Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore! (or B!D!F!W!) is an internationally toured show by performer Penny Arcade. Like many of her shows, it combines erotic dancing, improvisation, comedy, audience participation, and monologue. Themes include AIDS, pornography, censorship and prostitution. It helped form an international gay burlesque scene and has played a substantial role in the gay shame movement.
B!D!F!W! was created in 1990 partly in response to Senator Jesse Helms's amendment banning the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) from providing funds for "obscene or indecent art". [1] In 2009, Arcade told the Bay Area Reporter: "It was me kind of saying, 'Fuck you' to them." [2] The show has been a hit success despite no funding from the NEA, in part through word of mouth and positive reviews. Although B!D!F!W! is Arcade's most well-known work, it has garnered very little attention from the mainstream press. [3] Instead, the show relies on what she calls "The Drag Factor": "People drag their friends along from home and from work. In New York people were coming every night and telling me their therapist had recommended the show." [4]
The show continues to evolve, in part from the improvisational nature of the performance. It has been credited with helping form an international gay burlesque scene and has played a substantial role in the gay shame movement. [5] The show has had over 1,500 performances in over 22 cities internationally. [6]
Largely about sex, politics and self-censorship, the show humanizes and dignifies the roles portrayed while remaining true to the roles. Instead of presenting a role as one way or the other, the intent is to be true to the essence of the roles. Says Penny Arcade: [4]
"I hate the politically correct tendency. When you have a PC movement, you have people who don't think, and as soon as people give up their capacity for inquiry you have the basis for totalitarianism."
She hires local erotic dancers for her shows, who perform on stage and around the audience. At one point, there is an audience breakout section: audience members go onto the stage and start dancing. As in all her shows, speaking personally to the audience is an important part of the performance. [3]
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper" or an "exotic" or "burlesque" dancer.
Annie M. Sprinkle is an American certified sexologist, performance artist, former sex worker, and advocate for sex work and health care. Sprinkle has worked as a prostitute, sex educator, feminist stripper, pornographic film actress, and sex film producer and director. In 1996, she became the first known porn star to get a doctoral degree, earning a PhD in human sexuality from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. Identifying as ecosexual, Sprinkle is best known for her self-help style of pornography, teaching individuals about pleasure, and for her conventional pornographic film Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle (1981). Through the production of content, Sprinkle has contributed to feminist pornography and the larger social movement of feminism; she is also known for contributing to the rise of the post-porn movement and lesbian pornography. Sprinkle, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, married her long-time partner Beth Stephens in Canada on January 14, 2007.
Kevin Aviance is an American drag queen, club/dance musician, fashion designer and nightclub personality. He is a personality in New York City's gay scene and has performed throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He is a member of the House of Aviance, one of the most notable vogue-ball houses in the U.S. He is known for his trademark phrase, "Work. Fierce. Over. Aviance!" He won the 1998 and 1999 Glammy Awards, the award for nightlife personalities in New York City. He has worked with several artists, including Janet Jackson and Whitney Houston. In December 2016, Billboard Magazine ranked him as the 93rd most successful dance artist of all-time.
Lady Bunny, originally known as "Bunny Hickory Dickory Dock", is an American drag queen, nightclub DJ, actor, comedian, and event organizer. She is the founder of the annual Wigstock event, as well as an occasional television and radio personality. She has released disco singles such as "Shame, Shame, Shame!" and "The Pussycat Song", and has hosted two one-woman comedy shows, 'That Ain't No Lady!' and 'Clowns Syndrome'.
Hairspray is an American musical with music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, with a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, based on John Waters's 1988 film of the same name. The songs include 1960s-style dance music and "downtown" rhythm and blues. Set in 1962 Baltimore, Maryland, the production follows teenage Tracy Turnblad's dream to dance on The Corny Collins Show, a local TV dance program based on the real-life Buddy Deane Show. When Tracy wins a role on the show, she becomes a celebrity overnight, leading to social change as Tracy campaigns for the show's integration.
Drag is a performance of exaggerated femininity, masculinity, or other forms of gender expression, usually for entertainment purposes. Drag usually involves cross-dressing. A drag queen is someone who performs femininely and a drag king is someone who performs masculinely. Performances often involve comedy, social satire, and at times political commentary. The term may be used as a noun as in the expression in drag or as an adjective as in drag show.
Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at nightclubs or other venues where music is played. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s at the French bar Whisky a Gogo located in Juan-les-Pins. The bar's name was taken from the French title of the Scottish comedy film Whisky Galore!. The French bar then licensed its name to the very popular West Hollywood rock club Whisky a Go Go, which opened in January 1964 and chose the name to reflect the already popular craze of go-go dancing. Many 1960s-era nightclub dancers wore short, fringed skirts and high boots which eventually came to be called go-go boots. Nightclub promoters in the mid‑1960s then conceived the idea of hiring women dressed in these outfits to entertain patrons.
Penny Arcade is an American performance artist, actress, and playwright based in New York City. She is known for her comedic wit, forthright delivery, and stage presence. Her performances explore topics such as gentrification, humanity, womanhood, LGBT culture, nostalgia, family history, and the life of the outsider. Additionally, Penny Arcade is known for her association with underground arts and culture.
Gay-for-pay describes male or female actors, pornographic stars, or sex workers who identify as heterosexual but who are paid to act or perform as homosexual professionally. The term has also applied to other professions and even companies trying to appeal to a gay demographic. The stigma of being gay or labeled as such has steadily eroded since the Stonewall riots began the modern American gay rights movement in 1969. Through the 1990s, mainstream movie and television actors have been more willing to portray homosexuality, as the threat of any backlash against their careers has lessened and society's acceptance of gay and lesbian people has increased.
Lesbian erotica deals with depictions in the visual arts of lesbianism, which is the expression of female-on-female sexuality. Lesbianism has been a theme in erotic art since at least the time of ancient Rome, and many regard depictions of lesbianism to be erotic.
Neo-Burlesque, or New Burlesque, is the revival and updating of the traditional American burlesque performance. Though based on the traditional burlesque art, the new form encompasses a wider range of performance styles; neo-burlesque can include anything ranging from classic striptease to modern dance to theatrical mini-dramas to comedic mayhem.
DUMBA was a collective living space and anarchist, queer, all-ages community center and venue in Brooklyn, New York.
Jonny Woo is a British comedian, actor, and drag queen. He co-owns The Glory, an East London pub in which he regularly performs.
Burlesque is a 2010 American backstage musical film written and directed by Steven Antin. It stars Cher, Christina Aguilera, Kristen Bell, Cam Gigandet, Stanley Tucci, Julianne Hough, Alan Cumming, and Peter Gallagher, and features cameos from Dianna Agron, and James Brolin. The film tells the story of Ali (Aguilera), an aspiring singer who leaves her small hometown for Los Angeles, where she becomes a dancer at a struggling burlesque lounge owned by Tess (Cher). After a performance is sabotaged by her rival, Nikki (Bell), Ali sings the song herself, impressing Tess and leading to her becoming the main attraction of the lounge. Burlesque marks Aguilera's first leading role, as well as Cher's first musical performance on screen.
Teaserama is a 1955 American low-budget sexploitation film directed by Irving Klaw. It follows the performance of a burlesque show.
Dirty Martini is an American burlesque dancer, pin-up model and dance teacher.
Lesburlesque is a British troupe of over thirty burlesque performers that perform on the cabaret circuit. They are notable for being the first and only burlesque troupe in the UK that performs lesbian burlesque. Following on from the success of Los Angeles-based girl band and dance troupe, the Pin Up Girls, Lesburlesque appeared on the burlesque scene in September 2010. They came to wider public attention in 2012 for having performed at a former church and continue to incorporate traditionally lesbian specific cabaret entertainment, such as drag kinging to broadening its appeal to the wider cabaret circuit.
The Slipper Room is a variety theatre and house of burlesque, comedy and neo-vaudeville, located in the Lower East Side district of Manhattan, New York City.
Erickatoure Aviance is an American nightlife personality, club host, clothing designer, fashionista, drag performer, recording artist, dancer, actor, singer and songwriter. She is a member of the House of Aviance, one of the vogue and ballroom houses in the U.S. founded in 1989 by Mother Juan Aviance. It is from this House that she takes her last name from as customary for all ballroom house members.
A Night at Switch n' Play is a 2019 American documentary film produced by Chelsea Moore and directed by Cody Stickels. The film is about the long-running, Brooklyn based drag and burlesque artist collective, Switch n’ Play. The documentary features performances and commentary by Divina GranSparkle, Pearl Harbor, K. James, Miss Malice, Vigor Mortis, Nyx Nocturne and Zoe Ziegfeld. The film had its world premiere at the Inside Out Film and Video Festival in Toronto on June 1, 2019 and its New York City premiere was at NewFest on October 26, 2019, where it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. It also won Best Ensemble Performance at the Fargo-Moorhead LGBT Film Festival, and won for Best Feature Film at the Trans Stellar Film Festival. The collective has also won 'Best Burlesque Show' at the Brooklyn Nightlife Awards in 2017, 2018, and 2019. It was filmed on location in Brooklyn at the Branded Saloon, where the group regularly performs.
I was so ignored by the press and the art scene [...] I understood that my relationship was with the audience