The boards are lively with another round of debates and discussions. The perpetual hot topic: Stripping. Or stripper-ing. As in, what’s the difference between a burlesque performer/strip-teaser and a strip-joint stripper? Is there a difference? Can or should a burlesque performer identify herself one and not the other? And what, if anything, is wrong with being a stripper anyway? Related issues that bleed onto the topic include: What is burlesque? Is there or should there be an ultimate definition? What’s wrong with plastic surgery?

A recent interview with Orange County, CA burlesque performer/producer Bunny Bravo pushed the hot button this time around. The February 26 piece, entitled “Bunny Bravo: Burlesque Is Not Stripping” quotes the performer as saying some provocative things:

What are some reactions you get when you tell people you’re a burlesque dancer?
[…]What you usually get is “What’s the difference?” Burlesque is more the whole tease, what’s coming off, what’s underneath? Strippers are just in it for the money. Lili always goes, “Look at me! I’m perfect! Can I have a dollar?” We’re obviously not in it for the money, or we would be strippers.
…
As a producer of burlesque shows, what do you look for in a dancer to perform in your shows?

Someone that’s really comfortable with what they’re doing. Natural, completely natural. I’ve had girls with plastic surgery that want to be in the shows and I just think if someone is so uncomfortable that they have to mutilate themselves, they shouldn’t be doing burlesque. They should be stripping.

Get the full story here.

As you can imagine it got several reactions from all sides, including a blog post by Jo Boobs.

Here’s my (long-winded) take:

you know, i just love seeing the boards get fired up once in a while…

i’m sorry that for some, this has become just an annoying issue, seeing it discussed and debated for the umpteenth time. hell i’ve only been in this community and on these boards for a few years and i sometimes find myself throwing my head back and going “oh, _that_ again”…

but well… once of the great things about this community is that it’s got an open-door policy to just about everyone– performer, fan, producer, whatever. and for everyone that’s just getting their feet wet, maybe they never considered asking themselves these questions before and are just now trying to figure out what burlesque means to them. and for some, it means starting off by looking at what they think it’s not.

and i agree with sparkly, it does kind of rub me the wrong way whenever someone claims to know the ultimate, absolute universal definition of burlesque. because there isn’t one. and these discussions prove that. (even if you go by a historical, “original” definition of burlesque, it becomes obvious that a lot of what we do today wouldn’t seem to fit those definitions.) i love that there’s so much diversity here, and with that comes different opinions within the community itself.

i think it’s important to note that within any (sub)culture group, there are always going to be issues of definition and self-identification.
1) people outside of it (whether the press or anyone else) are going to have questions about it, and really only have a short attention span in listening to responses– which means they usually go for the 5-second summary or something really provocative (like say, putting down strip-joint strippers and claiming they’re the antonym) in order for them to “understand”.
2) people inside it are always going to have their own definitions, their own reasons for what they think their community is about. because for many of these groups, there is “pass this test and you’re in” initiation program. many of these groups form and grow organically, because people come in from all sides and while there are some devoted to “preserving” the history, there are just as many who are innovating and pushing boundaries.

i belong to the balboa-swing dance community too and we have these sorts of debates about “what is balboa?” it’s the same thing. some folks are keen on dancing it exactly the way the old timers did in the 30’s and 40’s (sadly, so many of them are passing on now). others are building on the original dance foundations and putting in their own “flavor” on top of it. and these people butt heads every so often while many of us fall in the middle. just like it is here.

i’m also reminded of the asian american community, or even more specifically, the filipino community, where i’ve faced questions about what it meant for me to belong in that community other than the fact that i was born in the philippines. my own mother had said i was either “too white” or “too black” depending on what i was wearing and who i was hanging out with. i’ve seen similar gauges outside of my home, too. if someone couldn’t speak tagalog, did that mean s/he wasn’t “filipino enough”? if i dye my hair red does that mean i’m shirking my community by trying to look like something else? no, not necessarily.

anyway, back to the interview that sparked it this round. i don’t know bunny bravo at all, but i doubt that she intended on back-handing the stripper community. i doubt even that she would intentionally perpetrate a “no fake boobs policy” at her shows. (and honestly, call me naive but some of you gals… i couldn’t tell. and that’s totally a compliment.) who knows? maybe the vibe in her neck of the woods gives her strong reason to try to distance what she does in her shows from the local strip joints. i mean, nowadays i find myself appending “NOT pussycat dolls” when i tell people that i’m a burlesque performer. not knocking on pussycat dolls per se, but i know that a lot of people in the mainstream have started associating that group with “burlesque” and i feel that it doesn’t reflect what it is that i do. so i distance myself from them. as another side note: i do wonder how much of the interview was cut out from publication. it’s possible that bunny bravo said some things that might have put the more provocative statements into better context.

i guess all i’m saying, in a very long-winded way, is perhaps we should allow for the differences in opinion in an inclusive, constructive manner just like we do with other facets of our community.