I really enjoy going to see Burlesque dancers perform and appreciate thir dramatic stage performances and artistic ways of expression through dance. I fully respect what they do and how they support women's empowerment across all types of size/shape, ethnicity, gender identity, etc.
That being said, I get a little offended when burlesque dancers try to identify with strippers and/or sex workers. I know there are women who do both (I'm not talking about you). And definitely we have a bunch in common (we take our clothes off!) and I understand the modern strip club/stripper was derived from burlesque...BUT we are very different, especially in some fundamental ways.
I'm not speaking for all strippers (but this is my experience as a career stripper). Stripping is a job in which we rely to survive. We don't just perform on stage and take our clothes off, many of us perform contact lap dances where there are varying level of sexual contact (and often its 2-way contact). Many of us have been in situations where we have been, at least, asked to compromise our boundaries and morals...for what?...money to live, of course. And a good number of us have compromised those boundaries and morals more than once. Some of us our prostitutes. For many of us stripping is not a choice. We hide our profession from family and friends. We often try to emulate the male's perception of the female to increase our chances to make money.
I feel as though many burlesque dancers who self proclaimedly identify w/ strippers and sex workers don't understand what we do or what we have to go through on a daily basis. I mean, I would never claim to identify w/ a street walker, because I don't know the first thing about their lives and struggles even though we have some things in common. My club also gets a lot of new strippers who are/were burlesque dancers. They show up in somewhat outlandish outfits and perform like they are at a burlesque show. Sometimes they don't even take their tops off. After a week or two of not understanding that we make our money from lap dances, so they make no money, they quit. I'm not posting this to bash burlesque dancers in any way, it's just something that bothers me. Am I the only one?



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