Spectacles of Agency and Desire: Dance Histories and the Burlesque Stage

Second-Hand Pleasure: Bettie Page's Bondage Films

 Erotic films are also a major facet of the Burlesque umbrella.  These films bring up ideas and questions about second-hand pleasure; pleasure that is captured on camera for a later “usage.” Audre Lorde argues that the erotic cannot be felt second hand, and that the use of the erotic, without the consent of the used is abuse (Lorde 59). In addition to Lorde’s statement about the illegitimacy of second-hand eroticism, the Dworkin-Mackinnon ideology surround pornography suggests that women are inherently incapable of “giving truly voluntary, informed consent to pose for sexually explicit pictures” (Strossin 1137) because of the nature of our patriarchal society. But this ideology epitomizes the patronizing misogyny that it seeks to critique, stripping women of the potential to desire to engage in such actions involving and exposing their sexuality.  Bettie Page and her brand of erotic films (bondage), most often directed by film maker Irving Klaw, exemplify eroticism that is intended to be felt second hand, (similarly to pornography). 
 
While Lorde’s claim that eroticism cannot be felt second-hand, and the Dworkin-Mackinnon ideology claim that women inherently cannot consent to post explicitly would label Bettie Page’s work in Klaw’s Bondage films as degrading abuse, Page’s performance of bondage and masochism exposes a sexuality that challenges the policing of women’s sexual and erotic potential.  Similarly, Nadine Strossin articulates that the “subversive quality of “pornography” challenges the entire status quo, including social structures that inhibit women’s freedom” (Strossin 1133).  Bettie Page’s bondage films portray women, including her, wearing highly sexualized outfits, (leather and lacey undergarments, high heels, and stockings).  They tie each other up, spank each other, trap each other, roll around and fight on the floor.  These violent yet sexual acts performed for the camera may appear to be degrading to some.  But as Strossin explains, what “one woman views as misogynistic may be viewed by another as reaffirming her desires and her equality” (1130).  Denying Page’s pleasure in her bondage performance, and denying that women could be empowered by this portrayal of dominance and sexuality, limits the extent of women’s desires.  The sexual dominance that Page’s performance exhibits broadens the scope of female sexuality to the public eye.

Watch an Irving Klaw bondage short featuring Bettie Page (circa 1955).

Watch a Bettie Page catfight.

 
 

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