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`Showing the girl'

The new burlesque

Lancaster University, d.ferreday{at}lancaster.ac.uk

This paper examines the cultural phenomenon of `new burlesque', a subculture in which young women take part in striptease performances which invoke the iconic styles and routines associated with mid-20th century cabaret. By reading burlesque websites alongside the celebrity culture and advertising, the article examines how the retro styles of dress and make-up associated with this subculture have circulated through a range of media sites as an alternative mode of femininity. By focusing on the intersections between online fan communities, popular images of burlesque, fashion, and beauty, I argue that burlesque styles involve a reclaiming of traditionally normative sites of identity production and that computer technologies are an extension of the technologies of dress, cosmetics and movements through which femininity is produced. I go on to suggest a re-framing of burlesque as a site of parody and resistance which `troubles' critiques of femininity within both feminist theory and queer theory.

Key Words: drag • femininity • parody • performance • subculture

Feminist Theory, Vol. 9, No. 1, 47-65 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1464700108086363


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