Welcome to: April OPeel's Blog

Photo by WeDo Photo

I can’t even tell you how many times I started this essay. There was a lot to think about and it was really hard to weed out how I felt and what I respectively understood Empowerment and Burlesque to both be.

At first if anyone asked me if Burlesque was empowering, I would have said heck yes!! My life has changed so much for the better. As a teacher, I have seen so many lives changed for the better. It was an obvious answer I thought. Of course! But then I started reading posts about how it wasn’t and could we please stop using it to describe BQ. This from people and performers I respected. There wasn’t necessarily alot of explanation why, so I really had to work it out. What exactly is empowerment?

Wikipedia defines empowerment as:

Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social, or economic strength of individuals and communities. It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own capacities.

Conversely Marginalism as:

Marginalized refers to the overt or covert trends within societies whereby those perceived as lacking desirable traits or deviating from the group norms tend to be excluded by wider society and ostracised as undesirables

So wait- do you have to be marginalized to be empowered? How did this even get brought up in the first place?

Its my opinion that most women in Western society are aware of the privileges that we have now that for a long time were denied to us because of gender. This wasn’t that long ago but the culture of each generation continues to change quite drastically. Social norms and mores for me are definitely very different than they were for my Grandmother or her Mother. So it seems that the word empowered has become a be-all-end-all of what woman collectively would like to achieve. Who would ever argue that empowerment is bad? Look at the rights we have now because we are empowered. Look at me! I’m so empowered! I also think that because it is something we would logically want to be associated with, it has also become a bit of a “buzz” word. If marketing types know that woman want to be empowered, then it would make sense to try to sell things that will give this to you. Consequences being if you use this word too frequently and without care, it sort of ceases to have any real meaning at all. This could be why when I really sat down to think about it, I didn’t have any clear answers. Am I marginalized? Is Burlesque empowering me? Does that mean its empowering for everyone?

So many questions!!!!! So I did what any child of social media would do and I posted a note on ye olde Facebook and asked all the people in my community if they could tell me what they thought about it and some of the responses I received were absolutely profound. I’ve asked permission to repost some of my favorites.

I think something is empowering when you feel proud and powerful. If a person finds themselves feeling empowered, then what they are doing is empowering. I do’t think anyone can judge what is or isn’t empowering for someone else. I think that belongs only to the person experiencing it. So for me, burlesque is empowering and I hope others find it empowering too but I can’t speak for anyone else

-Miss Fitt-

I don’t think there can be a blanket statement made about whether burlesque is empowering or not, in the same way you can’t say that portrayal of nudity is either artistic or pornographic. It’s entirely context driven. There probably ARE people who are trying to exploit or have felt exploited in the name of burlesque (though I’ve personally not seen or experienced it) and there are DEFINITELY those who feel empowered by it. Do we burlesquers NEED the empowerment angle to justify the implied sexuality? And if so, what does that say about our OWN confidence in the artform.

-Shea Deville-

I don’t quite know if I find burlesque empowering for myself, I definitely thought going into it that I would be all “Oh my god I’m doing this thing where I’m going to be empowered and love myself and be an INDEPENDENT woman!!” Whereas I just really enjoy it because it’s such an amazingly fun atmosphere. I don’t personally feel any more empowered than before I was doing burlesque, but I do agree.. that there are empowering routines and ways of portraying yourself on stage. It’s all about the tools you use to inspire/engage/entertain the audience.

-Vermillion Viper-

Has anyone asked WHY burlesque has to be empowering? (I believe it IS, but why does it HAVE to be?) Nobody makes that demand of a Star Wars movie or a pop song. Does art have a responsibility to be morally uplifting or edifying? Is it because it deals with sex that this issue gets raised?

-John Woods, The Wet Spots-

The challenge here is that people who believe that burlesque and other forms of adult entertainment are degrading, etc are functioning in the moral paradigm that openness about the human body and sexuality is offensive by nature…that the naked body and sexuality should be kept behind closed doors. Because many of those involved in burlesque function in the moral paradigm that celebration of body and sexuality is healthy and empowering by nature, there is obviously going to be a clash of opinions.

Burlesque can be creatively empowering in that we often are the ones creating the piece from start to finish (idea, choreography, costume, etc). But lets not forget, we are stripping on stage. We are not that much different from modern age ‘strippers’….its the concept, costuming, and theatrical nature that sets us a part. However, to those who believe that the offensive and degrading nature of burlesque is the exposure of ones body, that fact does not matter.

I’ve gotten to the point where I believe that, by performing, I have the opportunity to temporarily help some people shift that paradigm of thought…and perhaps nudge them towards a viewpoint on self and sexuality that is healthier than a shame-based viewpoint held by most of the western world.

-Madam Mae I-

How is fun or being not productive or challenging to the status quo destructive? Is the ballet a bad image for women because we shouldn’t be forced to be that graceful? Are clowns horrible because then we’ll all go around pulling scarves out things? People are different, art is valid. Fun is valid.

-Melody Mangler-

Burlesque is not automatically empowering any more than painting is automatically uplifting. It depends on how you do it. Empowerment for the performers themselves was a key ignition for the Burlesque Renaissance in NYC in the mid-90s. “Screw the strip joint patrons & their limited jack-off expectations. This is for us!”

It IS, however, political to take your clothes off in public in a puritanical society like ours (yes, even you, Canada). What we do is Art AND it’s Entertainment AND it’s Politics. The question is whether or not it’s any good. And that is for the audience to decide. All we can do is be intelligent, work our butts off and make it feel like a party to make a persuasive case for all three. To be an empowering burlesque performer, you have to be good: confident & comfortable in your skin. It is fine to fuck up onstage if you can roll with it, but I have seen fear in burlesque faces on stage and that undermines us. I have seen women suppress their personalities to imitate some ideal of “pretty ladies” that they believe are more worthy of our attention than who those women really are. No one comes to the show to see our insecurities/anxieties/low
self-esteem. Nor our cruddy imitations of the imaginary “good old days” of sexy ladies. Your Job is to celebrate yourself and your body, no matter what. That is how the audience can feel that they are celebrated too. You can employ any number of absurdities or fantasies, but you MUST express yourself uniquely. Bad, insecure burlesque performers are not empowering. If your art form is an important benefit when you’re good, then it is also an important detriment when you’re bad. Accept that responsibility and get to work.

-Tigger!-

I find burlesque to be positive and empowering for me; but I doubt it is for everyone. Context is important. Saying something (especially an art form) is or is not essentially empowering is to negate the varied stand-point positions of each individual actor. Ultimately I have to agree with Jon; why do we have to be empowering all the time (and this is where feminism can get bogged down); why can’t we just have some goddamned fun?! Violence against women can never be reduced to one simple act of looking; and I think it is dangerous for us to do so. I do believe that the fundamental constructs of gender, class, race, sexuality, etc need to be examined and theorized (and changed) but we can still shake what we got in the name of Art, Performance and Having a Good Time.

-Corvetta Curves-

The best part about burlesque right now is that it DOES have a place for all styles and we don’t have to LOVE all of them. I do think we hold a responsibility though to keep our heads high and be aware of what images we are perpetuating. Classic or edgy – thin or large – black or white. Art isn’t meant to be all one thing. The day burlesque becomes “all one type” will be the day I create another work that exemplifies that this is not the case.

-Jenny Magenta-

So what I’ve taken from all this is that Burlesque CAN be empowering, but ultimately its about context and up to the individual performer.  I think we do have the power to create numbers that are subversive and challenge a lot of societal norms that ultimately can help change the way people view or regard beauty or nudity or even people involved with sex work, however we also don’t have to. We can create a piece for any reason and I personally feel that having a choice is the most empowering thing of all.