Before my current life in performance, I was highly passionate about social change and social enterprise. I spent many hours and days going to conferences internationally, researching ways of alleviating world issues like poverty and discrimination, and wrote a key regional youth education blog. I was still enthused by creativity, but I was especially keen on meaningful uses of creativity - like my Up with People tour, or KaosPilots’ approach to creative businesses.

Now I’ve swung towards the other side, deeper into creativity than activism. But I still seek meaning in my creative work. I still aim for some sort of positive social benefit, whether directly through my performance or with my dealings in the creative world. Especially with burlesque.

Now burlesque may not strike anyone immediately as being particularly world-changing. It’s half-naked women in corsets bouncing pasties off their breasts. How “meaningful” is that? Indeed, burlesque is deeply low-brow; it’s meant to be escapist popular entertainment, accessible to the masses, taxing no brain cells. I highly doubt Dita von Teese aims for a statement against capitalism and the alcohol industry when she’s swimming in her giant martini.

But remember: burlesque was originally political and societal satire. Back in the day it started out as a way for people to poke fun at the elite - whether they were part of the “elite” themselves (and therefore got the references) or they were part of the working class. They played a similar role to court jesters, who were often the only people in the palace that was able to critique and tease the rulers about their kingdom. By making the high-brow bawdy they expose its foibles, its flaws, its imperfect humanity. And when we humanise the upper classes and put everything on an equal footing, we make it possible to bridge gaps of understanding, and achieve change.

There are various ways, then, that burlesque can be harnessed for social change. There are the obvious ones, like making a burlesque charity calendar or holding a fundraiser show. That sort of thing isn’t exclusive to any particular artform. Here, however, are some ideas that specifically speak to burlesque, whether classical or otherwise:

Sexuality and gender rights

This is pretty obvious. A lot of burlesque deals with norms of sexuality and gender, particularly in how people (women and transgendered especially) are allowed to express their sexuality. There are still efforts to control people’s rights to choose their method of sex health (such as limiting access to contraceptives or abortion) or their gender and sex rights (like gay marriages) because they have preconceived notions of morality that they need to control.

Burlesque is also a close cousin to the sex industry, which is in itself a hotbed of issues and controversy. Potential abuses against women, access to fair legal services and healthcare, ownership of bodies, asserting sexual rights, and so on. Burlesque performances can bring up questions of how we relate to sexuality, of gender: how do we define it for ourselves, for others? What sort of control do we hold on to, what do we assert onto others? What’s lewd and crude, and what’s tasteful? How do you decide those things?

Discrimination and prejudice

Current burlesque seems to be facing the same issue as a lot of mainstream pop entertainment: not enough diversity. This is likely due to it being a British- and American-centric artform, but there is still a noticeable lack of performers from non-Anglo-Saxon backgrounds or heritages. There is a growing number of black (particularly African-American) and Scandinavian performers, as well as quite a few from Japan. But where are the people from the rest of Asia, from Latin America, from the diasporas around the world? As it is, when other cultures are portrayed in burlesque, they tend to be reduced to stereotypes and appropriation.

If we take the classical idea of burlesque though, it becomes a powerful vehicle for dispelling and challenging stereotypes. Some people, like Brown Girls Burlesque, or Vixen Noir, are actively creating opportunities for culturally diverse people to represent themselves and their stories through burlesque. Instead of using stereotypes to perpetuate old jokes, the stereotypes are mocked and broken. It’s especially powerful when combined with the audience’s expectations of their cultural norms towards sexuality - can a brown, black, or yellow girl actually be sexually open? Can we accept ourselves as encompassing the wide spectrum of sexuality?

Body issues

A lot of people get involved in burlesque as a way to work with their body issues. Burlesque is one of the few performance forms that does not place a strict restriction on appearance - which is ironic, given that burlesque is a lot more explicit about showing off the body. Indeed, many modern burlesque scenes are very open and accepting of diverse body types, with some going out of their way to portray diverse definitions of beauty.

Burlesque performer Fetchin’ Gretchen wrote an interesting paper on using burlesque as a means of intervention for women with eating disorders:

As a neo-burlesque performer in New York City, I have witnessed through burlesque workshops, classes, reading burlesque testimonials in books, periodicals and webpages, talking backstage with performers, and through my own experience the transformative and healing power of neo-burlesque for both performers and audience members. Some of the great features of neo-burlesque are its acceptance and celebration of the sexiness of all body types, its openness to new performers, its “do-it-yourself” challenges, and a balance between entertainment, art and political material. These specific elements of burlesque make it an excellent tool for a variety of social work practices: direct practice with individuals, especially those who need help celebrating and loving their bodies, enhancing public awareness and stimulating public dialogue about a variety of political issues, and creating social change through burlesque performance.

Feminism

Burlesque and feminism do have a very torrid relationship. On the one hand, burlesque provides a platform for women (and men) to empower themselves and others, by taking charge of their bodies, their image, their businesses. Many burlesque-related enterprises are women-run, and provide other women with a sense of autonomy and personal power. However, it can also be argued to play into the patriarchy’s view of women as sexual lust objects devoid of power. The debate (and the counterdebate that burlesque doesn’t have to justify itself as a feminist act) is still raging everywhere.

As an artform, burlesque still provides a strong platform to showcase feminist views, especially in relation to stereotypes about women. Many performers use burlesque to send up the idea of women being subservient obedient wife-figures - they become strong, eccentric, powerful, take-charge women who aren’t going to let anybody boss them around. Concepts of domination and submission, especially in fetish, are tossed around. Common female icons are represented and rebuilt. The burlesque performer creates, and lives out, her definition of “woman”.

Sustainability and Ethics

The social change side of burlesque doesn’t just have to be in the particular performance. There are other factors within a production that can be adjusted to be more environmentally-friendly, ethical, and sustainable. For instance, the materials used to make costumes can be obtained from organic and fair trade products. The venue and event organisers can also ensure that the cast & crew are fairly compensated and that they’re conscious of their energy use.

I’ve actually been thinking of some ways to use burlesque as a means of advancing opportunities for people in developing countries through fair trade. Props and costumes are a key part of any burlesque performance; many performers I know spend thousands of dollars a year on what we’d consider kitschy knockoffs - wigs, fans, boas. A lot of these items are manufactured and sold for cheap in Asia, where manufacturing practices can vary widely from very ethical to very troublesome. How about encouraging positive and ethical practices, as well as international development, through purchasing products from crafters and artisans internationally? A great starting point is Syria, which has a strong culture of kitschy costume lingerie - let’s form a group of female entrepreneurs who can produce such lingerie for performers, who’d use them as costumes, and get earned a fair rate that allows them to improve their living conditions!

Burlesque, like many things in the arts, has a massive opportunity to be used as a powerful agent for social change. To be most effective, we need to consider the elements that make burlesque unique: satire, comedy, dramatics, being in-your-face yet suggestive, confronting taboos, breaking stereotypes. We need to harness those qualities in every aspect of burlesque - in production, performance, promotion. When we empower ourselves, we empower others - and this empowerment creates great change, whether within a person or within the world.

Can burlesque change the world? Hells yeah.