Striptease

A striptease or exotic dance is a performance, usually a dance, in which the performer (sometimes called an ecdysiast), "strips off clothing to arouse sexual desire by displaying the naked body in motion." ^[1] Stripteases are usually performed in strip clubs. The "teasing" part involves the slowness of undressing, while the audience is eager to see more nudity. Delay tactics include additional clothes being removed, putting clothes or hands in front of just undressed body parts. Emphasis is on the act of undressing along with sexually suggestive movement, not on the state of being undressed: in some cases the performance is finished as soon as the undressing is finished. (Before the sexual revolution, striptease performance often ended with the performer wearing a g-string and pasties)^{[citation needed]}.

Along with physical attractiveness and appropriate clothing, the main asset and tool used by the exotic dancer in recent years is the stripper pole. Almost all exotic dancers are drawn to the profession by the potential for high earnings in the form of tips and commissions from lap/couch dances and champagne rooms.

In addition to night club entertainment, stripping can be a form of sexual play at home between partners. This can be done as an impromptu event or--perhaps for a special occasion--with elaborate planning involving fantasywear, music, special lighting, practised dance moves, and the like.

Off-stage

Main article lap dance

A variation on striptease is private dancing, which often involves lap dancing or contact dancing. Here the performers, in addition to stripping for tips, also offer "private dances" which involve more attention for individual audience members. Variations include private dances like table dancing where the performer dances on or by customer's table rather than the customer being seated in a couch.

For certain events, including bachelor/bachorette parties, the stripper's job often involves holding games or contests with sexual themes.

The contact between a performer and a customer is regulated in ways that vary in response to local laws and club rules, ranging from "air dances" with minimal or no contact to "friction" lap dances at the dancer's discretion. In Eastern Europe, a lap dance can precede any number of added sexual favors for an additional price.

History of striptease

The ancient art of the strip tease traces its origins in the Sumerian tablets, on which were written the myth of the descent of the goddess Inanna into Hell to retrieve her lover Damouz. At each of the seven gates, she removed a veil and a jewel. As long as she remained in hell, the earth was barren. When she returned, fecundity abounded. Her dance lived on as the famous dance of the seven veils of Salome, who danced for King Herod in the New Testament. Many forms of the strip tease made their way throughout Sumeria, Mesopotamia, into Asia and west into the near east and southern Europe, via Gypsies.

In South India, the dance evolved through the Devadasi temple and court dancers.

In the nineteenth century, French colonists in North Africa and Egypt "discovered" and seized upon the dances of the Ghawazee, especially a courtesan dancer known as Kuchuk Hanem, and exoticized the image of the nonwestern woman as one who would disrobe as part of a dance performance. It is likely that the women performing these dances did not do so in an indigenous context, but rather, responded to the commercial climate for this type of entertainment.

Middle Eastern belly dance, also known as Oriental Dancing, was popularized in the US after its introduction on the Midway at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago by a dancer known as Little Egypt.

American strip tease nurtured its roots in carnivals and Burlesque theatres. The art and business enjoyed prosperity as the United States economy grew out of the depression of the 1930's through the fifties. In the sixties and seventies, with changing cultural expressions of sexuality, it declined in profitability and status. In the eighties and technology boom of the nineties, those in the profession enjoyed better acceptance and better working conditions.

Burlesque

The People's Almanac credited the origin of striptease as we know it to an act in 1890s Paris in which a woman slowly removed her clothes in a vain search for a flea crawling on her body. Striptease enjoyed a revival with the advent of burlesque theatre, with famous strippers such as Gypsy Rose Lee.

In 1940, humorist H. L. Mencken coined the term ecdysiast as a euphemism for strippers; it derives from the Greek ekdusis meaning "to molt."

In the latter 1990s a number of performers and dance groups have emerged to create New Burlesque, a revival of the classic burlesque of the early half of the twentieth century. New Burlesque focuses on dancing, costumes and entertainment (which may include comedy and singing) and generally eschews full nudity or toplessness. Some burlesquers of the past have become instructors and mentors to New Burlesque performers such as Velvet Hammer and the Pontani Sisters. The pop group Pussycat Dolls began as a New Burlesque troupe.

Male strippers

Until the 1970s, strippers were almost invariably female, performing to male audiences. Since then, male strippers, performing to female audiences, have also become common. Male and female strippers also perform for gay and lesbian audiences respectively, as well as for both sexes in pansexual contexts. Before the 1970s dancers of both genders appeared largely in underground clubs or as part of a theatre experience, but the practice eventually became common enough on its own.

Visits by women to clubs featuring male strippers, usually as a group for an activity such as a bachelorette party, have now become part of mainstream culture in Western countries. Unlike the enforced sedate atmosphere at clubs featuring female exotic dancers for male audiences, the female audience for male strippers is very vocal, rowdy, and even aggressive. Female patrons getting up on stage with the male exotic dancers and helping them strip or joining them stripping is commonplace. Usually, the nightclub management and their bouncers do not try to restrain their female audiences unless disturbances and fights break out. Female patrons tend to "push the envelope" to see how far they're allowed to go. Most commonly, it is the female patrons testing the boundaries who are the ones that start restraining themselves before the bouncers do.

Gay male strip clubs feature men who appear initially in skimpy undergarments (which are quickly removed if full nudity is allowed) and socks. Fondling the strippers is commonplace and considered fair game, even as it is often technically prohibited. In cities such as Washington, D.C. where full nudity is allowed, the male strippers at gay venues stand on the bar or stage and masturbate to maintain erection, allowing the customers to also masturbate or ejaculate them for tips.

Relationship to the erotic movie industry

File:Stripper04.jpg

A stripper with a lower back tattoo.

Many erotic actresses and actors in the US make their main living from their earnings from personal appearances as featured exotic dancers, in much the same way that many musicians make their main living from live performance, with their recordings serving as advertising. Many in the striptease industry appear in pornographic movies or magazines to be paid more for appearing at stripclubs as "feature dancers" because they are porn stars, which clubs advertise to bring in a bigger paying audience. The more famous the porn star, the more the exotic dancer will be paid by the stripclub to perform at their club.

External links

References

Shteir, Rachel. Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show", Oxford University Press, 2004.
McMahon, Tiberius. "Uniting Exotic And Erotic Dancers Worldwide", GlobalSecurityReport.com, 2006.

^ "Exotic Erotic". The New York Times Sunday Magazine. 2006-05-21. p. 38.

[1] "Exotic Erotic". The New York Times Sunday Magazine. 2006-05-21. p. 38.

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