Post by Subspace on Feb 7, 2007 11:48:48 GMT -5
WARNING: Do NOT Read if you are Easily Offended or Under 13. The following material is not adult material, erotica, or pornography by any means, but does contain some material that might be offensive or distasteful to some.
NOTE: Patterson: If this post is not acceptable under board rules, I apologize and ask that you please remove it. It is not my intention to post unacceptable content, so if this is unacceptable, please delete the thread, and let me know via PM if you have any specific concerns.
Guess what I found in the JSTOR scientific research paper archive? An interesting article published in the journal The Drama Review, volume 35, number 1, Spring 1991. It was written by a Morris Meyer and was titled:
I DREAM OF JEANNIE - TRANSSEXUAL STRIPTEASE AS SCIENTIFIC DISPLAY
Below is an excerpt of the article:
The performer's name is Jeannie. She is an exotic dancer, a striptease artist. She is also a transsexual, the recipient of a sex-change surgical operation.
I first saw her perform in 1988 when I began an ethnographic study of female impersonators. The subjects of the fieldwork were the transvestite performers of the Holly Brown Show, an ongoing drag revue staged weekly at the La Cage niteclub in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Several times a year Jeannie performs as a solo guest artist in the revue.
I was immediately drawn to her biological realism, which contrasted sharply with the transvestites whose gender illusions depended on the manipulation of costume and makeup. Jeannie's art was marked by a process of costume reduction that terminated in a theatrical display of her nude body, something the other performers could not duplicate.
Further comparison, primarily of characterization techniques, provided additional distinctions between Jeannie's striptease act and the work of the impersonators. Because a drag show act lasts only a few minutes, a broadly sketched character is generally established within the first few seconds. Though Jeannie's five-minute dance shared this feature with the other performances, she added an unusual twist. She established her character, ostensibly an impression of Barbara Eden, by sound cues preceding her entrance but terminated the impression only one minute into the act, and spent the remaining time out of character. The other drag performers I have seen use sustained portrayals of mass culture media stars as binding referents. By discarding this convention in mid-performance, Jeannie produced an uncommon and unsettling effect. This well-defined rupture, or discontinuity, provided a starting point for decoding her dance.
...
It was Sunday night at La Cage. ... The lights went slowly to black, signaling the start of another act. Out of the darkness came the theme song from the television sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. ... The only set piece visible onstage when the lights came up was a four-foot-high genie bottle. That, and the cloud of smoke that issued from offstage, marked the entrance of what could only be an impression of Barbara Eden in her role as Jeannie. No sooner were the signals received, than a beautiful impersonator emerged from the smoke, a very believable likeness of the ... blonde star.
/end excerpt
Personally I felt it was rather... disturbing that IDOJ was used in such a manner... I do suppose though that it could be considered... an honor? ... that IDOJ was popular enough to be used in such a manner.
Any thoughts?
NOTE: Patterson: If this post is not acceptable under board rules, I apologize and ask that you please remove it. It is not my intention to post unacceptable content, so if this is unacceptable, please delete the thread, and let me know via PM if you have any specific concerns.
Guess what I found in the JSTOR scientific research paper archive? An interesting article published in the journal The Drama Review, volume 35, number 1, Spring 1991. It was written by a Morris Meyer and was titled:
I DREAM OF JEANNIE - TRANSSEXUAL STRIPTEASE AS SCIENTIFIC DISPLAY
Below is an excerpt of the article:
The performer's name is Jeannie. She is an exotic dancer, a striptease artist. She is also a transsexual, the recipient of a sex-change surgical operation.
I first saw her perform in 1988 when I began an ethnographic study of female impersonators. The subjects of the fieldwork were the transvestite performers of the Holly Brown Show, an ongoing drag revue staged weekly at the La Cage niteclub in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Several times a year Jeannie performs as a solo guest artist in the revue.
I was immediately drawn to her biological realism, which contrasted sharply with the transvestites whose gender illusions depended on the manipulation of costume and makeup. Jeannie's art was marked by a process of costume reduction that terminated in a theatrical display of her nude body, something the other performers could not duplicate.
Further comparison, primarily of characterization techniques, provided additional distinctions between Jeannie's striptease act and the work of the impersonators. Because a drag show act lasts only a few minutes, a broadly sketched character is generally established within the first few seconds. Though Jeannie's five-minute dance shared this feature with the other performances, she added an unusual twist. She established her character, ostensibly an impression of Barbara Eden, by sound cues preceding her entrance but terminated the impression only one minute into the act, and spent the remaining time out of character. The other drag performers I have seen use sustained portrayals of mass culture media stars as binding referents. By discarding this convention in mid-performance, Jeannie produced an uncommon and unsettling effect. This well-defined rupture, or discontinuity, provided a starting point for decoding her dance.
...
It was Sunday night at La Cage. ... The lights went slowly to black, signaling the start of another act. Out of the darkness came the theme song from the television sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. ... The only set piece visible onstage when the lights came up was a four-foot-high genie bottle. That, and the cloud of smoke that issued from offstage, marked the entrance of what could only be an impression of Barbara Eden in her role as Jeannie. No sooner were the signals received, than a beautiful impersonator emerged from the smoke, a very believable likeness of the ... blonde star.
/end excerpt
Personally I felt it was rather... disturbing that IDOJ was used in such a manner... I do suppose though that it could be considered... an honor? ... that IDOJ was popular enough to be used in such a manner.
Any thoughts?
