Customer Reviews

Dancing Naked in the Material World

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book came out about ten years after I posed for the photos in it, so it's very intense to look at them now. I was in my early twenties then, I'm in my midforties now. Although stripping wasn't an ideal job, I got just about exactly what I wanted out of it. Now I have a miraculous career as a cabaret and burlesque performer and teacher, and I always want to pay homage to my roots in the adult entertainment industry.

Being involved with this book was an amazing experience. As an activist and out stripper I've been interviewed and photographed and handled by the media a bit, and Marilyn was scrupulously honest and respectful with all of us. I was thrilled with the results when I saw the book, and it means a lot to me that the women I worked with in that era are represented so simply and clearly and realistically. The pictures tell stories words just can't.

I'm writing this review very late in the game, considering how long ago the book was published, but I just wanted to take a minute to give Marilyn props for being an ethical documentarian. A lot of them aren't.

Marilyn Futterman is a photographer and this is largely a book of her photographs. Almost every other page contains a photograph or photographs and most of them are of women dancers in revealing costumes. Yet seldom are the pictures eroticized. They are documentary in nature. All are black-and-white and many use available light. Other were taken with on-camera flash, and still others were taken in a studio setting.

The text accompanying the pictures are the dancers own words. They talk about why they do this work and how they feel about dancing and the customers they dance for. Some are more articulate and insightful than others, but all are thoughtful and personal.

The book ends with an article, "Stripping for a Living," by Dr. Jacqueline Boles, a Sociology professor. It describes the history and current setting of nude dancing in American society. All in all, this is a well-conceived and executed documentary on an occupation halfway between entertainer and sex worker. It is a great book for anyone who has wondered about the women who dance in these clubs.

The stories told in this book are somewhat interesting and well written, but they are all basically the same. The book seems to go in no particular direction. It contains interviews with various stripppers, but it leaves alot of questions unanswered.

this is an excellent documentary of a variety of strippers spanning a number of years. the pictures are very well done and all of them are evocative. the strippers themselves write commentary about their lives, their work or whatever else pops into their head. it makes for some great and surprising reading. futterman obviously has great empathy for her subjects and this is neccessary in a field where the knee-jerk reaction is limiting stereotypes. i recommend this book as an excellent book for anyone interested in documentaries or strippers.

I read this book to get an insight on strippers, but I was very disappointed. This books is a photo(black & white) documentary of strippers. It covers interviews about their lives, goals, fears and accomplishments, but it all sounds very repetitive, dry and boring. It seems like most all strippers do it because they have to finance their education, support their children because their spouse left them or they have to support a drug habit.I wish someone would write a book that explains what moral issues(if any) do these women have. How do they justify to their children or loved ones what they do(other than, I was just trying to put food on the table). One of the commandments clearly states that one shall not commit adultry. Promiscuous involvement is covered here. This Commandment definitely says that homosexuality, lesbianism, abortion, pornography, and all promiscuous endeavors of man or woman, have a permissiveness that is against the reason for creating mankind.

In the bible, there's a section where God said to Moses, Men and women will have many excuses and will justify their sins against this Commandment. Also, men and women will deliberately attach only specific sins on this Commandment, for shame will make them call this The Hidden Commandment'.

I guess that's the biggest question I have, how do these women justify what they do?. I still can't find a book that covers that issue. I have an open mind about pornography and strippers, but I also have many unanswered questions. This book is so much like everything you see in TV documenteries or movies. I found it to bae a waste of time.