Another day where I have plans to write an over-due review of someone’s album and instead find a subject I am passionate about and/or an issue that has made me too angry for 14o characters or less to be enough.
On Sunday I found a certain post circulating through my friends in the burlesque community that shared some displeasing news: “Whelp, Facebook has just deleted the Wasabassco organization page without warning or appeal. We have violated non-specified terms. All the followers, events, content ALL GONE.”
Now I know how hard it is as a performer of any kind to use Facebook as a marketing tool lately. You send out too many invites that get declined, so Facebook bans you from sending any more. On the other hand, without directly sending things to individuals, the chances of these things being seen is slim. Burlesque gets the added fun of being controversial, however. For one thing, I know there are plenty of people who don’t understand what burlesque is or what the difference is between going to a burlesque show and going to a strip club. This is not to say I am going to judge anyone for attending a strip club or, on the flip side, for being a stripper. I’m just saying, they’re completely different animals. Personally I don’t see myself going to the strip club ever, let alone walking in there holding hands with my boyfriend. I have, however, had many a date night include attending either a Wasabassco show or one of two other burlesque acts that perform regularly in the city. That’s because burlesque is about more than just watching someone (usually female) stand on stage, take her clothes off, and jiggle her boobs in your face. Burlesque is like a sexy, classy, performance art, at least to me anyway. And to many people I know, it is a creative way to make a living.
This brings me to today, where someone directed my attention to a petition on change.org asking people for help reversing the censorship of paid burlesque ads on Facebook for “promoting pornography”. Again, I have absolutely no problem with the porn industry or anyone who is involved in it. I’ve seen some great stories of people using porn to pay for college, and have been disgusted by those that would judge someone for that. No, I don’t have a huge porn collection at home (although I wouldn’t be surprised if my boyfriend is just hiding it from me), but that doesn’t mean I am super judgmental against it. I say this now as a preface because my first reaction when I saw this petition was to get angry that anyone would confuse burlesque for porn. I went to the Twitters and got a little rant-y about people speaking about things they don’t understand and ruining other’s livelihoods in the process. My wording was poor, however, and it was pointed out to me that it made it sounds like I was discounting porn as a legitimate industry to work. I apologized, and immediately decided this was a topic too large for 140 characters to contain. I just have had to deal with people making misconceptions about burlesque for a long time, and it has finally come to a head in the past few days. There seems to be this negative stigma attached to anything remotely sexual, and while I respect people’s thoughts and feelings and their right to have them, I also wish they would not take it so far as to ruin other people’s lives. Yes, some of the men and women I know in the burlesque world have other jobs, but that is because (like any other art form) it is hard to make a living being a performer. This is their job and their passion though, and I just wish people would think about the consequences before they speak. No one is forcing you to come out to a show. Just don’t complain when they try to promote their show and ensure people who do care actually get to see it.
Thanks for taking the time to read through my ramblings on this subject. I truly do not intend to offend anyone or discredit anyone for thinking or feeling differently than I do. I just want to speak my mind and make sure the people who care actually know what is going on now.
Our friends over at Nerdist have decided they are doing a book club where they invite everyone to join along in reading The Silmarillion together. Amy Ratcliffe, the nerd heading this little adventure, said that it was the one Tolkien book she hadn’t tackled yet and figured if other people read along with her that would be good motivation. Since this is the one book I also had trouble motivating myself to read, I decided to join them. The discussions just started this past Tuesday and will happen every week until we finish on September 30th. I know that sounds like a long time for people who are speedy readers, but it means we’re reading about 30 pages a week. Also, as with other things written by Tolkien, some parts are a little dense to get through, so the way the discussions are broken up feels less intimidating.