I was very pleased to be asked by the delightful Dr. Kino (aka Dr Toby Reynolds) to take part in his podcast series Dr. Kino’s Film Emporium to talk about an under the radar film gem – and I chose the perhaps more under-the-counter classic Teaserama, by Irving and Paula Klaw, and starring burlesque legend Tempest Storm and pin-up star Bettie Page as my entry for the film emporium.
Toby’s work around Lacanian theory and cinema is really fascinating stuff and he’s a corking podcaster
I resisted the television and pop culture phenomenon that is Ru Paul’s Drag Race for a long time.
Whilst many of my burlesque and cabaret friends raved about it, studied it for cosmetic and presentation tips and told me I’d love it. But just as with Game of Thrones, the more I was told I should watch it, the more resistant I became.
I’d seen an episode once and was dismayed at the backstage cattiness. I was concerned that the programme perpetuated narrow, damaging stereotypes of gay men.
I was also concerned that by culturally appropriating a scene of which I was not a part.
Then one day I gave it another chance. We had recently got Netflix and I had season 2 to 9 to engage with, should I find I liked it. Asking friends, I was told the best season was season 6. (I have to admit I agree, though season 5 is a close second)
I started there. I fell in love with both Courtney Act and Bianca Del Rio. I ended up watching the whole season in two days and then systematically worked my way through seasons 2 to 9 and all 3 seasons of All Stars. In many instances I found myself watching individual episodes 2 or more times, and where possible, I would watch the attached Untucked episodes too.
I have LIVED for Ginger Minj, Ben DeLaCreme, Tatiana, Sharon Needles, Alissa Edwards (and her back rolls?!?) Latrice Royale, Trixie Mattel and the Bianca Del Rio.
As I watched my way through season ten, the first season whereby I had to watch in weekly instalments as they dropped, rather than binge watching as I had with every other season, my allegiances shifted from Cracker, to Eureka and finally settled on Asia O’Hara.
So what it is that appeals so much? Why was I so obsessed? Why was the programme endlessly discussed on social media and screening parties held in LGBTQ venues across the USA?
The artistry of drag and the potential it offers both for the contestants but also the viewers is a key draw. The costumes and make-up are often eye-popping.
alongside Boulet Brother’s Dragula – less polished
Another key appeal is the humanity of the programme. Be it Trinity K Bonet revealing that she has HIV, Peppermint’s gender dysphasia, or Blair Sinclair’s recent revelation that she was raped, we are given privileged access beyond the carefully constructed facades into the lives of these talented individuals.
The programme has a very earnest message of inclusion
little to acknowledge sexism on the LGBTQ scene
equally Charles’ recently went on the record as saying that
RPDR owes a considerable debt to texts such as Paris is Burning, and the NY Drag ball scene and as a historian who is particularly interested in the representation of gender and sexuality, I find the programmes clear attempts to help nurture a ‘herstory’ of drag to be particularly engaging.
Imitability. It is a programme that is crammed with endlessly memeable, snappy, occasionally hilarious catchphrases (Hallelou! Choices! Donut come for me! Hiyeee! The shade of it all! Not today Satan! – The list goes on and on)
The idea of ‘werk’ is symptomatic of the broader neoliberal economy and the programme very much perpetuates the working on one’s self as a kind of, or in the queen’s case, a literal brand, a stint on drag race raises one’s profile, (there is considerable cultural cachet to being a Ru girl) whilst simultaneously functioning as a drag finishing school. it is a platform for developing your brand and hopefully AUDIENCE and building a market for your brand. This sounds really cold and well, calculating. But it is more complicated than that.
Arguably season ten’s season’s biggest sensation was the queen who spent the least time on the show, at least in person. Her presence, or more her iconic utterance as she departed the runway for the final time, haunted the show for the remainder of the series and beyond. ‘Vanjie! Miss Vanjie!’ has entered the drag lexicon and Vanessa Vanjie Mateo, drag daughter of Alexis Mateo has become an overnight camp sensation. The excruciatingly embarrassing incident and Charles’ inability to maintain her composure
Truly awful costume but loveable
Elsewhere Australian queen and season six runner up Courtney Act went on to not only enter the UK Celebrity Big Brother house but win by a significant margin, and is now set to host her own Friday night ‘dragazine’ show on Channel Four and reality dating show The Bi Life on E.
used her time on the reality show as a platform for discussion around LGBTQ rights, issues around consent, feminism, and intersectional issues.
Drag Race features product placement and endorsements and Charles’ self-promotion delivered with a knowing wink or smile – Testament to how incredibly likeable he is.
Kiki onstage. Image courtesy of Joust Photography, taken at the Hebden Bridge Burlesque Festival, 2017
In this episode of Here’s Looking at You I chat with burlesque emcee, singer, teacher and former contestant in BBC’s The Voice, Kiki Deville. Kiki is a charismatic and hugely talented performer who is renowned for her big voice, big personality and big boobs and this has led her to be considered an unruly woman.
Inspired by Anne Helen Peterson’s recent book ‘Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of The Unruly Woman,’ we got together to talk about Kiki’s experience of The Voice and subsequent attempts by the popular media at bullying and body shaming her, about being ‘fair game,’ picking your arguments, the pleasures and pitfalls of celebrity culture, appropriate online behaviour, and grief.
Feel free to comment below on the podcast or the Continue reading
I have written a blog for the ‘Screening Sex’ website, an academic blog curated by Darren Kerr and Donna Peberdy.
The blog briefly examines the fetish films of Bettie Page and Irving and Paula Klaw. In particular it discusses Page’s performances, the repetitious nature of these films and how the original point of interest in these short films may have shifted over time and context.
To view the article simply follow this link.
Award winner, burlesque performer and producer, and self-proclaimed ‘professional loudmouth’ Rubyyy Jones was kind enough to chat with me recently, about her star persona, her performance motivations and the politics of burlesque. This conversation will be available as Here’s Looking At You podcast #5, next weekI thought it was therefore appropriate to talk a bit about what it is that makes Rubyyy so very special as a performer. To do this I am going to talk a little about the act through which I first experienced her.
Working as a promoter and producer between 2006 and 2016, I was constantly on the lookout for acts that enthused and excited me and that I thought would enthuse and excite our audience too. A conversation with the fabulous performer Diva Hollywood prompted to me seek Rubyyy’s work out on YouTube. I’d heard rumblings, but never actually seen her but I liked the sound of what she was doing – namely, ‘queerlesque.’
I understand queerlesque to be burlesque Continue reading
Featured in my last couple of podcasts (podcasts #2 and #3) is the wonderful queerlesque performer Rubyyy Jones, who has recently won the ‘Most Innovative’ award at this year’s prestigous Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend event.
Rubyyy received this award for her hard-hitting, taboo-busting act Pottymouth Princess. This act is about sex discrimination, body image and sexual violence against women and was the last act ever performed at my regular Burlesque show, The Cat’s Pyjamas. I can tell you, sitting at the side of the stage, as she performed this act, and watching the women in the audience’s reaction – tears, anger, exhilaration, punching Continue reading
(L-R) Sadie Sinner, Heidi Bang-Tidy, Rubyyy Jones, Dr. Ellen Wright, Dr. Jacki Willson, Dr. Claire Nally.
Welcome to the second and final half of the #DMUEngage panel discussion event ‘I am Woman, Hear Me Phwoar!’ which took place on the Sunday of the 2017 Hebden Bridge Burlesque Festival.
Here performers, promoters and activists Sadie Sinner, Rubyyy Jones Continue reading
(L-R) Sadie Sinner, Heidi Bang-Tidy, Rubyyy Jones, Dr. Ellen Wright, Dr. Jacki Willson, Dr. Claire Nally.
Welcome to the first half of the #DMUEngage panel discussion event ‘I am Woman, Hear Me Phwoar!’ which took place on the Sunday of the 2017 Hebden Bridge Burlesque Festival.
Here performers, promoters and activists Sadie Sinner, Rubyyy Jones and Heidi Bang Tidy and scholars of burlesque Dr Jacki Willson and Dr Claire Nally joined me and a room full of interested members of the public to discuss the politics of female performance.
The panel from left to right: Rubyyy Jones, Sadie Sinner, Heidi Bang Tidy, Dr Claire Nally, Dr Jacki Willson and me.
I’m thrilled to say the panel discussion event ‘I Am Woman, Hear Me Phwoar!’, on the politics of female performance went exceptionally well.
We had a fantastic turn out (so many that not everyone who turned up could fit into the space!) especially considering other events were taking place at the same time and the weather was lovely. The atmosphere was amazing. Very open, honest and supportive. A number of complex ideas were discussed and the panel and audience were great, asking and answering some really interesting questions around intersectionality, personal politics, disabled bodies, classism, misogyny, gendered bodies, sexuality, ethnicity, exploitation, sex work and what brought our panelists to burlesque. Continue reading
image courtesy of James Lynch.
image courtesty of Phyll Smith. Taken at the Slipper Room, NY.
Audiences have always been key to burlesque. Not just in the obvious sense, as the means of financially sustaining the form, but their obvious and vocal presence has been key to the success of many a burlesque act and has very much helped to shape broader perceptions of the form.
Burlesque audiences have historically inspired panic and condemnation because of the sexualised nature of the burlesque form and because of the bad behaviour that it was assumed that this form would inspire or arouse in these audiences, who were often presumed to not know any better. They were too bawdy, too large, too demonstrative. In short they weren’t a polite, middle class audience and this got up some people’s noses.
When burlesque trailblazer Lydia Thompson and her ‘British Blondes’ first appeared at New York’s Wood’s theatre, on September 28th 1868, the novelty of scantily-clad, saucy, subordinate women, who showed their legs, directly challenged the audience and mischievously parodied events and celebrities of the day in the manner of current day British performers such as Abigail Collins or Glory Pearl (AKA The Naked Standup), she attracted considerable critical acclaim and a large, respectable, middle class audience. However, this audience, always hungry for the latest sensation, eventually became bored. Thompson and her Blondes ultimately became a source of vilification and moral speculation and the ‘leg show,’ as burlesque had come to be known, lost its cultural cachet, becoming increasingly associated with working class audiences, in less prestigious theatres and in less prominent and salubrious parts of American cities. Continue reading
Here's looking at you. 