Burlesque star, activist and historian Jo Weldon was an adolescent queer with “Bible thumping” parents. At the time of her birth, Gypsy was a top earning film; David Rose’s instrumental “The Stripper” was the #1 single; prostitutes were cultural heroines: Actress Nancy Kwan appeared on the cover of Life Magazine in The World of Suzie Wong; Audrey Hepburn played Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s -“If you don’t think she was a prostitute, read the book,” Weldon remarks; Jane Fonda presented a contemporary call girl in Klute. They were all Sex Workers, defined as: prostitutes, strippers, dominatrix, or porn actresses/ models i.e. “someone who works in the industry.”
Jo Weldon then and now
During her teenage years, magazines were filled with body conscious clothing. Weldon was drawn to punk: “I was really into the combination of stockings and garters with really scary hair and make-up.” She found “her people” in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Determined to get to New York, the attractive young woman took her first sex job as a dancer in order to earn enough money. She learned to put men off with some clever lines.
Costumes had to be custom made in those days. Weldon shows us the briefest covering. Later we see a 1953 magazine indicating what each state allowed a stripper to wear. How do they decide!? A young centerfold, she unwittingly signed a general release and ended up in sex advertisements for decades. We’re told this with a smile and shrug.
Sex workers, have, of course, been around since the beginning of time. Weldon’s perspective on fashion in the business is iconoclastic, fascinating, and personal. She begins with history. Proverbs 7:10: And behold, the woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. “It doesn’t tell us what the whore was wearing,” she notes. We’re shown an art print of The Whore of Babylon (The Book of Revelation) who wears a gown and extravagant jewelry.
The illustration of a 16th Century Venetian courtesan reveals an opulently dressed woman with horns. Wives stayed inside, so tourists only saw courtesans. They were educated, skilled in the art of conversation, and a huge influence on fashion. We observe a painting of a Japanese prostitute and a photograph from India, where courtesans were “arbiters of etiquette.” Visuals are well selected, if pointedly all on the upside of the business.
Unabashedly speaking about her breast implants (they look terrific) she even passes a tray of silicone her size so the audience can feel them. The artist is candid about her age – sixty. “I know I’m supposed to make a joke about looking better 30 pounds ago…!” She owns what she looks like and has enjoyed overlapping careers as a sex worker that encompass every aspect previously listed. “Like the Velveteen Rabbit, I loved it so much, it became real.”
Jo Weldon co-created The Sex Workers Social Media Watch. “I thought anti-feminists just needed to hear our side.” Sick of being told they’d be safer if they didn’t dress in certain ways, women demonstrated in Slut Walks all over the country. A photo of an exhibition of clothes worn by rape victims shows casual and completely covered outfits. Model Pat Cleveland scantily costumed as Josephine Baker, Madonna’s “The Girlie Show” tour, and burlesque queen Dita Von Teese are cited with their well known fashion designers.
Some of the lecture uses terms I can’t publish on the net. Some of what Weldon chose to do may shock. In context, nothing offends. Jo Weldon is academically smart (a degree in business administration, graduate work in media ethics), street smart, and honest. She’s co-executive director of education at the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, Nevada and founder, in 2003, of The New York School of Burlesque. Weldon is also author The Burlesque Handbook (HarperCollins/ItBooks 2010), developed from class handouts and from a 50-page ebook she produced covering technique and performance.
This is an intriguing and entertaining evening.
What I Wore to Work – An Illustrated Memoir of Dressing to Undress
Written and Performed by Jo Weldon
January 12, February 23, March 14, 2024 at 7 p.m.
The Laurie Beechman Theater
Inside West Bank Cafe
407 West 42nd Street — at Ninth Avenue
Tickets
