Burlesque and Camden
May 18, 2009
There’s been some outcry in the last few days about Camden Council halting burlesque shows at Proud Galleries and demanding the venue apply for the same kind of licensing strip and lapdance venues require.
The main responses to this I see, over and over again, hinge on the opposition that burlesque performances are primarily artistic, rather than sexual. But look a little bit closer at this distinction and I fail to see an opposition between artistry and sexuality at all, more a question of the dignity of the respective performances.
I have been worried recently by the lack of satire I’ve seen in burlesque shows – good-looking girls taking their glamorous clothes off may be aesthetically pleasing, but doesn’t strike me as remotely subversive. It offends me that burlesque has been dignified in a way that stripping hasn’t – it’s OK if the classy girls do it, but sluts? Ew, let’s keep that out of our borough.
So go ahead and support the burlesque dancers of Camden, but think carefully about how acceptable and artistic you think women packaging up their bodies for sale is. If we’re going to allow burlesque onto our streets then we’re going to have to accept less salubrious venues too. Burlesque is just the glamorous public face of a questionable industry.
