Burlesque Battles

17th June, 2009 by Tamara Barnett

There’s a small little political commotion going on right now in clubs and the art world in Britain. You probably noticed it briefly in the papers – you saw a small column to the side somewhere, noticed the word ‘burlesque’, looked a little closer and saw no smut (alas!) and moved on. This is probably happening to you again right now… but please do continue to read!

The Issue…

burlesque dancer

The issue regards Camden Council’s decision to classify burlesque dance as adult entertainment, therefore banning it from most clubs and theatres, which unlike strip joints don’t possess special licenses.

Camden is traditionally seen as one of the most left and liberal councils, but like many British middle-class establishments with dubiously fashionable socialist leanings, the place appears to be a bastion of blinkered conservatism.

Why…?

The genius behind this is Councillor Don Williams, who admits he’s never been to a burlesque show but says it’s all about ‘protecting the kids’ so to speak. Well don’t get me a wrong; I admit I am all for clamping down on freedoms on the odd occasion. You wont find me shedding a tear if we adopted Sweden’s zero tolerance towards prostitution, but Burlesque doesn’t pose a risk to anyone, unless the occasional tumble in high heels count.

There is however ample evidence to show that strip clubs do pose a threat to the public. Or rather women (but by talking about 52% of the population, one always risks being accused of talking about a niche market!). Stripping attracts a whole range of people, but essentially these are almost all men. While some men just see it as a bit of fun, it no doubt also attracts a certain type of man who can only claim to ‘love’ women in a most limited and crude sense which doesn’t include the feeling the Beatles had in mind. Indeed, in Camden, a 2003 study showed that the number of rapes in the area increased by 50% and indecent assaults by 57% after four lap-dancing venues opened. While it may be ‘empowering’ for the odd stripper, it does women in general no favours.

What Burlesque is…

However Burlesque is something altogether different. It’s theatre – essentially a weird and wonderful fusion of cabaret, dance, comedy, art and politics. The philosopher Roger Scruton explained the difference between a Titian painting of a nude and a pornographic image by stating that the control lay in the nude’s gaze in the former, while it lies in the mind of the viewer in the latter. The same analogy works when comparing Burlesque with Lap dancing. The erotic in the former is often suggested but never revealed, and the power is always in the hands of the performer.

Burlesque dancers, unlike strippers come in all shapes, ages and sizes and as Natasha Forrest, a former lap dancer, articulates it, they ‘use creativity and originality, rather than youth and beauty, to charm their audiences, and do not rely on their ability to turn people on for the bulk of their wages…burlesque ironically pokes fun at traditional gendered sexual roles while stripping relies on these roles for its core existence’. Indeed, burlesque performer Vikki Butterfly (seen recently in the Verve’s Love is Noise music video) looks like something out of a Victorian music-box and dances to music like Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. If you are hoping for the kind of in-yer-face titillation you find in Nelly’s videos you’ll be disappointed; this may explain why burlesque audiences are often made up largely of ladies and camp gents.

The Problem…

Now this is not the crowd who will be making women feel unsafe at night. However as the owner of the Proud Galleries (which until recently hosted Burlesque nights) admitted – these burlesque nights in Camden are now being replaced by much more overt, sexualized dancers
who pander to an almost exclusively male audience. So are women safer after these changes in law have been put in place? Well seemingly not then!

I could find only one example, in another bastion of tolerance along Camden Council’s guidelines, The Guardian , claiming that there was evidence that Burlesque was a ‘misogynist sham’. A journalist hack, who used to be in a cabaret troupe with me no less, had decided to make up a bizarre story of her exploitation at the hands of our producers to nab a story. I knew from the first line describing herself ‘As a shy, bewildered teenager,’ that something seriously disingenuous was going on here (I don’t want to give her a reputation but the pics of her naked chest on Facebook are still there so..) as she went on to describe performers crying daily in the loos and how her insecurities were used by cruel ‘managers (who) convinced me that stripping was the perfect answer.’ As a voluntary cabaret group run by two rather camp, gentle performers, it was anything but what she described and most performers, male and female, chose not to take off quite as much as she opted for. But whatever!

What is concerning however is what her article and Camden Council are championing. Western art has always used the human body as a central motif. Camden Council’s decision is essentially a step backwards in that it is a direct censorship of art. I am not in fact against censorship per se. What makes it absurd is that children (yep, those ones Councillor Williams is so concerned about) watch far more pornographic and misogynist images on TV every day in the form of adverts, music videos and the like. Hence the misogynist claims in the Guardian article are somewhat obsolete. If we want to tackle the issue, clamping down on cabaret performers seems an odd place to start.

Whether you agree with my point of view or not, politics at a local level like this always creeps into the bigger picture. So if there is a burlesque show near you and you are walking home alone late at night, I’d say be careful of certain individuals nearby… but I’d have your local councillors in mind!

For more, you can go to:
http://www.timeout.com/london/cabaret/blog/7591/Is_Camden_Council_banning_burlesque.html
http://rubyroom.aol.co.uk/2009/05/18/naughty-or-nice-the-burlesque-debate/

Photo courtesy of Felix42 contra la censura