Strip Show: Performances of Gender and Desire (Gender in Performance) [Paperback]

Katherine Liepe-Levinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0415173817 | ISBN-13: 978-0415173810 | Edition: 1

This book offers an account of an unprecedented North American study of contemporary female and male strip shows. It particularly focuses on the contradictory sex roles, cultural positions, and performance practices of 'straight' strip shows during their second heyday in the early 1990s.
Katherine Liepe-Levinson's research took her to over seventy different strip bars, clubs, theatres and sex emporiums ranging from elaborate lap-dancing and couch-dancing 'gentlemen's' clubs in New York, Houston, and San Francisco; to Peoria's onetime duplex cabaret where women strip for men downstairs, and men for women upstairs; to the nightclubs of Montreal where female and male performers displayed the 'Full Monty'.
Liepe-Levinson's intriguing, comprehensive study concentrates on the cultural and theatrical elements of the strip shows themselves including the geographic locations and interior designs of the clubs, the choreography and costumes of the dancers and the all-important participation of the audience. She draws upon a variety of methodologies as well as interviews with performers to explore how the strip show's cultural and theatrical aspects simultaneously uphold and break traditional sex roles. Her findings readily complicate several of the most prominent and prevalent theories about sexual representation, gender and desire.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Insightful, informative, and as provocative as the art form it considers. Strip Show is a refreshing book, which seeks to illuminate a subject too often avoided or misunderstood, highlighting the professional theatricality of some of the world's most daring performers.' - Neil Eckersley, Manchester on Stage

About the Author

Katherine Liepe-Levinson has worked as a professional dancer, actor, choreographer, director, and playwright in both Europe and the United States. She has taught courses in theatre and performance studies for Hunter College, Empire State College, and most recently for Colgate University. She currently lives and works in New York City as a freelance writer, researcher, and educational consultant.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (January 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415173817
• ISBN-13: 978-0415173810
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,316,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The fascinating worlds of male and female strip shows, January 2, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Strip Show: Performances of Gender and Desire (Gender in Performance) (Paperback)

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about the intriguing worlds of male and female strip shows as well as about the complexities of sexual desire. Among the topics it covers are: How strip shows simultaneously uphold and break traditional sex roles; the symbiotic relationship between performers and spectators; why New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was incorrect in his assessment that strip shows, by their very nature, produce negative secondary effects; and why strip shows allow both men and women the freedom to explore roles denied to them by traditional society.
Through logically reasoned arguments, careful field work, and fascinating examples, the book's author makes a solid case that there a lot more to strip shows than mere titillation and the removal of clothing.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Informative yet Repetitive, December 22, 2005

By 

Reviewer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strip Show: Performances of Gender and Desire (Gender in Performance) (Paperback)

This book had a lot of interesting content and would be recommended (though not highly...) for those who are interested in the gender roles involved in strip shows. It's analysis of the separate components of the strip show (a chapter each for physical location of the venues, interior decorating, clothing of the dancers, dance moves, audience involvement) offers something that other books covering the same topic don't touch on. However, a lot of the book gets repetitive. Don't waste your time reading the introduction of the book: it is echoed (and sometimes even copied exactly) in other parts of the book.