EDIT: If you don't bother to read the text beneath the pictures or can't grasp it; these pictures are for a drag (-king) performance mixing burlesque and boyelsque, playing with gender roles and also doing a parody on nineties boy bands such as NKOTB, East 17 N'sync and, well, whatever their names were, as well as on those pierced-tattooed-trying-to-be-badass metal-hiphop-genre mixing bands of the early '00s with a little dose of Magic Mike male stripping in it ;) Next Friday at Drag Me To Hel.
Because as you may know, burlesque is about more than just sequins and fluff (and corsets and top hats, which seem to be the most widespread stereotype). Although I do like sequins and fluff very much too.
I took these pictures of us last night at our studio after my pilates class. It was probably the quickest "photoshoot" we've ever had.
And a little psst. If you have a moment go drop our pages at the London Burelsque Festival -we'll head there in May- a like? Mine, The Rubies and the Bitties (in a bit more glitter and fluff).
8 comments:
ooh, have you seen Nicole Richie here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZIMlRwrzj8
Knew nothing about her, but have total respect after watching her bust some boy band moves!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! This post is really interesting! Great job!
I’ll be happy to see you in my blog!)
Diana Cloudlet
http://www.dianacloudlet.com/
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Oh, this is a bad idea. White people imitating African-American culture is racist. Please don't do this.
Anonymous: boybands are not limited to any colour or race. As part of a drag show we are doing a parody on a genre as a whole and on manhood and what is considered manly, male and "hot". Furthermore, the last time I checked East17 which I am referring to in the post were white, so were most of the boybands of the nineties and early 00's that we are channeling here. But colour is not the point, it is playing with gender.
Perhaps you are the ignorant one, drawing the racist card where it is not relevant.
I believe your intentions are good, but the results unfortunately are not. You are thinking 00s boy bands but the effect reads 90s hip hop acts. Google search "N.W.A." to see for yourself. If you include those boy bands' cultural appropriation in your act, I'll cheer you on. Otherwise, please reconsider your outfits.
Also, here in San Francisco I know plenty of drag performers and non-gender-binary persons but the white ones don't feel the need to incorporate doo-rags or gang sign flashing.
Long time reader, that's why I'm pointing this out to you instead of sharing this with the internet at large.
Anonymous: Hi! A lot of things, not just band parodies, photoshoots or drag shows, can look like almost anything when taken out of context.
This is what the posters many girls had in their rooms in the nineties looked like. (Only with more "awesome" backgrounds than the curtains at our studio.) Both techno and soft metal and hip hop and boybands which we are after. This is actually what a lot of bands still pose like (as I've noticed) either with ironic or serious intentions. I think you can google up quite many different bands regardless of the genre and see similarities. US boybands like NKOTB or Nsync may have been more cute in their appearance but do google up for example East17 for straight references. (Or Crazy Town.) Baggy pants and Cat boots...
As for gang signs, I don't know any nor trying to make them :D We are just pointing at the camera (while P is raising her finger.) Somebody is always pointing in the pictures. So we ALL point.
Nobody is wearing a doo-rag, but a headband bandanda (the one she normally wears just tied the other way around) to cover her hair line. Wearing a bandana is not limited to (black) hip hop bands only, you see bandanas on the band whose music we are using and on guys in a LOT of other bands.
We are not trying to be any of the guys in East 17 or Crazy Town or any other boy band, just ironic male versions of ourselves.
Most boybands dress in baggy clothes (but on a side note I am actually wearing my 1950's high waist jeans here you know, they just look different without heels ;) although these are not our final stage outfits, because they will be unison and more flashy. I don't want to reveal them or what they might morph into at the end, some people who are coming to DMTH are reading this, but the outfits will keep up the irony as well as give a nod to all the glitz and glam of drag and boylesque.
I don't see how making a parody on boybands would be racist (especially not since most boybands we saw here in the 90's were white). A lot of differnet kind of today's music genres are having their roots in black music, or have been taking inspiration from it, so I guess it would be racist to make a parody of any kind of music in that case..... No. To draw the racist card and make an issue out of this is wrong against real issues.
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