Burlesque Baby

Over the weekend, I experienced my second ever burlesque show.  The first one I ever saw was very old school, and they stopped at bras, underwear, and hose.  This particular burlesque show that I saw over the weekend was just one of the many performances that night.  There were other acts like poetry, bands, belly dancing, sword fights, etc.

I was asked by my sister once, "How can you support things like corsets?"  To be honest, I love corsets.  I'm a costumer.  I have a huge love for historical clothing.  The difference between history and corsets today is the purpose.  Victorian corsets, for example, were used to give an "S" shape to the woman's body.  An 18" waist was highly sought after.  This is obviously not healthy, and in no way do I condone that sort of corset wearing.  However, there is something about a steel boned corset worn for fashion that I love.

So where are you going with this, you ask?

Here is what we're sold is a beautiful burlesque dancer:

And there's no doubt she's a stunning woman.  I mean, her face has been airbrushed to the point of looking like a plastic doll and probably so has the rest of her.  But this is more along the line of what I saw that night:

I was surprised at what I saw.  They were REAL women.  They weren't in great shape necessarily.  They were curvy everyday women stripping down to pasties and underwear.  One woman must have been a size 16 or so.  And people were riveted.

One of my first thoughts was, "Wow, that takes guts."  Think about it.  How many of you would be willing to get up on a stage and strip down like that?  Not for money, but as an art form.  If you took a look at the men in the audience, they were enjoying every moment.  Was the woman on stage necessarily his "type?"  Maybe not, but it proved something to me that I've heard men say for a long time that I never quite connected.

Those women were beautiful because they were confident.

They had real boobs, real booties, thick thighs, and they worked it.  Uber-feminists may say it's demeaning to do something like burlesque.  And I can see where they're coming from.  After all, you are exploiting your body for entertainment.  The other side of the coin, though, it is a sort of empowerment.

When a woman is confident and sexy it is empowering.  I think every woman should have a taste of that sort of empowerment.  Sexy doesn't mean you have to be in just pasties.  It could mean that little black dress in the back of your closet.  Do I think that women should be nothing but sex objects?  Absolutely not.  But you deserve to feel beautiful.

The other thing that I especially liked about watching real women with real bodies was I didn't feel bad about myself.  I felt like they were one of the girls, and I was impressed by them.  They hadn't felt the need to alter their bodies to feel sexy, confident, or beautiful.

Look at her...don't tell me she isn't beautiful...

If we were constantly surrounded by images of real women, I would bet a million dollars that we wouldn't feel so bad about ourselves.

And what a wonderful world that would be.