Abstract
In recent years, neo-burlesque performance has become increasingly part of mainstream popular culture. Though arguably kink has been an adjacent community and influential subculture on burlesque since the emergence of the neo movement in the 1990s, the increasing mainstreaming of burlesque in popular consciousness has continued to expand over the last decade. Both kink and burlesque share a strong sense of theatricality, but that does not mean what is being expressed through the embodied acts is inauthentic. In both subculture there exist stylistic elements that marry these practices together, including excessive presentations of gender and the unruly bodies which refuse to be contained. In examining stylistic and aesthetic similarities, power dynamics, and the role of character and gender presentation, this chapter draws parallels between these subcultures’ practices and how they interact in popular consciousness.
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Thorp, J. (2022). Costumes, Power, and Excess: The Kink of Neo-Burlesque. In: Clifford-Napoleone, A.R. (eds) Binding and Unbinding Kink. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06485-2_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06485-2_11
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