Political burlesque show heats up VCU
A nearly naked woman slowly pulls a lengthy strip of tissue paper from her butt, as a visibly shocked crowd watches in amazement.
Strutting around the stage with the tuft of paper trailing behind her, the woman, named Dirty Martini, turns and rebelliously shakes her large breasts at the crowd.
A nearly naked woman slowly pulls a lengthy strip of tissue paper from her butt, as a visibly shocked crowd watches in amazement.
Strutting around the stage with the tuft of paper trailing behind her, the woman, named Dirty Martini, turns and rebelliously shakes her large breasts at the crowd. Two pasties swirl as she shimmies and dances on top of scattered dollar bills.
To conclude her performance, “The Patriot Act,” Martini gives the excited crowd the middle finger before strutting offstage.
This was the scene Sunday night when burlesque entertainer Martini, along with eight others, performed the Sex Workers’ Art Show for a packed house at the University Student Commons Theater.
The presentation included nudity, but the show’s founder, director, road manager and emcee, Annie Oakley, said the show is about politics just as much as it is about eroticism.
“There’s a moment you make a decision … to ignore the people who bring you products,” Oakley said. “It doesn’t just happen to sex workers. It happens to all workers.”
Oakley said workers in the $12 billion sex industry, which is worth more than the baseball, football and soccer industries combined, are often given no voice.
Oakley founded the Sex Workers’ Art Show to educate audiences around the country about adult performers, as well as to give sex workers the opportunity to express their ideas.
Grayson Loving, 22, said he enjoyed the performance.
“My favorite thing was their (Martini’s) rendition of the Patriot Act,” Loving said. “It had meaning. It wasn’t gratuitous.”
While some of the performers stripped, sang or danced to make political statements, others simply read personal essays or interacted with the crowd.
Adult entertainer Jo “Boobs” Weldon, a former stripper and burlesque dancer, invited a female student onstage for an impromptu lesson in the art of burlesque. Amidst cheers from the crowd, the student donned a pair of pasties and danced with Weldon.
The student, who wishes to remain anonymous, said her involvement in the segment was not preplanned, and stripping in public was something she always wanted to do – just once.
“I’ve never taken my shirt off for strangers … (but) I’m not embarrassed,” she said. “She (Weldon) was mighty persuasive!”
