num_pages: 370
description: Burlesque was a cultural threat, Allen argues, because it inverted the "normal" world of middle-class social relations and transgressed norms of "proper" feminine behavior and appearance. Initially playing to respectable middle-class audiences, burlesque was quickly relegated to the shadow-world of working-class male leisure. In this process the burlesque performer "lost" her voice, as burlesque increasingly revolved around the display of her body.Locating burlesque within the context of both the social transformation of American theater and its patterns of gender representation, Allen concludes that burlesque represents a fascinating example of the potential transgressiveness of popular entertainment forms, as well as the strategies by which they have been contained and their threats defused.
language: English
title: Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and American Culture
titlecomplete: Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and American Culture
genres: Theatre, Gender and Sexuality, History, American History, 20th Century, 19th Century, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 97
series: Cultural Studies of the United States
publisher: University of North Carolina Press