Camille Paglia - Lady Gaga and the Death of Sex

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/public/magazine/article389697.ece

"Furthermore, despite showing acres of pallid flesh in the fetish-bondage garb of urban prostitution, Gaga isn’t sexy at all – she’s like a gangly marionette or plasticised android. How could a figure so calculated and artificial, so clinical and strangely antiseptic, so stripped of genuine eroticism have become the icon of her generation? Can it be that Gaga represents the exhausted end of the sexual revolution? In Gaga’s manic miming of persona after persona, over-conceptualised and claustrophobic, we may have reached the limit of an era…"

"For Gaga, sex is mainly decor and surface; she’s like a laminated piece of ersatz rococo furniture. Alarmingly, Generation Gaga can’t tell the difference. Is it the death of sex? Perhaps the symbolic status that sex had for a century has gone kaput; that blazing trajectory is over…"

Not sure what to make of all this, it makes some interesting points. Being sexy publicly was once considered risque but now perhaps it's overdone? 
Might come back to this at some point.

"Inside the Topless Sisterhood"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35654337

This article gives a glimpse into the ethos of being a showgirl / performer / dancer. 

I find it interesting the differing opinions of the women about going topless in a performance. 

There's kind of a view in society that breasts are obscene due to the sexualisation of them, and thus going topless in a performance of this kind implies perhaps a sense of cheapness? or "sluttiness"?. The women who go topless at the Moulin Rouge (and other similar places) autonomously choose to do this. There are a host of professions that involve women being topless; dancers like these & burlesque performers, models, sex workers etc. 

"The show ended but somehow we couldn't bear to leave. The conversation returned to breasts: to cover or not to cover. Annoyingly, Katie was right. Seeing the show did change my mind. There was no grinding and no jiggling, it was a remote kind of beauty, a thousand miles from twerking. It was as old-school as a nude statue." This quote from the article implies that the context of the nudity changes the feel, as if a woman autonomously choosing to go topless while "grinding and jiggling" is somehow worse or less tasteful than the girls in this performance. I personally am uneasy on this, as I feel like women should be able to choose what they do - if a performer wants to go topless and grind and jiggle they should not be seen as cheaper or less respected than a performer who chooses to do something different, or not go topless at all. Though  looking from the other way it's obvious that performers who go topless also think they are "higher in the food chain" than women who choose not to do so. There's judgement on both sides of the coin.

When the autonomy is taken away from the woman is when it really is a problem. A performer (or anyone) should not be forced into a situation where they are uncomfortable and they should be able to make their own decisions and have those decisions respected by others. 

Nevertheless the article does highlight a real sense of unity, an unspoken bond between the groups of performers. A real sisterhood, a family of sorts. From what I've personally seen of the local burlesque community there does seem to be this bond between performers which is really lovely to see people bonding together instead of attacking each other. 

Burlesque / Toulouse Lautrec Posters / Vague Ramblings

I have been reading the book 'Pin Up Grrrls' which mentioned a lot about the Moulin Rouge and the origins of Burlesque or 'Leg Shows'. Which got me thinking about the posters by Toulouse Lautrec - in regards to a practical side of the project.

I think that exploring Burlesque as a research project into female sexuality could have many different outcomes and things to explore. I have a few friends in the burlesque community who I could interview, or perhaps even get involved in something. I think there are a lot of varying opinions on Burlesque and stripping in regards to female sexuality and the male gaze. It brings to mind the quote "As long as I am an erotic subject, I am not averse to being an erotic object" - Joanna Frueh