Is burlesque an expression of sex-positive feminism, or is it inherently sexist? We also recently sat down with Kaitlyn and Matilda to discuss the history of burlesque in America.
Watch the video below to hear Dr. On discovering Exotic World in Helendale, California, and thence the Exotic Dancers League, the neo-burlesque community embraced these women as their alternative feminist foremothers.
The newcomers considered the EDL members the embodiment of their beliefs about body acceptance and identity. They saw legends and their lifestyles as subversive in the way these women physically displayed alternative outlooks on aging and sexuality. However, for many of the legends, particularly some of the older ones, these ideas seemed alien to their experience of burlesque. Their original performances were based on mainstream ideals of sex, consistent with the time period in which they were dancing, with their main focus being the sexual arousal of men.
This sentiment was touched on by [burlesque legend] Marinka when she recounted a protest outside of her theater in Iowa. Some college girls were picketing in front of the club where burlesque dancers were performing. I never wanted after that to go back to that town. This sentiment, expressed by Marinka, suggests that not only did she not include herself in the feminist movement—let alone a college-based, anti-sex-work feminist group in Iowa—but also that she saw groups involved in the movement as actually protesting against and threatening both her and her way of life.
In addition, she attributes the feminist movement with the end of the burlesque theaters and the further marginalization of burlesque.
