LOL! "Turn in your boa."

It's good to laugh at this. It helps stem the tears from yet another program objectifying women in the name of "Female Empowerment."

I dunno. To me, the saddest/most surreal part was when the woman said they'd learn confidence by dancing in lingerie in small glass cages. What I mean is the way she said it with a straight face and none of the girls burst out laughing from the absurdity of it all. This is a very strange world.

Oh man, thank you Jessi Klein, that was perfect. I watched the pilot after reading about it here, and holy crap--wow. Women literally puking left and right, hooked up to IVs, etc., sick sick women still trying to dance and sing and wiggle into the coveted slot (no pun, I swear). It was absurd, funny, insulting, and sad--in short, as my astute 19 year-old sister observed: Reality TV Gold. Sigh.

I actually wrote about this here: http://media.orkut.com/articles/0700.html

It's so ridiculous that the producers for the show try to pass the Pussycat Dolls off as "third wave feminism," if that's the case, then I clearly have been wearing too much clothing to properly rep the cause.

Yeah. Because nothing says empowerment like doing EXACTLY WHAT YOU'RE TOLD TO DO.

A noble bustier embiggens the flattest wannabe!

A noble bustier embiggens the flattest wannabe!

That would be me, norbizness, though I doubt I could pass muster as even the eighth pussycat doll *tear* Where o' where will I get my ass for days, er, I mean "confidence" from now?

I am of two minds about this: One mind says that this is truly sad when this is being peddled publicly to girls as a means of "empowerment" (Yes, yes little ladies, guys wanting to fuck you is EMPOWERING but they have to want to fuck YOU more than the other girl or else you're just a loser)

And my second mind is: What other talents do/would these girls have anyway? I know it's insulting but it's like when I catch a preview of The Girls Next door on E! and it's obvious these women have nothing else that they're good at besides looking pretty (and "acting" stupid if it is indeed "acting"), though a part of me wonders if they even tried to begin with.

*sigh*

I think that's one of the biggest problems with things like this- it sells the idea that the most important thing you can be is prettier than the girl next to you.

Worst of all, "pretty," "hot," "sexy," etc. are all relative and ultimately temporary.

Check out this poem by Kirsten Anderburg, "Burlesque is Bullshit".
http://users.resist.ca/~kirstena/pageburlesqueisbullshit.html

Check out this poem by Kirsten Anderburg, "Burlesque is Bullshit".
http://users.resist.ca/~kirstena/pageburlesqueisbullshit.html

It's very very sad that Pussycat Dolls and Top Model are two of the top shows on TV for young women. It's sadder that most of my friends watch these shows every week while I sit at home feeling superior.

I don't think these are nearly the most misogynist shows on TV, though. I understand smart people watching these shows as a guilty pleasure and laughing. I don't think that's the case with "The Bachelor," "What About Brian," etc.

Meh, I had to come back to (long windedly) defend burlesque...I don't agree with the poem. When I perform burlesque--me in my own personal experience--it ain't got shit to do with dudes. It's a unique and very energizing way to express myself creatively that I don't find in other outlets (I also write and act in my own theater company, plus an improv troupe). Yes, of course some men are looking at me with skeez in their eyes and hearts, but they also do that when I walk down the street in dirty jeans and a sweatshirt. I don't believe that putting on a pair of pasties automatically makes me a tool of the patriarchy--I'm an intelligent woman capable of inventive and independent thought; hopefully the routines I create reflect that! Again, in the troupes I work with, the shows are totally DIY and woman-run, though I have heard horror stories from revival shows run by big-pocket producers.

I'm saying--we should be careful not to equate ALL sexual performance with submission. But I'm pretty sure anything on the CW is always fair game ;-)

What's worse to me is that the CW is considering throwing over Veronica Mars for this crap. To review: Veronica Mars = empowered young woman who is very smart, indenpendent and doesn't define herself by what men think of her (hell, her ex boyfriend on the show is more of an emotional mess than she is, ever) versus a show where girls dress up like strippers and try to grind the bestest and call it "empowering". Hmm, I'll tell you which one I watch.

bettieclem,

What's difficult for me about burlesque is that a) burlesque dancers sometimes claim a hierarchical difference between themselves and strippers (i.e. "We are artists who do this for ourselves and they are basically skill-free whores too lazy even to suck dick for the money") and b)when you and/or others claim that "it ain't got shit to do with dudes," it feels - perhaps not purposefully so - but disingenuous to me. You refer to it as sexual performance, even though you say that all sexual performance is not qualitatively the same and shouldn't be judged as such. To me, sexual performance that has its origins in a practice that was very much about dudes is inherently, therefore, still related to watchful dudes. Having more freedom and independence in that sexual performance than maybe the strippers who work at Jumbo's Clown Room doesn't make it a thing completely separate from sexual performance for dudes.

I am not a person who will claim that sexual performance for dudes always feels crappy for the individual or always translates to more oppression for women by each individual's participation in it, so my argument is not that hey, you're wrong, all burlesque is evil and should stop.

My argument is this - if I can look at a naked or near naked woman and not think it means she's less human than me, deserves less of anything than me, is there just for my use, then it's fair to expect everyone else, including men, to be able to do that as well. I do think there would be less sexual performance of all kinds for men, by women, if sexual performances (rather than authentic sexual expressions) were not the most financially rewarding options for most women. I do think the world would be better off if that shift ever took place. I don't have a problem with women who sexually perform and/or make money off it. I do have a disagreement with women, in or out of those sexual performances, who claim they give women any power in the world whatsoever, and/or that they have nothing at all to do with men. I don't see change coming about when issues remain obscure or innacurate.

JK--I hear you. And my flip tone was not entirely accurate--of course there is something about my desire to do burlesque that is tied up in male/female power dynamics. My post was specifically in response to Kirsten's poem, which, to me, made it sound as if all performers--"real" strippers and burlesquers alike--experience shame around the costuming and physical movement that I find gives me access to a part of myself I don't normally experience in daily life, and that sometimes feels like accruing power.

The weirdness around defining what is empowering/disempowering for the burlesque dancer/stripper/porn star is so complicated that I don't feel I can adequately speak to it since I've never stripped in a traditional strip club, but I'll take a stab. Because I'm not being paid, I feel I can retain all of myself. I'm giving the audience nothing more that I feel comfortable to giving, and there is no financial obligation to my performance. I literally don't need to "work" the room. It's not that I think the Jumbo gals are sluts and stupid, it's that they are professionals, and I'm a hobbyist. What you make as a stripper depends on, by my understanding, how many lap dances you do, how nice you are to the rich customers, how many drinks you hustle at the bar. There is more direct interaction with the forces of dominant power in that work than with my 3 minute gallavanting in a hot-glued bikini top. Which is all to say that in burlesque, I feel safe and reserved enough to have the privelege of not thinking about the dudes. I don't really call this empowerment, but I wouldn't call it marginalization either.

For an interesting take on the stripping life, I highly recommend "Strip City," by Lily Burana (www.lilyburana.com)

And now, away from the internets I go!

So Spade isn't just fluff; he made room in his show for this little gem. Magnificent!

I couldn't tell from the show's credits who wrote Klein's segment, but my hat's off to whomever is responsible.

"my 3 minute gallavanting in a hot-glued bikini top."
thanks, bettieclem, i NEEDED to snort into my coffee...sheesh, warn me before you people do the funny, god...