Burlesque Revival
• Amorous Pop Culture
Rachel Shteir author of Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show talks about the burlesque revival.
It is admirable to see how tenaciously the best performers in the burlesque revival try to imitate the glamour of old-time strippers like Gypsy Rose Lee even as they send up that glamour. Many of the new performers -- with names like "Dirty Martini" and "The World Famous Bob" (a woman) and "Jo Boobs" -- use striptease as a way to recall a vanished era, but they also deliver a hip, ironic aesthetic. They try to both entertain and titillate. They wear old-fashioned strip gowns and dance to jazz standards. They aspire to a more democratic ideal of the body than the porn industry -- not all the bodies on display are slim or perfect -- which is an ideal that burlesque also celebrated. There are now a number of national festivals dedicated to this revival.
She also writes about academic censorhip and hositility engendered by her book. Is stripping porn? Are the women empowered or exploited?
Striptease, Porn, and Gender Politics: an Academic's Dilemma