Conflict-ing/-ed Neo-burlesque Bodies: From Nostalgia to Objectification and Back

From the first Girl Shows to the neo-burlesque spectacle, the representation of the female body was a conflicting/-ed ground in terms of format (eg. tableaux vivants, cooch and shimmy dancers or strippers) and genre transformations (eg. vaudeville, minstrel, circus, carnival, burlesque, or cabaret) to endure sociopolitical distresses and “titillate” spectatorship. Through mimicry, parody and travesty, burlesque performers often satirized the content of traditional high-class plays to entertain the working-class audiences who met difficulty in understanding the elite’s tastes. Based on their predecessors’ principles, neo-burlesque performers have acquired aesthetic corporeality to feed their spectators’ lustful appetites. They stylistically and artistically re/approach nostalgic acts and transform toy memories to adult entertainment extravaganzas in order to reshuffle past stories to present glittery sociopolitical her/stories and engage their audiences in their transmedia storytelling and re/narratives. In this light, Roxi D’Lite’s Lavender Classic, Camilla Cream’s 1940’s Classic, Lola the Vamp’s The Doll, and Coco Framboise’s Mr. Potato Head will index how nostalgia, re-visiting of traditional tales and toys, and the play on physical and sexual objectification of the female body generate cross-hybridized neo-burlesque productions