying that burlesque is a terrible thing, and demeans all women.

While I'm not going to argue that burlesque is proof that sistas are totally doing it for themselves, man, I'm also not going to say that burlesque is an anti-feminist statement. Simply because in the aftermath of the politically correct movement, the world could have gone two ways:

- all sexual expression is demanding, regardless of gender or sexuality
- hey, we all like looking at boobies/bottoms/men/women. So let's make some money out of it and apply the rules across both genders. Thus we have adverts featuring hunky men stripping off or just wearing a towel instead of bikini-clad women.

And obviously, us being a capitalist society where the dollar rules, we went for the latter option.

Having said all that, I've yet to actually go to a burlesque show, mainly because as a single man, it wouldn't be that far removed from me going to see a stripper. I also have unique queasiness about seeing a stripper, for some reason.

What do you think?

Comments

[padiwack.livejournal.com]

Burlesque is an ART FORM. It is a celebration of the feminine! It is NOT the same as getting a lap dance from a tired bored girl making money going through the motions to put herself through law school. It is not the same as having a stripper wave her twat in your face for cash.

It is a dance, a tease, a divine celebration of the art of feminine seduction, and that is very empowering! There is nothing degrading about it at all!

Your friend needs to open her mind, and perhaps study the history. :-)

[almostwitty]

Hang on, burlesque is a woman teasing her audience? Don't I see that in a bar every Friday night? ;)

To be fair, I have never seen a stripper waving her twat in people's faces. Maybe I've been to the wrong shows. :P