Stripped Down Version
For an object lesson in why French philosophers should not attempt to write about sex, see Roland Barthes writing in 1957 on the G-string: “This ultimate triangle, by its pure and geometric form, by its brilliant and hard material, brandishes sex like a pure sword and re-imagines the woman in a mineralogical universe, the precious stone being here the irrefutable theme of the total and unuseful object.”
From this delightful review of what looks to be a delightful book on the history of the strip-tease. What emerges most powerfully, and ironically, is the innocense of it all:
And it's a chance, as if you needed it, to get re-acquainted with one of the great figures of the 20th century, Gypsy Rose Lee:
From this delightful review of what looks to be a delightful book on the history of the strip-tease. What emerges most powerfully, and ironically, is the innocense of it all:
There is a wealth of marvellous biographical detail here, with the leading players lit up in the full glare of the garish footlights. Striptease stars such as Blaze Starr, Tempest Storm, Lili St Cyr, Dodo d’Homberg and Rita Cadillac — even the names are redolent of a past age, far from a world where hardcore porn is a click away. One stripper, Sherry Britton, fainted when she first revealed herself on stage, although it seems she soon got the hang of it, and was gaily balancing glasses of water on her breasts.
And it's a chance, as if you needed it, to get re-acquainted with one of the great figures of the 20th century, Gypsy Rose Lee:
Dorothy Parker in a G-string. Hard-nosed and sassy, she understood her craft precisely. “The naked skin to the naked eye is just so much epidermis,” she said. It’s what’s “hinted at rather than hollered about” that is erotic. Gypsy Rose could do an absurdly demure but tantalising routine that began with her on stage in a long polka dot skirt, like a virgin bride on her honeymoon night; or she could do an almost absent-minded routine in which she stripped right down while chatting casually to her audience about whatever came into her head, as a wife might talk to her husband in the bedroom. Perhaps that was its intimate appeal, though it could also be extremely funny. She would even teeter about on stage, rolling down her garters while explaining to her admirers why she simply couldn ’t strip to the music of Brahms.
