Neo Burlesque: The Girl Next Door Everywhere Claims Her Inner Vixen
The internet has given birth to art that wasn’t previously available to a vast number of people. And, with a little computer savvy, those artists have a potentially world wide audience. In such fertile and wild grounds, homegrown art has flourished. Part of this renaissance has been internet modeling.
Internet modeling is largely the result of ‘alternative’ model pools, though has since branched out to include fine artists and mainstream work that features women who would not normally enjoy a career if Ford Modeling Agency had anything to say about it.
These pools of creation are made up of subcultures such as Goth, Rockabilly, Punk, Fetish, Swing Kids, Historical Recreational Groups, Live Action Gamers and more. Rejecting the models they had been given as aspiration figures by the media, they turn to their own social bubble and put on a pedestal the girls who look more like their personal aesthetics – something entirely missing from the cookie cutter, glossy assimilation haunting magazine pages.
As digital technology improved, and the internet became more widely used, it turned into a conduit for frustrated or even recreational artists to meet with like minded individuals to create something they felt was beautiful, provocative or simply worth expressing. The result has been very intriguing. Gallery nights of alternative art have cropped up in many major cities across the country. Cult icons have been born out of these artistic pools.
And instead of hoping to one day be just like a well known actress or model from the professional mainstream, girls are emulating their favorite subculture figure or taking her cue and finding a way to express themselves uniquely within that social bubble.
So what does this have to do with burlesque?
About the same time as the internet was exploding, as well as the many possibilities it heralded, the neo burlesque scene began. Just like internet modeling, it had a new and different aesthetic. It wasn’t the realm of twiggy, perfect women or the wild child type known to take a turn around the pole in the raw contemporary cousin of burlesque. It was women of all shapes and sizes. It was the girl next door. And it was so well received that over the past ten years, the number of major cities across the
now home to at least one burlesque troupe has grown exponentially, even bursting past the subculture to hit the mainstream. Though, in keeping with what the mainstream does, it was returned to the flawless few who generally make up the talent pool preferred by
Hollywood
rather than preserving the neo burlesque movement’s celebration of women however they were born.
What exactly is driving women by the dozens to take it nearly all off in a bump and grind recreation of an era gone by?
Salaciously erotic entertainment is by no means a new concept to humanity. It has been a way to pass the time and titillate since before civilizations formed. Every culture has its own version of this. And these diversions evolve or change as time passes. Yet, no matter how forbidden or looked down up these theatrics may be to a society at large, there is no denying the inherent power they hold on an audience as wielded by the performer. And therein lies the siren song that tempts many to the spotlight.
Neo burlesque shares an aesthetic and sense of humor with its foremother. Imaginative costumes heavy in detail, elaborate stories or inventive gimmicks, and a sassy attitude are the hallmark of the genre carried on into the present with loving enthusiasm. But that is where the similarities end. It isn’t a tawdry affair with men sitting in the dark, furtively, throwing dollar bills or asking for ‘dates’ after the show. Because sexuality has taken such a drastic turn toward raw and graphic execution, what used to be shocking decades ago is now a quaint tribute. But it really is the glamour, nostalgia and attainable fantasy girl appeal drawing in women traditionally left out of the realm of sexy or beautiful as determined by the media that is remarkable about the movement.
To the girls of neo burlesque, the woman of yesteryear was a far more glamorous creature than what exists today. That alone is a siren song for girls who long to be feminine to the bone. The attention to layers of clothing from the undergarments to the very rhinestones adorning costumes is a story of sexy adventurousness. What used to be annoyingly confining has become a sign of sophistication and refinement. The corsets, bras, stockings and garters that were so happily tossed aside for comfortable clothing during the feminist revolution have ironically become a symbol of sexual power. Burlesque, unlike the bastardization that exists today in strip clubs, wasn’t about the skin you see and the clothes you don’t but rather the clothes you do and the skin you don’t. Mystery and seduction rule rather than the unimaginative banishing of the art of tease.
Costuming is a very ritualized part of burlesque. Traditionally, they are created by the girls wearing them or at the very least designed by them. It is a personal statement and visual representation of the onstage persona created by each performer. The creation of costumes and the shows that go around them are as much a part of the neo burlesque scene as the actual performances. It’s a chance to be unique and inventive or to pay homage to someone in the past. For others, it’s living out a fantasy.
It’s more than taking off clothes artfully but telling a story intended to entertain as well as tantalize. The attention to detail is tremendous and a point of pride for every girl who gets up on stage to take it all off. It isn’t unusual for performers to boast of the number of Swarovski crystals utilized in their ensembles or other rare materials such as feathers. No two costumes are alike (unless they were created for a troupe/group number) either. Individuality is celebrated in a world where conformity seems compulsory.
The audiences for a neo burlesque show are quite different than those the original burlesque dancers enjoyed. There are still cat calls and lewd requests to take it off but the crowds are often half made up of women. People tend to dress up. And no one is pleasuring themselves solo all over the floor of the theaters. What was once considered particularly racy is now a quaint and often tame homage that doesn’t compare to what passes for adult entertainment in the year 2006. The key word is ‘tease’ not strip. It is titillation for the intelligent sex drive.
It engages a level of humor, doesn’t take itself too seriously, is glamorous and still manages to be smoking hot. Neo burlesque celebrates the romanticized smoldering vixen in every girl bringing self possessed female sexuality directly into the hands of regular women and not just porn stars, movie stars or models. For four and a half minutes, a neo burlesque dancer gets to be the only girl in the room, on her own terms, but without giving it all up. For a woman, it’s the perfect situation. And for an audience, it’s a voyeuristic fun ride.
But, as a center piece of great importance, the women of these eras gone by celebrated in neo burlesque came in far more types than those being served to the world via the media or
Hollywood
today. The idea of what is beautiful today is dangerously narrow in comparison. While a healthier body is popular these days, something anyone can get by simply going to the gym, it has gone beyond that to a kind of homogenized look that obscures or disallows ‘flaws’ that actually make up character or individuality. Only a few decades ago, all it took to glam up was some makeup and a few specially designed undergarments.
Now it entails thousands of dollars in plastic surgery and years of expensive upkeep depending on the procedures. The unnatural symmetry demanded so as to survive the limited aesthetic of the media’s vision is neither natural nor realistic for everyone. While a few cosmetic adjustments here or there are entirely reasonable for anyone to undergo, sending a message that only a narrow vision of beauty couched in a type of perfection must be attained to enter into a now ridiculously exclusive club is a dangerous one that has already made an impact on society.
It is a world wide crisis as even racial genetics are being denounced en masse such as what has happened in Iran where the number one surgical procedure is rhinoplasty among women who crave ‘Western noses’ rather than their thousands of years old Persian ones or in Asian countries where the women undergo surgeries to create more rounded eyes rather than the almond shapes they are born with.
The beginnings of the burlesque revival were small and humble. The fact that it has grown to the point that troupes exist in just about every major city and in most every state across the US, not to mention portions of Canada and the UK, is a testament to the fact that people identify with these sassy would be sex symbols in the same way that reality TV has captured imaginations. Women see themselves in the performers and men see their girlfriends or someone they could feasibly be dating. It’s attainable sex appeal.
The movement has been so powerful that it has spilled into the mainstream where, just a with everything else dwelling there, it suffers from a clean up that is troubling. The girls don’t come in all shapes and sizes. They all look rather similar. The whole point of burlesque, the tease, is gone as is the sense of humor. There are some notable exceptions that come close to being faithful or less stringent such as Forty Deuce in Hollywood and
Las Vegas
, but in general, what drives the neo burlesque scene is doesn’t exist.
Hollywood
and media outlets have completely missed the point.
What the future holds for the new bump and grind isn’t clear. It still grows exponentially and influences fashion, media, entertainment and music. The aesthetic has been co-opted for many things and doesn’t show any sign of dying out. What would truly be miraculous and beautiful is if somehow the lessons of neo burlesque’s success, the ‘every woman as a fantasy’ factor took a hold in the modern media to break down the merciless cookie cutter standards for a more natural, embracing one.
