Boston Burlesque Experience
Sara Faith Alterman muses about her experiences as an amateur burlesque performer in Boston and what burlesque means to her. She stresses that burlesque is an art, rather than a stripshow where "tubby suburban dads stuff one-dollar bills in my crotch." She continues:I agree with her, to an extent. Burlesque is an art, but burlesque performers are strippers. Trying to make burlesque seem more posh by wrapping it up in feathers and fans is silly. The feathers and fans add an element of fun and add a very different atmosphere than a stripclub. The intent of burlesque is entertainment and not just sexual gratification. But let's not try to dress it up and make it seem like burlesque performers are better than strippers. It's like journalists looking down their noses at bloggers. There is a definite difference between the two styles of burlesque and stripping at a "gentlemen's club," but they both involve stripping.The uninitiated assume that burlesque involves bawdy women swinging their sparkly tits to the beat of some trashy-sounding vamp. Strippers, right? They’re strippers? Wrong. Burlesque artists combine dance, comedy, music, kitsch, innuendo, feathers, fans, and, okay, sex appeal, to tantalizing effect. It’s about the art of the tease, not the sleaze of the strip.
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While I agree that both strippers and burlesque dancers strip, I disagree (enough to write something) that they do the same thing. Both are arousing but totally different, and to compare journalists to bloggers is ridiculous. Journalists are passionate, educated and good enough to be paid for writing, bloggers are usually not good enough to be paid and are not. The same thing goes for burlesque though perhaps in an opposite way, stripping seems to be all about money in the end whereas burlesque can be admired as an art. It is unfortunate that artists, the good ones, are rarely paid in balance with the ideas and inspiration they give to the rest of us. You as a burlesque dancer are definitely more of an artist than a stripper, while it's always distasteful to look down your nose, you can certainly take pride in being in a different more artistic class of people. Thanks.
Julia -
Thank you for taking the time to comment. I agree, burlesque is usually more creative and artistic than what we find at most strip clubs (and MUCH more entertaining in my opinion), but I still don't want to sugarcoat burlesque and ignore the fact that it is stripping. Saying burlesque is an art form is a good argument for separating burlesque and strip club stripping, but some could argue that the stripper pole dance is also an art form.
You also said, "It is unfortunate that artists, the good ones, are rarely paid in balance with the ideas and inspiration they give the rest of us." That's true in many cases. However, the good burlesque performers often get paid, just as the good bloggers get paid for blogging.
Don't get me wrong, I love burlesque and I hope it continues to thrive as a form of entertainment. I'm just saying let's call a spade a spade.
Yeah, I agree, they are strippers. Real artists find ways to be creative and make money (without resorting to the lowest common denominator) strippers just take off their clothes for attention, fame, money. If you ask me, it's silly to even consider a stripper an artist, and then sugar coat it with a name like Burlesque.
In the end they are selling sex, not art.