Exploring our femininity

Foreigners often goggle when they see a “velina” for the first time and wonder what their function is exactly. A “velina” is a modern time pin up typical of the Italian TV supposed to entertain the audience, more exactly the male audience, with her bikini, her ultrabright smile and her perfect body. Of course the “velinas” are not real pin ups but mere Barbies because no matter their hair color, they all correspond to a type contrary to the pin-ups.

Concretely speaking, the velinas don’t last long in our memories; the pin-ups do. Marylin Monroe and Bettie Page stayed in the male as well as the female imaginary because instead of representing types, they both embody one aspect of femininity. On the one hand, Marylin is the image of charm, glamor and sensuality; on the other hand, Bettie is at the same time the image of ingenuousness and mischievousness. There lays the explanation of our fascination for their characters. Beyond their beauty, each of them has their unique way to express their femininity.

Marylin Monroe

Bettie Page

The expression of femininity is multiple and the burlesque artists understood it very well. Panties, bras, corsets and pasties are the main accessories of the performers. But if the art of burlesque is known mostly for the stripping part, it is first and foremost a performance. Indeed, the art of burlesque combines music, dance and more importantly stage setting since the genre takes its origins from a theatrical form created in London during the 19^th century. That form is characterised by a slight ironical satire of the society of the time; and it is the ironical element that has made of the burlesque art what it is today: an ironical stage setting of a stripping scene.

   As queen of the stage setting, I can name Sally Rand* and Lili St Cyr who both created performances supposed to suggest more than show. The first one created the fan dance which consisted in manipulating huge fans made of ostrich feathers while dancing and making the audience believe that they were seeing more than they were. It is not to forget that censorship in the 30’s and until the 60’s was strong in the United States. Therefore, in order to get around it, Sally Rand imagined that subterfuge to hide her body which was actually not naked (a nude leotard was enough to deceive the audience!). As regards Lili St Cyr, she was at the origin of the famous bubble bath skilfully updated by Dita Von Teese when she acts in her gigantic Martini glass. (That number was first imagined by Catherine D’Lish in a huge glass of champaign). 

Sally Rand

   

Lili St Cyr

            

   

   Another queen of burlesque is Gypsy Rose Lee. Today’s performers owe her the basic elements of their shows. It is then not surprising that she was known as ‘The Intellectual Stripper’. Gypsy Lee Rose managed to go back to the basics of burlesque in her own way. During her shows, she would recite poems or perform sketches all written by her hand while stripping… or not! Her particular skill was to captivate her audience so much so that she would not even have to take off her gloves during certain shows. That is why she is now considered as an icon for most of the burlesque artists today.

Gypsy Rose Lee

     

Finally, I will quote Satan’s Angel to show that the art of burlesque can also be considered as a movement which allowed women to change their social status. “In the 50’s and 60’s women didn’t really have the choice on what they would do with their lives. They could either have children, become housewives, sales women or work in factories […] To me, the art of burlesque has nothing to do with the empowerment of women. In my case, it was all for the money. When I was 25, I had my own house, a lot of money on my bank account, a brand new Cadillac every year… I would have never had all that if I had continued with the work I had where I earned 99$ per week.”

Everyone has his own opinion but if Satan’s Angel thinks that the art of burlesque has nothing to do with the empowerment of women, I see in that movement the possibility for women to stop being objects but to become subjects, that is to say becoming aware of their power of seduction and learning how to use it. Indeed she may not see any empowerment of women, yet she describes a modern, independent, avant-garde woman. However burlesque is not to be mixed with feminism. Satan’s Angel managed to become what she was at the age of 25 thanks to the stage, not by demonstrating for women rights.

And to you, what does being a woman means?

Shug’A’Very

(translated from French by Absolute B.)

*: the real creator of the fan dance was Faith Bacon but I chose to talk about Sally Rand because she was the one to make it famous.