The Happy Stripper

Willson, Jacki

doi:10.5040/9780755699780

Cited by 23 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…My methodology is interdisciplinary, predominantly drawing from the theoretical disciplines of Feminist Performance Studies, Theatre Studies and Costume Studies. The argument builds upon my feminist performance scholarship on new cabaret and burlesque (Willson 2008a;2008b;2015a;2015b) 1 but with a developed focus on issues of theatrical 'bluing up' (Herrera 2012); theories of 'blue' (Attwood 2002(Attwood , 2013Long Chu 2017;Lordi 2016) and costume appropriation and stereotyping (Maclaurin & Monks 2015: Pennington 2016Barbieri 2017 Hodes andSandoval 2018;Carriger 2018;Delhaye 2019;Chatterjee 2020). Chatterjee's (2020) recent contribution to the critical debate about costume appropriation has set this as an 1 I am also Principal Investigator on an AHRC funded 3 year project 'Fabulous Femininities: Extravagant Costume and Performative Thresholds' which is exploring contemporary burlesque costume cultures.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Burlesque is predominantly a tongue-in-cheek form that hams up gendered sexual stereotypes through costume, caricature and performance skits. It questions the dynamic of looking and places the spectacle of woman's body centre stage in order to question what this sexual and sexualized body as spectacle means in the public sphere (Willson 2008a). It uses 'low' 'blue' Carry On type bawdy humour, innuendo and direct addresswinks, smiles, eye contact as well as 'blue' low sexual forms such as stripping and erotic dress.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Martinez uses burlesque striptease and sartorial tropes of the heterofemmestilettoes, tight black skirt, black bra and pants, red lipstick -to undermine and unsettle sexual and gendered assumptions. She does this by using peekaboo -through curtains, by way of a teasing control of dress and undress -to negotiate various acts of peeping (Willson 2008a;2008b;2018a).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Tricity Vogue’s ‘blueing up’ as sedimented resistance: Extravagant costume and the expanded field of dressing up

Willson

2020

Studies in Costume &Amp; Performance

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

My focus in this article is to understand the way theatrical costume is performed in subcultural cabaret spaces, specifically The Blue Lady Sings Back by London-based cabaret singer Tricity Vogue. This show premiered at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern in the area of Vauxhall in South London that already has an embedded history of hedonistic pleasure. With reference to Dorita Hannah’s ‘expanded’ notion of costume as a ‘body-object-event’ and Jasbir Puar’s broader understanding of categories of race, gender and sexuality as events and bodily encounters, I seek to understand the way theatrical feminine costume enfolds dissident and marginalized histories of resistant urban space and site. In this show, Tricity Vogue undertakes multiple costume changes that embody various histories and contexts of cabaret performance: as Bollywood dancer Madhuri Dixit, as a European Marlene Dietrich-like cabaret singer and as a Josephine Baker-esque character in a banana skirt. All of this whilst wearing a blue stocking and blue body paint, effectively ‘blueing’ up. This steps into an uncomfortable territory in what could be seen as cultural appropriation, racial stereotyping and speaking for others. This concern also has currency within the contemporary burlesque community who are acutely self-conscious and politicized as regards this kind of costume and performative appropriation. Sara Ahmed’s conceptualization of feminist killjoys (2017) will be employed to better understand these difficult conversations about dressing up with Aoife Monks’ (2010) discussion of multiple costume changes being used as a strategy for ‘undoing’ stereotypes and rethinking a feminist ‘we’. By also drawing on diva studies, which builds on Lauren Berlant’s concept of ‘diva citizenship’, and postcolonial feminism, I will argue that the costumed cabaret body becomes a medium for women to politicize and reframe pleasure through the costumed spectacle of cabaret’s various erotic and exotic muses.

show abstract