Performative Histories and Transformative Styles

Gemma Ruth Commane

Bad Girls and Dirty Bodies: Performative Histories and Transformative Styles

Introduction

This chapter will argue that the absence of visual and academic represen- tations of agency in bisexual, femme or “kinky” women is damaging new knowledge’s of the body by the academic community ignoring individual interpretations of sexuality through the mix of neo-burlesque, the freak show, queer and body mutation style on stage in fetish club cultures. The female bodies seen in body art, fetish and burlesque club cultures are highly significant and contradict the idea that they are agentless, excessive or damaged goods. Modified and mutated bodies show an already established knowledge of the body that is transformative. In effect this shows a lack in wider cultural, queer and sociological understandings of gender and sexuality but significantly a deficiency in how the body and desire are understood. In consequence this chapter will suggest that a new direction must be taken by the queer community in particular, to critically address and to watch, through careful ethnographic fieldwork, the emergence and transformations of these already established and transformative body styles. Significantly the queer community should pay attention to the particular styles and body knowledge’s in context and within the fetish and neo- burlesque club cultures; to see how this can be translated to transform heteronormative and homonormative structures in their entirety. The themes in this chapter are related to my current PhD research which involves an ethnographic study into this cultural form. The descriptions, meanings and truths derived from the sites of lived experiences, have organically revealed 50 Gemma Ruth Commane the significance of transformative bodies through ethnographic “insider” knowledge, performance art, evolution and biography.

Spaces and Places

Transformative and tabooed bodies within the fetish, body art and burlesque club cultures have rarely had a consistent analysis within the context of the culture, values and style of the subculture. Bodies within fetish club spaces are always evolving and adapting to new trends within the readable limits of “subversion” into carnival fun, blasphemy and the mockery of wider society. Apart from the obvious dungeon spaces within the fetish club, there are groups of individuals who reside in the other spaces within the club experiencing out of body and sensuous experiences whilst dancing, social interacting, and viewing performances. The energy in each room and in particular after the performances on stage, feed off each other and intensely amplify all what is sensuous and experiential on the body and within consciousness. What is very popular now in some fetish club cultures, their dress codes and what is seen on stage is burlesque style or a form of it, sometimes mixed with cabaret. This may have some links to the carnivalesque as Rabelais sees it (Bakhtin 1984) in terms of the temporality of the occasion, the comedy shared, the crudeness used, communality and the poking of fun at what is established. However, a high proportion of burlesque in cabaret events as well as fetish club nights do not directly challenge issues within their own community let alone what is established in wider society concerning gender. This includes how specific women perform and the value inscribed by stereotypes onto their lives, progression, agency and the idea of choice. The modern burlesque movement’s involvement in the mainstream and the images it upholds as the pinnacle of female beauty is not something different but confirms a stereotype of beauty already known and performed within the heteronormative and the parodying of helpless femininity. Bad Girls and Dirty Bodies: Performative Histories and Transformative Styles 51

To understand the inclusion of burlesque and the mutation of styles in visible fetish club cultures, alongside the women who temporally reside or perform in these spaces, it is necessary to acknowledge the history of burlesque, its demise and the context of the renewal. In consequence this will show the extent in which specific bodies in body art, fetish and burlesque spaces are significant in the deconstruction and transformation of gender and sexual constructions. What is more poignant is their ability to breakdown bodily, moral and binary boundaries through using the body as a medium for the audience to witness the fulfillment, renewal and transformation of desire, sensuality and pleasure. These experiences are significant as the bodies relation to the world and to gender mores are significantly altered, and permanency is shown through particular performers such as Empress Stah. This has all taken place within fetish club cultures and the mutation of burlesque style.

Burlesque: A Short History

British burlesque has connections to the music hall, mime, dance, cabaret and the theatre. The most notable artist was Lydia Thompson and her burlesque troupe called The British Blondes (Baldwin 2004). They travelled to America in the mid-nineteenth century and had huge successes performing in theatres all over the country. Burlesque was popular in America until its demise in the late 1950s due to a wave of censorship, the rise of gentlemen’s clubs and pornography. This made burlesque and its image fade from public view both in America and England. The demise of burlesque can be contributed to many things including the inevitability of going out of fashion but the most popular assumption is made by Michelle Baldwin (2004) who signals the rise of gentleman’s clubs and the negative views ascribed to these spaces, including the women who perform there. To assume that the demise is all due to the consequence of gentlemen’s clubs and combining burlesquer’s stating that what they do is art, signals a 52 Gemma Ruth Commane modern hierarchy between women who may tease for art thus have “agency,” and those seen as “agentless” who strip just for money. This distinction is exaggerated by the history of burlesque as artists managed, directed and were in control of their finances, even in the 1850s (Baldwin 2004; Clinton- Baddeley 1973). The very fact that burlesque is seen to be an art form by some modern burlesque performers is, in itself, intentionally or not, the very problem. The opinion that gentleman’s clubs are solely to blame is simplistic as it cuts out agency to women who want to strip at Spearmint Rhino and wrongly canters the demise of this “art” form in the context of gentlemen’s clubs. Thus, gives rise to “lack” of agency and inter-gender distinctions of value and worth. Other contributing aspects to the modern interpretation on specific bad girl bodies include philanthropy in the 1850s (Mort 2000; Weeks 1995), anti-porn feminism (Dworkin 1994) and the beauty debate (Jeffreys 2005) written by women, against other women. However, in the late 1950s burlesque was popular and its risqué imagery was extremely favorable with underground pornography, BDSM and fetish photography (Baldwin 2004; von Teese 2006). The late Betty Page was and still is the most worshiped burlesque and fetish pin ups who graced the pages of Playboy as well as modeling, significantly, in BDSM pictures sold under the counter, in contrast to the beach wear she also modeled. Also, there are videos of her performing burlesque and her style and image is replicated at a tremendous rate within the visual burlesque community with many performers such as Kitty Klaw, emulating her moves, retro style and looks. Although Betty did nude shots her BDSM stills are significant as they signal a shift in culture where burlesque started to mutate from its original form to include and combine taboo aspects in society which were being outlawed. Betty faded from public view and became a born again Christian but still lives on through texts, YouTube and a lot of burlesquers, artists and fetishists hailing her name. The revival has come back full circle to the UK (Baldwin 2004; Von Teese 2006) in the last decade and its American style and counterparts have had an impact on the “normative” styles of dress, behavior and moves attributed to the burlesque community. Dita Von Teese, the revival of vintage chic in the mainstream and within some music, performance, non- ”normative,” and fashion subcultures; have popularized, transformed and Bad Girls and Dirty Bodies: Performative Histories and Transformative Styles 53 restyled burlesque. This appeals to a new generation of youth and subcultures through tattooing (Baldwin 2004), social networking websites and The Ministry of Burlesque to visualize “new” bodies, styles and ways of expression that show some “differences” or alternatives to the weight obsessed size zeros claiming most magazine space in mainstream texts. There are a high proportion of bisexual burlesquers as well. However, a high percentage of burlesque artists perform a temporary, readable and normative persona of “woman” with tattoos making her somewhat “Other” or in charge of her sexuality, in contrast to bisexuals who are seen not to be. Bisexuality is still rendered invisible by the hetero-normalcy in the burlesque culture itself. Burlesque in the main is the parody of the feminine form even in its restyling in subcultural dress because gender and sexuality are still staged, styled, and given meaning through bodies and texts telling the performer what is normal, doable, commercial, and allowed within the context of the community.

Parodying Femininities: Themes in Burlesque

The two central themes in burlesque are tease and comedy (Baldwin 2004; Von Teese 2006). Angel LaVey and other artists seen in the scene seem to embody the comedy of the Carry On’s or the naughty postcards from Blackpool. Burlesque can be done solo or as part of a troupe, but can also be used off stage to build confidence. Burlesque performances usually include comedy, parodies of identities or known figures, singing, mime, freak show, circus and dance. Burlesque is a striptease with the emphasis on tease as the nipples and genitals are generally covered with nipple tas- sels, pasties and pants (Von Teese 2006). Although the humor in burlesque may be “working class” in its origins alongside the attitudes of the carnivalesque (Bakhtin 1984); there are links to high culture with expensive outfits and props. This makes the performances somewhat clean. In general burlesque is not lewd, it does not simulate sex and it is playful rather than exposing skin to intentionally turn people on, although this could happen. 54 Gemma Ruth Commane

Even with the same moves as pole or lap dancing such as the shimmy and the bump ’n’ grind, the way the burlesquers style their body and the contexts in which they shape their performances are different. Mini stories are performed rather than mystique. In the burlesque community there are common trends in both dress and performance. Styles, bodies and themes in performance consolidate, reaffirm, re-establish and parody normative and feminist readings of house bound women in the 1950s, the naughty but nice girl next door, the good girl gone bad through rock and roll music and Jack Daniels, and the ditzy busty blonde seen in the Carry On’s and beyond. This confirms Judith But- ler’s (1990) stance on gender as performance in which the repetition of acts (1990: 170, 173) reaffirms and conceals the origin of gender. Although femininities are performed on stage this still reaffirms cultural understandings of gender differentiations as heteronormative and binary thus not subverting, being an alternative to or establishing something beyond what is already established: “Gender reality is performative which means, quite simply, that it is real only to the extent that it is performed” (Butler 1990: 278). The commonalities seen in burlesque performance include the tradi- tional fan dance, twisted fairytales, magic tricks, poi, and a good girl gone “bad.” In particular, a performer at a burlesque night in Birmingham came on stage dressed as a young innocent girl with a basket and book in hand. She spied the bottle of bourbon at the foot of the stage, dropped what she had in her hands and took a gulp. The music shifted to some rock and roll, she pulled her wig off and seemed to have become a woman who was sexy and powerful due to the context of the performance. Yet in contrast, control and aspects of adulthood were blurred by the potent substance she drank which has connections to excess and temporary youth rebellion. The links to age and in the context of the choice of music, the venue and the way she was dressed, opens up culturally assumed readings of rebellious youth such as sexual excess, drug use, corruption, and going against the parent culture. The performance implied excess but this was not carried out entirely which mirrors the temporality placed upon youth rebellion (Muggleton 2000) and bisexuality (Weeks 1995; du Plessis 1996). The body types and styles in small and larger venues are very similar, with many performers styling their looks to be like pin ups in the 1950s Bad Girls and Dirty Bodies: Performative Histories and Transformative Styles 55 and film stars of yesteryear. The looks are mainly based on the fusion of 1940s and 1950s American and British style mixed with modern takes on corsetry, tattooing and Goth DIY stylistics and customization. Hair is normally one color namely black, red or blonde (Von Teese 2006). Nearly all the performers seen have minimal makeup including: red lipstick, black eye liner, flawless “white” skin, and rouged cheeks to various degrees. The bodies range from size eight to size twenty, with the larger bodies occupying smaller venues and petite and smaller frames occupying larger, more visible nights. Significantly the larger sized performers are not seen in press within the subculture and outside in mainstream media, where artists like Dita Von Teese reside as the “face” of “burlesque.” What is performed on stage combines readable feminine characteristics substantiated by visible femininities within the burlesque community and the contexts of its revival. Agency is restricted to a certain standard and the image they are depicting, with little said about who the performer really is under the parody. Thus the femininities they perform still characterize normative gender differentiations and the reoccurring cycle of gender as performance. Agency and temporary feminine characteristics are restricted to the venue, the theme of the night, the will of the audience, and the selection of femininities known and personified by the performer. In the most part, the performer never really reveals, challenges or even lets the audience, confront their own identity, hidden desires, or the “Other” in themselves.

Performative Club Cultures

In different club spaces and regions there are identical trends both in mainstream burlesque nights and in some fetish body art clubs in regards to how women are parodied and how femininities should be performed. These not only mirror wider cultural inscriptions of femininity but a standard to which women in “taboo” or “kinky” spaces should adhere to. However, there are fluctuations and differences in some spaces which have never 56 Gemma Ruth Commane been documented, where some performers interpret burlesque through personal biography and how they see the world. This includes dark humor, blasphemy, embodying of iconographies of filth, pornography and BDSM. All these elements are still taboo, in particular with women and these have become increasingly apparent in performances and specifically those performers who have cultivated their craft through straddling the burlesque movement, diverse attitudes towards the body and skin, perversions, fetish club cultures in the 1990s in the UK, modern primitivism (Zpira 2005) and other forms of subcultural fashion (Spooner 2004, 2006; Hodkinson 2002; Sinclair 1996). These performers are significant. The commonalities between these descriptions and the bodies which reside within these spaces are seen as temporary fads in youth rebellion. However, combined with psychiatric (Freud 1991; Pitts 2003) and feminist models (Dworkin 1994; Jeffreys 2005) female bodies here can be seen to reside in permanent harmful practices (Pitts 2003) which make these individuals damaged goods and agentless because these practices can be easily attached to “dangerous” cultures such as pornography (Dworkin 1994; Jeffreys 2005). This makes what is seen in some of the performances dirty and contagious, not clean or safe tongue-in-cheek humor displayed in retro burlesque. One performer in the body art and fetish club culture really reworks the idea of strip and comedy to reveal issues still confront- ing other bodies in the tabooed space. The only link to burlesque was the connection to the characters Barbra Winsor played in the Carry On’s. The performer was dressed as a dog and came onto the dance space turned performance zone on all fours mirroring the animal iconography inscribed onto the deportment, dirt and “breeding” of particular working class women (Mort 2000) during the Victorian period. Other aspects in the performance included self-fisting, pushing a bib out of her vagina and placing it, with the words “Dirty Dog,” around her neck, lighting three sparklers whilst the handles were inserted into lower orifices, jumping into a bowl of soapy water and then intensifying naughti- ness and “dirt” by using the water to give herself two lower orifice enemas squirted out towards the audience on three sides. The way the artist included the audience expanded the area of dirt and infection which is not apparent in burlesque as the audience is included but at a distance. If the artist Bad Girls and Dirty Bodies: Performative Histories and Transformative Styles 57 comes out into the audience, the interactions are usually clean with winks or blowing kisses. In the fetish club the artist’s use of sexual innuendo and pushing orifices beyond “normal” (un)breakable limits, transformed the use of the Carry On humor, to what the Carry On’s and indeed most of burlesque cover over: real sex and desire which can be used to communicate something the performer may want to say about themselves or the world and not what subcultural or mainstream ideologies state. This also has an impact on pornography, aesthetic and sexual desire and the lack of agency ascribed onto women who choose to do or watch any type of porn. In consequence, the communication of ideas, feelings and erotic desires are found and displayed in the dress, interactions, space design and performances in fetish body art club cultures. The interpretation, mutation and use of burlesque in performances seen on stage in fetish body art clubs have been influenced by the modern primitive movement and those going to club cultures such as Torture Garden (TG), the world’s leading fetish, body art and cabaret club in London. The interpretations are radically different from the retro style burlesque, and can only be found in clubs like TG. The modern primitive movement coincided with the construction and success of TG in the London alternative club scene, but cannot always be attributed to BDSM but has links to subspace and endorphin rushes in BDSM play. Modern primitivism (Zpira 2005; Pitts 2003) is a subcultural movement where tribal piercings, body suspension off hooks and tribal tattooing are central to transforming the body and the mind of the individual. During the 1990s this had been combined with cyber culture, sub-dermal implants and the stretching of skin to change the shape of the body in specific expres- sive body club cultures. Both combined in TG where body art and BDSM were mixed with club music, body decoration, Goth-punk-leather style and transformative mentality. What is seen cannot be attributed to transgression, as Elizabeth Wilson (1993) rightfully argues that transgression is not really transgressive due to its binary nature and it being a “tactic” (1993: 116) rather than a politic. The concept of “subversion” even in dress cannot be termed as subversive in this system as subversion has binary characteristics depicting visual readable signs of what is normal and what is not: 58 Gemma Ruth Commane

We transgress in order to insist that we are there, that we exist, and to place a distance between ourselves and the dominant culture … transgression on its down leads eventually to entropy. It is therefore not transgression that should be our watchword, but transformation. (Wilson 1993: 116)

The importance of care and understanding the process of healing is paramount as healing, blood, and inevitable scaring are all etched onto the story of the individual’s body. Modern primitives such as Lukas Zpira (2005) believe that their body is in need of evolving and this is achieved through body modifications and a shift in consciousness. This is why the word transformative should be used when understanding these bodies rather than “subversive.” The reasons why these bodies are “transformative” are the ways in which they combine, visually show and embody the idea that the body is something that can be progressed and as Maureen Mercury (2000) implies, this includes what the psyche, feelings and the images in the individuals head directs them to. In consequence, this implies rationality and learning about how the individual’s body responds to things in contrast to what society dictates even though it can be argued that the imagination can be influenced or has been influenced too. The mentality of body art movement or body “hacktivism” (Zpira 2005: 61) is in contrast to what Victoria Pitts (2003) states of psychology on body modification where certain people are linked to excessive and harmful attributes. These identities include women in general, lesbians and bisexuals in the Goth subculture and people with substantial bodily piercings. Pitts (2003) describes at length the influence of the psychoanalytical community and “experts” who erroneously comment on bodies in the modern primitive movement who are seen to be “addicted,” thus have no concept of choice and those who have tendencies towards self harm or other types of body “abuse” such as eating disorders. Both render these body knowledge’s as harmful, irrelevant, excessive and signaling metal disorders. These attitudes assume that individuals have an “obvious” history of abuse which comments on their “lack” of agency. However, inadvertently this comments on the ignorance of the psychoanalytical community: Bad Girls and Dirty Bodies: Performative Histories and Transformative Styles 59

The presentation of body modification as a new entry to be treated by the mental health profession … renders body modifiers agency illegitimate and subjugates their already less ‘readable’ knowledge’s. (Pitts 2003: 300)

According to Zpira (2005) a high proportion of the modern primitive movement were involved in postmodernism and this is seen in the cyber bodies and clothing styles reflected in dystopian films in the 1980s such as Blade Runner, and seen in club cultures such as TG in the early 1990s. Those interviewed in the fetish scene suggest a commonality and consistency in how they view the body. The body and mind are seen to be elements which need to be evolved and that this can be achieved through experiencing different shapes of consciousness be it through temporary piercing, permanent body modification or spanking in the dungeon. Another way is through the importance of eroticism stated by Audre Lorde (Cornell 2000) where eroticism disconnects you from powerlessness, and others are: frivolity in the club, dance, bloodletting, scarification and dressing to feel confidently sexy through performance and non-verbal communication. What combines all these elements in the context of the tabooed space, or a space turning taboo through what is seen in performance: is the skin. The intensity of the modifications and the performances seen in these diverse club spaces, come together and use the body to display sexuality and gender with no name. In consequence the use of the body contextual- izes and values the skin beyond just a space to experience sensual stimula- tions made perverse by Freud (1922, 1991), but as a site of self discovery, knowledge and evolution (Zpira 2005; Mercury 2000). This is embodied and lived through the intimate display of eroticism and the changing of subtle or intense feelings through what is seen in the space and how it is interpreted in the imagination. As fetish clubs see themselves as safe spaces for women to reside, this implies that women can safely assume how they want to feel instead of wearing gender or a specific sexuality. This is not always the case however; one performer who is visible within the body art, fetish and burlesque community, transformations rigid “femininities” both within the neo-burlesque scene and the fetish body art culture. Her name is Empress Stah. 60 Gemma Ruth Commane

Empress Stah’s background, involvement with TG, and twisted neo- burlesque cabaret style; contradicts perversity and through her biography and performance, she defines how she can perform her sexuality, meaning of pleasure and concept of desire through the use of all the senses, gender play, orgasmic music, political incorrectness, sodomy and comedy. As Lorde exclaims, the erotic is “an assertion of the lifeforce of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives” (2000: 571). But the erotic is also connected to the spir- itual lifeforce of the individual where it replenishes and feels, like in body modification. Empress Stah challenges the lack ascribed onto particular women in taboo spaces and this is achieved through showing the power of the erotic which is embodied in how she negotiates the stage and how she is erotically powerful. The realization of this is through defining her sexual expression through her own desires, history and skills which clearly show how challenging, thought out and conscious these decisions were.

Empress Stah: Beyond the Frame

Empress Stah is a petite, cartoonish and androgynous looking performer with a shaven head, tall heels and camp makeup. She has stars tattooed from the base of her neck to her head and one small piece just under her belly button. Piercings include genial, stretched ear lobes, two piercings either side of her tongue and one each side of her top lip. Visually she is quite shocking but this does not detract from her beauty or femininity. Empress Stah may be read or seen as bisexual but on her website she defines her orientation as “sexual,” Thus, her sexuality can be read as fluid and not tied to names, even “queer” which, in itself, has characteristics that measure and exclude. Empress Stah describes herself and her performances as pornographic, challenging, blasphemous, twisted but above all entertaining. She is radically different from any performer that is usually seen but visually, is the most interesting. Empress Stah is very entertaining and although all of Bad Girls and Dirty Bodies: Performative Histories and Transformative Styles 61 her performances are forms of comedy namely tongue-in-cheek, pornographic and silly; she is not specifically burlesque, cabaret or circus. This highlights how burlesque as an “art form,” is fragmented and can never be read on its own, thus open to interpretations mainly heteronormative. For Empress Stah the latter is not the case. Empress Stah blends styles together to form twisted, comedic, child- ish, camp, and pornographic shows which acknowledge and use cultural assumptions of “subversion” then transforms them to something very pecu- liar through breath taking, moving and powerfully challenging aerial and ground displays of energy, sensuality, gender play, pleasure, self expression and fun. Items she uses in some performances include piercings, a black strap-on, butt-plugs and a male blow up doll alongside fire eating, timeless outfits and twisted fairytales. Most of what she performs challenges gender identity but significantly she challenges how femininities should be staged or performed and the possibilities surrounding desire. Through the use of comedy this magnifies the rigid sexual binaries constructed by the mass media, the heteronormative and the homonormative. The latter always seems to be forgotten over a wave of theory against “straights” which irre- sponsibly ignores the fact that not every straight person is normatively so. The music she uses in performance is significant as it ranges from classical to electro pop by the artist Peaches where the orgasmic rhythms not only connect to the sexy and energetic music experienced in some body art and fetish club cultures such a TG; but the individual sounds and movements which embody the rhythm of the erotic. This also includes sensuousness which stimulates the mind and breaks her body beyond the frame of staged gender construction where desire is felt and not needing to be named. The way she performs on stage and swings from her chandelier combined with the music and her own history; makes her body and what she does to it become a visual representation of pleasure that women can show. She performs gender identity and sexual orientation as something you should feel and not necessarily name or base on assumed signs which society or subcultures display as visual signatures of orientation or difference. In this instance she also challenges the subcultures in which she performs and the parody of gender in burlesque as this is absent in performance. 62 Gemma Ruth Commane

Empress Stah contradicts gender construction as she does not perform a specific gender or named sexual category. Instead she embodies herself, is proud of her history, her background and sensual eroticism which cannot be moored, parodied or placed into categories as it has to be felt and experienced by all the senses by the individual. Even though some themes she uses seem “subversive” on the surface through cutting the skin, drinking blood taken from her arm and mixed with another substance in a Cham- paign glass, giving a blow up doll anal sex, forcing the blow up doll to give her strap on oral, and pulling diamonds from her vagina; the context, style and construction of these shows actually transforms how the body should be viewed, written about and experienced, not just in regards to gender or sexuality but how both can be accepted, rejoiced and pleasured. Her body cannot be easily named or categorized within cultural and subcultural contexts. This signals a lack of knowledge not in the spaces she performs in but how the body is viewed, sexed and gendered by society and schools of thought.

Conclusion

By ignoring the bodies displayed in this chapter and the importance of body style, alterative experiences of desire not names, and the performance styles in body art, cabaret and fetish clubs; means that only the visible and readable part of gender and sexuality is seen. If something is visible and easy to access, this does not mean that it is true or that everything is known, which assumes everything opposite is binary in nature. The visual and transformative performances of body seen in these visual club cultures signal a deficiency in how we understand the body. This has a monumental impact on how gender and sexuality are “defined,” categorized or seen as being. How the body experiences the world and what the individual finds pleasurable cannot be defined wholly by the values imposed by present and established thinking. Bad Girls and Dirty Bodies: Performative Histories and Transformative Styles 63

This is why the queer community should set the precedence in acknowl- edging body knowledge’s within tabooed cultures to begin to translate in a multi-disciplinary and experimental fashion; lived experiences. These lived experiences embody styles and identities which perform but never fully occupy the tabooed space where they are seen. Bodies in transformation can expand knowledge’s about the body and in consequence can transform how we understand female sexual desire and how it is embodied.

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