I just came back from The Great Boston Burlesque Exposition and I have to say I am quite content! I still need to emerge from the hypnotic state induced by all the pasties' twirling and lack of sleep, as well as take some distance to process all the data and information gathered during numerous and highly valuable interactions.
One thing I can say, dealing with some of the last remaining classical legends of burlesque, as well as the generational clash between burlesque and neo-burlesque, has given me a fresh outlook on my research project. I'm very excited about that!
I have decided to keep on feeding this blog as it is a valuable tool in myresearch project, I invite you to come back in order to follow and comment on the evolution of my research... I hope some other students in the class will do the same as lots of the research projects were very interesting and inspiring!
Hello everyone! I’m so excited; I’m leaving for part of my “physical” fieldwork in just about 3 days! I will be attending the Great Boston Burlesque Exposition as a participant observer, where -- aside from attending shows, conferences and classes -- I will be assisting as a “Legend Escort” which will allow me to get to know better some very important personalities such as Dusty Summers, April March, Tiffany, Lilly Ann Rose, Candy Caramelo: ladies who have “paved the way for today's burlesque performers”.
April March, image taken from the Great Boston Burlesque Exposition website
I will also attend a class about burlesque choregraphy with Jo “Boobs” Weldon, from whom I have been following the blog website Burlesque Daily for a while, and have purchased the newly-released dvd...
I will as well have the opportunity to host a “Birds of a feather” session about my research topic; an informal discussion group with members of the community:
Neo-burlesque: bumping or grinding the mediated gendered norms? Let’s discuss how neo-burlesque performances can lead to new representations of women by expanding the boundaries of the mediated feminine representation, as well as by challenging the feminine stereotypes commonly found in advertising and media. Can neo-burlesque be considered subversive or feminist? Is there an underlying commonality between the presence of “seemingly naïve” and “subversive” acts in the neo-burlesque community, other than sheer exhibitionism and retro afición?
I hope to take this opportunity to discuss the implications of online burlesque performances (in a context often reffered to as "disembodied").
This field opportunity was actually found while working on my cyber ethnographic research project. (!)
I’m so happy it is taking shape… (I also hope some of those quantitative research supremacists from my business school get to read that! : P)
Thank you again rsrchr for your input and letting me know about the Back Off event tomorrow! It is actually quite in line with my research topic. I have to do a mini lecture tomorrow about my research project (oh no!!) but I'll definetly try to attend before and/or after! First, it seems like it's dealing with écriture féminine or "writing the female body" with the workshop "Let’s Talk about Genre(s)", which is self-explanatory by "Come to discuss, practice - and even create! - linguistic strategies to thwart the ‘universal’ grammatical masculine that anchor our presence in language, and the world." As previously mentionned, I am using the concept of "écriture féminine" in my analysis of neo-burlesque.
Second, the workshop "Pénélope or the Epic of Heroines, Amazons and Other Dancers" is said to be the " art of re-appropriation of your body", which could easily be linked to the neo-burlesque performances.
And last but none the least, the "D.I.Y. Porn: How to make fun and ethical smut!"... Well... I mentionned that - when responding to Button's question about the locus of my research - pornography could be used "to dislodge ... culture-specific mediation of the female body" (Dallery, 1989 ; Joy & Venkatesh, 1994) according to post-structuralists feminist writers. I looked into the Lickety Split smut zine (which, quite honnestly - and shamefully - I have never heard of despite of their geographical proximity and link with my research interests). Their emphasis on the "Do it yourself" rather than the "alternate look" makes it quite interesting also. I believe there is more freedom for subversion (ok, than again, what is subversive?) when it is self-determined rather than when circumscribed by a certain realm of aesthetic or pre-determined style (just like in neo-burlesque). I further investigated on the Lickety Split smut zine and found out about the Feminist Porn Awards, as well as their selection criterias:
1) A woman has had a hand in the production, writing, direction, etc. Of the work.
2) It depicts genuine female pleasure.
3) It expands the boundaries of sexual representation on film and challenges stereotypes that are often found in mainstream porn.
I should investigate further their criterias for determining what they consider as challenging of the stereotypes in mainstream porn...
I found it interesting that the award ceremony, held in Toronto, would feature Coco La Creme, a burlesque artiste from the the troupe Skin Tight Outta Sight, that I have previously mentionned seeing at the Toronto Burlesque Festival (they organized it). (Wow - this is starting to look a bit too "Da Vinci's Codish"!!) I find Skin Tight's work of "rebel burlesque" particularly creative and refreshing in so far...
Anyhow, this brings me to the reflexion that I should investigate further the D.I.Y. aspect in neo-burlesque, which is an important part of that culture (sexual representation, but also costumes, scenography, props...) Is this auto-determination "empowering" and challenging the norm?
Wow, I just randomly came across this posting on the blog called CJAM-FM's Women's Radio Collective, "The Women's Radio Collective is a new initiative at CJAM 91.5 FM (Windsor-Detroit) that focuses on a wide range of female perspectives regarding news and music." which is about the contestation of gendered norms in neo-burlesque. Their posting is called "Burlesque: Stripping away gendered norms", I have to say first that we did use some of the same 2nd-degree sources, such as the books The Happy Stripper: Pleasures and Politics (Jacki Willson), as well as Burlesque and the New Bump n' Grind (Michelle Baldwin)(there are not very many books available about neo-burlesque)... Hence why I canno't really consider it like a new input for my research... But I did find the fact that, as femininist organisation (or, if not, at least one that seeks and values female perspectives), they endorse the performance of some neo-burlesque artists as subversive and challenging of the current feminine norms. They also did the link with Butler and the gender performance, which I consider comforting of my prior intuitions...
It was interesting to note that even back in its original days, burlesque was subversive and intimidating because of the frequent gender bending acts, as well as the upfront and non-timid sexuality of the female performers.
While we noted that the burlesque revival or neo-burlesque is probably most well known due to the popularity of Dita Von Teese, pin-up model, burlesque performer, and ex-wife of Marilyn Manson, there are a lot more subversive examples of the empowering nature of new burlesque.
We also talked about how new burlesque, with its primarily female audience, inverts the male gaze and celebrates the female body and women's own sexuality.
They mentionned about the troupe Skin Tight Outta Sight, as well as the performer Roxi Dlite which, interestingly, I had the opportunity to see last year at the Toronto Burlesque Festival... Which I will for sure attend again this year! As well, they links to articles discussing the feminist implications of burlesque, which, despite the fact that they are not academic ressources, are interesting for me to compile (and investigate from which source the discourse emerged)...
Now, what is my purpose in keeping on researching neo-burlesque and its challenging of the gendered norms? Well, someone needs to explain it to the marketers now, which only see in burlesque it's aesthetic aspect - just think about the video Circus by Britney Spears.
