Blocked by meta as any use of the word gets flagged and your account is threatened to no longer be shown to non followers.
Women building up huge, engaged audiences online that brands will choose to not work with due to not wanting the wrong connotations.
It’s Burlesque!
Angels, I’d love for you to take a moment and think, when you hear the world Burlesque, what comes to mind? What is your understanding of it?
When I ask this question at the beginning of experiences, the general response is Dita Von Teese, sparkly costumes, sexy, taking your clothes off or I don’t know anything!
Ring a bell?
Here’s the thing about the word Burlesque itself, it’s rooted in the Italian word Burle which means to joke, ridicule or mock. If you look at Dita sets, yes she is completely and utterly drenched in pure opulence and eccentric glamour and in that lies a campiness and her having the best time, whether she’s a woman spinning round a giant martini glass or a ring leader with her dancers dressed as tigers on a lead, she’s ultimately having fun, enamouring the audience with her divine femininity and the art of the tease.
The sexiness aspect is real, but it’s not someone saying “I want to make an act that’s really sexy and I’m going to perform it”, it’s someone saying I’m feeling called to create this piece of art, I’m feeling inspired by this piece of music or I saw this gorgeous fabric that could be used for this costume or this concept came to me, similar to more mainstream art forms like filmmaking, writing a play or creating music.
And ultimately, and my favourite thing about Burlesque, it’s about an individual creating something for themselves. No consideration towards the male gaze and the full support of saying yes to their own ideas. I was blown away when I first experienced how fiercely a woman is celebrated when she stands up in a class or on stage, tests an idea and no matter what she does she will be cheered on whole heartedly, as she should! And as any gender should, we all deserve to have our moments of celebration, especially for expressing our creative ideas, celebrating our bodies and moments of movement.
Even if it’s an idea that doesn’t necessarily work or land, someone gets to try, as a reformed (trying anyway) perfectionist who’s let this fact stifle certain pursuits over the years I think this factor is beyond incredible and is definitely needed in the world, especially for women when there’s still a stigma lingering of what we can and can’t do and at what age etc.
Yes there is the art of the tease and yes there are acts, especially in the more cabaret focused scene that do have explicit moments, but that’s not every act and that’s certainly not everyone. The same way that there are explicit movies and commercially safe movies, you can’t just pop a blanket statement on an art form. Looking at you Meta!
In terms of the elusive tassels, as we saw in the Burlesque movie, you don’t necessarily have to show anything, it’s the illusion. I’ve performed for certain events and have seen acts where bras, bodysuits or corsets have stayed on the entire time and the performance was just as exciting and the audience went just as wild. But also for the plenty of acts, Dita included, who do go down to their tassels, why is that less commercially friendly than say Zendaya glowing in a gorgeous teeny tiny silver bra that covers as much as a pair of pasties or tassels would? There are similar examples and actual pasties dotted all around Hollywood by movie stars, the world loves to see it.
What are your thoughts on Burlesque? Has this opened your eyes to the many aspects involved with creating an act? Let us know in the comments below
A cheeky psa: at Cheeky Cherry Wellness we’re proud to say that our journal entries are divine musings of our own creation. Our founder or guest contributors write from their gorgeous hearts and minds without passing the text through ai, it’s all natural baby! Any imperfections? Well we’re all human and we hope you enjoy anyway, happy reading gorgeous angel.
