Burlesque Ergo...

 

I wanted to take a moment to pay tribute to my Burlesque buddies.  

You won't believe this...but there are actually people who poke fun at me for having so many of these friends.  
 
WTF?  

Why??

'Well', they say, 'because they are...those kind of...women...'

Keep digging, motherfucker.  

I'm not helping you out of your own grave. 

'those' kind of women??

What the Hell does THAT mean?

Like those kind of BLACK people?

Any other racial or cultural minorities I should be avoiding??


Fuck you.  

These women have been good to me. 

And you- so-called friend- are being a TURD.

You wanna' know why I have these kind of friends?

I'll tell you why.  

But this is for THEM...not you. 


Let's go back aways. 

I have always gotten on better with women.  

Ever since I was a little boy.  

I'm not going to go into detail here- I have done it before.  But many of you already know my father was a brute of a man who traumatised us beyond recognition. 

So I always felt safer around women. 

Always. 

Are all women good?

No. Of course not.  

But there are a damn sight more decent women than decent men.

So...I prefer female friends.  


Did I have to have so many Burlesque and pin-up friends?

Ahem; did I have to have so much BEAUTY?

How much is enough?

Because for me, TOO MUCH beauty is barely enough.

 
I can do without all the ugliness.  

But it finds me just the same. 

So yes, I AM A LEAN MEAN BEAUTY SEEKING MACHINE.

And I have other reasons for having so many of 'these' friends, as you inquire.   

One of my dreams has always been to make a film in and around these industries.  

Why?

Because I am fascinated by the extent to which we demean, malign and sequester women...

Even though we are more than happy to abuse and exploit them.  

Again...I have blogged about this elsewhere, but to re-cap, one of my persistent, nagging themes has been the objectification and usurpation of the female gender.

It makes no sense to me. 

& I don't mean I ask questions like "Why do those shitty guys out there treat women so badly..."

I ask myself 'what is it in ME that treats them so badly.'

Was it all my misogynistic father's influence?

Or is it something in our DNA?

So...these are the things that fascinate me. 

Why do we LOVE women so (or at least, why are we so fascinated by them...)

& yet so fucking CRUEL?

So this is my life's work. 

I'm not going to untangle it in my lifetime...

Any more than being a Suicide Girl will cure cancer. 

But damn...we are gonna' try!    

& what better setting to explore these lofty themes than in the performance art of Burlesque?

I am an artist.

& I am naturally fascinated by other art.  

See the connection here?  


So I thought it might be wise to get to know more about it.  

Maybe befriend some of these artists in order to help visualise the characters in writing. 

I was a cop at one time, and even though I met a lot of strippers & sex workers...

I met very few in the burlesque and pin-up field. 

(That's right, critics and nay sayers; these are NOT the same.)


Which leads me to the reason I post this.  

To those people who say, in a snide voice, 'you have a lot of THOSE kind of friends'...nudge nudge wink wink. 

I say 'Yes I do.  

ps; GO FUCK YOURSELF.'  


THESE WOMEN HAVE MORE GUTS THAN YOU WILL EVER SEE IN YOUR PALTRY LIFETIME. 


These women work long hours, most of them for little pay under extremely gruelling work conditions...

have to maintain peak physical fitness, when they are not performing they are TRAINING to perform well...

Not to mention makeup, hair, costume, 

music...

choreography...

they deal with injury and yes...INSULT from small minded shit bags who wouldn't know a humanitarian gesture if it took them from behind prison style.  


And you are going to sit there in judgement of me for being friends with so MANY of these extraordinary, talented, INSPIRING women??

Eat shit and die. 

These women are a gift.

They honour ME. 

And the simple minded- are not fit to be cannon fodder for all these brainless wars we are having.

I have received so much more from these women than I have given them.

It seems unfair.  

They bring a light, a vigour, a kind of je nais se quois to my wall...

& to my life.  

So I want to thank them. 

It's not much for all their pain, heartbreaking effort and back breaking labour...

But I have to do something.

So...

THANK YOU. 

With sincere thanks to my dear friend Katt Hurst (Nada Von Darling) for allowing me to use her gorgeous images. 
 
This is what I'm talking about...