Race + Burlesque: Dita Von Teese Dons Yellowface

EO: –because of who we are. We have so many things we want to create, but it’s people like Dita that force us to have to respond and create work that counters these boring-ass stereotypes and privileges. We have so many stories to tell: issues of race and ethnicity are very important to most of us and also are one aspect of who we are, but aren’t the only thing we wanna create work about. Shit we live it everyday! We have many other worlds of fantasy to create on-stage that aren’t just all this bullshit

CHC:The mission of Brown Girls Burlesque is to entertain, educate, titillate and liberate. Our audience is very

Essence Revealed. Photo: Andrea Plaid

diverse across ethnic, age, gender and other spectrums. We’re primarily rooted in our self-determined sensual, sexual, political and whatever else expression for our market, and then as members of the burlesque community. We want to positively affect the self-esteem of brown and all women, and excite every gender.

There was a beautiful moment at Carleton College last month. A student was talking to exHOTic Other about finding herself–

EO: –and how isloating, saddening, difficult that can feel, and not feeling represented, being cut out as–

CHC: –as she revealed that she was of Japanese-Jewish parentage, to which exH exclaimed, “I’m Japanese-Jewish!” Until that moment that women felt she was the only one in her tribe. It means a lot to us to have the opportunity to touch women in this way.

EO: …and know we’re not alone, or that there’s something wrong with us because we don’t look like Dita in or out of her yellowface.

I think what’s been super important and significant for the existence of BGB is for other people to see we exist, to see our literal colorful bodies, for who we are and what our experiences have lead us to this point. The stories we tell through and with our bodies are different: they are rooted in very serious, different experiences with the world, as Shanghai talked about and you talked about, the history and heritages we come from and the way we are forced to experience the world every single day and the ways that our bodies are hypersexualized on a daily basis (differently, depending on what [racial/ethnic group, gender identity, etc.]). Our experiences and understanding of the world affect the pieces we create and what we feel and know is important to share with the world.

We have serious reasons for needing to tell the stories we tell in our work. I think what [irritates me the most] about Dita and every other person of privilege who think they can just create whatever the fuck they want and not be accountable to anyone or history or anything goes back to why: why do you feel OK about telling this and representing this on stage or in a movie, why do you feel this is the story you need to tell..and because, most often, people aren’t at all accountable for what they do or create is why BGB has needed to exist so that we can tell stories for ourselves and actually be accountable to others who look and experience the world in similar ways.

CHC: If I seem casual about being on the “front lines” it’s because I was raised by the first and only African-American mayor of Boulder, CO. My dad and his city council were visionary and bold enough to pass one of the first municipal LBG&T rights laws in the country. There was hell to pay for it. But somebody had to sacrifice to get the wheels in motion. I think brown people experience and internalize more reverence for the sacrifices made by generations before us. The stories are told to us and as children we see what our parents go through.

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