The Happy Stripper Pleasures and Politics of the New Burlesque - Softcover

''From London to New York, the new burlesque bars and clubs are attracting audience that would baulk at frequenting a pub with a strip show on Saturday nights...It's this new phenomenon that Wilson sets out to examine...Not only do more and more men and women enjoy watching burlesque...For Wilson, such unexamined pleasure is problematic...she looks to the history of burlesque for an answer to this conundrum.'' -- Dea Birkett, Oldie

If the burlesque stripper, with her bawdy spirit and unruly insubordination, has emerged for many as a new 'empowering' model for the sexually aware woman, then she also strikes horror in the heart of second wave feminism. Embodied by high profile artistes such as Dita von Teese and Catherine D'Lish, the explosive revival of striptease, burlesque and overt female sexual performance has proved no less alluring to a new generation of women artists familiar with the provocative work of 70's performance artists such as Hannah Wilke and Carolee Schneeman. Eloquent on 'prettiness' and power, desire and 'knowingness', money, sex and class, and with an extensive knowledge of burlesque's rich tradition, Willson raises long overdue questions about women's erotic expression within a 'postfeminist' condition. The 'new burlesque' demands above all a response - this fresh, brazen, provocative book at last provides it.