Book-It 'o14! Book #31
The Fifty Books Challenge, year five! ( 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013) This was part of an awesomeballs gift package from the ever-fabulous anais-rhys from my wishlist.
Title: Burlesque and the Art of the Teese/Fetish and the Art of the Teese by Dita Von Teese with Bronwyn Garrity
Details: Copyright 2006, HarperCollins Books
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap/s):
"Burlesque and the Art of the Teese
"I advocate glamour. Every day. Every minute."
I'm a good dancer and a nice girl, but I'm a great showgirl. I sell, in a word, magic. Burlesque is a world of illusion and dreams and of course, the striptease. Whether I am bathing in my martini glass, riding my sparkling carousel horse, or emerging from my giant gold powder compact, I live out my most glamorous fantasies by bringing nostalgic imagery to life.
Let me show you my world of gorgeous pin-ups, tantalizing stripteases, and femmes fatales. I'll give you a glimpse into my life, but a lady never reveals all.
Fetish and the Art of the Teese
You may have come for the fetish. Or you may just be sneaking a peek at this mysterious and peculiar other side. No matter what you've come for, there is something for you to indulge in.
My world of fetish may not be the one that you would expect. As a burlesque performer, I entice my audience, bringing their minds closer and closer to sex and then -- as good temptress must -- snatching it away. As a fetish star, I apply the same techniques. . . .
An opera-length kid leather glove, a strict wasp waist, an impossibly high patent leather heel, a severely painted red lip. . . . Come with me into my world of decadent fetishism. "
Why I Wanted to Read It: Dita Von Teese is interesting in interviews, and I like how she takes stripping seriously, as performance, as art form. I'd read a bit of this book in, of all places, the Museum of Sex in New York City and liked what I'd read. I realized it was probably a coffee table/heavy-on-pictures-not-on-text book, but I was okay with that, as I liked the text I had seen, and her pictures were lovely.
How I Liked It: The book is two books in one with Burlesque being the longer (and better) book.
She has a ghost-writer who has a tendency of making her writing a little too cute (at least, if said ghostwriter had a hand in the memoir section as well as the history of burlesque) at times, but still maintaining that admirable kind of eccentric determination to "make" herself into the kind of beauty she wanted to be. Apparently as Heather Sweet, she was a fairly plain blonde, but through imagination and performance, she created a character as well as a sense of beauty. Given my lifelong beliefs of the subjective nature of "beauty" and the fact it's more an attitude/performance (a glamour), I really liked her determination and outlook, which we're treated to a bit more of in this book as she offers a mini memoir of her early years and entrance into stripping (including creating her own very-different-from-the-norm routine).
The Fetish book is less interesting, mainly because Von Teese (and her ghostwriter) tend to try to go places they shouldn't. I'm not just talking about the truly gross cultural appropriation (the hackey "Golden Lotus" section which features Von Teese in an attempted "China Doll" ensemble) but the text attempting to clumsily explore and rationalize fetishism. Von Teese garners a full-on eyeball roll when she traipses near feminism with this line:
“People often ask if there is an element of feminism in my burlesque performances or even in my boldly sexual fetish photographs. Yes, if you define feminism the way I do: being as feminine as possible.” (pg 101)
Never mind that feminism is a vastly subjective term and Von Teese could've brought up the fact thanks to feminism she's allowed control with her performances and her finances from said performances, it's too complex a topic to really be covered in the light and fluffy text of the book(s). She downplays the idea of feminism in an unfortunately fairly common modern female celebrity way, the "I-support-equality" scoot-away, including another (if slightly lesser) eyeball-roll inducer with the quote from Lopold von Sacher-Masoch "Man is the one who desire, woman the one who is desired. This is woman's entire but decisive advantage." She concedes cheekily that perhaps things have changed since he wrote that in late 1800s, but "once in a while, it's a devious lot of fun to pretend they haven't."
Again, Von Teese would've been much better suited to stay away from that (or any really serious kind of issue) in this book, since it isn't really meant to be an indepth exploration into the mindset that celebrates or denigrates striptease (and why and what kinds), and it tends to sour what's otherwise a charming book/set of books.
Problematic issues aside, it's generally a really fun look at burlesque through the ages, the work that goes into creating and perfecting routines (there are tips), and course, plenty of pictures of Von Teese.
Title: Burlesque and the Art of the Teese/Fetish and the Art of the Teese by Dita Von Teese with Bronwyn Garrity
Details: Copyright 2006, HarperCollins Books
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap/s):
"Burlesque and the Art of the Teese
"I advocate glamour. Every day. Every minute."
I'm a good dancer and a nice girl, but I'm a great showgirl. I sell, in a word, magic. Burlesque is a world of illusion and dreams and of course, the striptease. Whether I am bathing in my martini glass, riding my sparkling carousel horse, or emerging from my giant gold powder compact, I live out my most glamorous fantasies by bringing nostalgic imagery to life.
Let me show you my world of gorgeous pin-ups, tantalizing stripteases, and femmes fatales. I'll give you a glimpse into my life, but a lady never reveals all.
Fetish and the Art of the Teese
You may have come for the fetish. Or you may just be sneaking a peek at this mysterious and peculiar other side. No matter what you've come for, there is something for you to indulge in.
My world of fetish may not be the one that you would expect. As a burlesque performer, I entice my audience, bringing their minds closer and closer to sex and then -- as good temptress must -- snatching it away. As a fetish star, I apply the same techniques. . . .
An opera-length kid leather glove, a strict wasp waist, an impossibly high patent leather heel, a severely painted red lip. . . . Come with me into my world of decadent fetishism. "
Why I Wanted to Read It: Dita Von Teese is interesting in interviews, and I like how she takes stripping seriously, as performance, as art form. I'd read a bit of this book in, of all places, the Museum of Sex in New York City and liked what I'd read. I realized it was probably a coffee table/heavy-on-pictures-not-on-text book, but I was okay with that, as I liked the text I had seen, and her pictures were lovely.
How I Liked It: The book is two books in one with Burlesque being the longer (and better) book.
She has a ghost-writer who has a tendency of making her writing a little too cute (at least, if said ghostwriter had a hand in the memoir section as well as the history of burlesque) at times, but still maintaining that admirable kind of eccentric determination to "make" herself into the kind of beauty she wanted to be. Apparently as Heather Sweet, she was a fairly plain blonde, but through imagination and performance, she created a character as well as a sense of beauty. Given my lifelong beliefs of the subjective nature of "beauty" and the fact it's more an attitude/performance (a glamour), I really liked her determination and outlook, which we're treated to a bit more of in this book as she offers a mini memoir of her early years and entrance into stripping (including creating her own very-different-from-the-norm routine).
The Fetish book is less interesting, mainly because Von Teese (and her ghostwriter) tend to try to go places they shouldn't. I'm not just talking about the truly gross cultural appropriation (the hackey "Golden Lotus" section which features Von Teese in an attempted "China Doll" ensemble) but the text attempting to clumsily explore and rationalize fetishism. Von Teese garners a full-on eyeball roll when she traipses near feminism with this line:
“People often ask if there is an element of feminism in my burlesque performances or even in my boldly sexual fetish photographs. Yes, if you define feminism the way I do: being as feminine as possible.” (pg 101)
Never mind that feminism is a vastly subjective term and Von Teese could've brought up the fact thanks to feminism she's allowed control with her performances and her finances from said performances, it's too complex a topic to really be covered in the light and fluffy text of the book(s). She downplays the idea of feminism in an unfortunately fairly common modern female celebrity way, the "I-support-equality" scoot-away, including another (if slightly lesser) eyeball-roll inducer with the quote from Lopold von Sacher-Masoch "Man is the one who desire, woman the one who is desired. This is woman's entire but decisive advantage." She concedes cheekily that perhaps things have changed since he wrote that in late 1800s, but "once in a while, it's a devious lot of fun to pretend they haven't."
Again, Von Teese would've been much better suited to stay away from that (or any really serious kind of issue) in this book, since it isn't really meant to be an indepth exploration into the mindset that celebrates or denigrates striptease (and why and what kinds), and it tends to sour what's otherwise a charming book/set of books.
Problematic issues aside, it's generally a really fun look at burlesque through the ages, the work that goes into creating and perfecting routines (there are tips), and course, plenty of pictures of Von Teese.