Performance ---day 3 and 4

i need to finish my thoughts regarding day 3:
i went home and looked at more still life paintings by the dutch and continued to read about the symbolism. i thought about symbolism and performance with regards to the strip club industry. In her book, Gender Trouble, Judith Butler describes gender as a performance (a subject ive worked with before) or style or strategy. Gender is not something were given. Gender doesnt have a fixed meaning. It isnt preexisting thing that determines a persons identity. Gender is fantasy. We adopt it and perform it. Its a set of practices that we collectively construct. We get so good at performing it that it seems like there is no performance at all.
"Stripping is about the provision of a fantasy of female gender. In this fantasy, womanhood in envisioned as hyper-feminine, hyper-sexualized and completely male-focused."
"Drawing on Butlers work, I would go so far as to say that no one is more clearly aware than the stripper that femininity is an act, a performance, and a fantasy. If there is anyone who knows that gender is a performance, it is precisely the stripper, especially the lesbian stripper who acts out heterosexual hyper-femininity for her clients.
Gender is literally something that the dancer creates and puts on with every shift. She dons it corporeally with her layers-scanty as they may be- of glitter body lotion, makeup, hair gel, perfume, costume and shoes"
Strippers perform a very "stock" feminine roll. pretty. thin. glitter. makeup. white. tall. you get the idea. They take this stereotypical "collective construct" of gender and push it to the max and perform it.
I feel like i need to interject this personal note: i DO NOT believe in the pink=girl=vagina, blue=boy=penis surface (and far to simple) constructs of gender that popular culture have made. i dont buy it, i think its bullshit. Unfortunately, we live in a world the seems to suggest the opposite hence the term, popular.
That being said: with ideas of construction and rehersal in mind, i made a still life, which i videotaped. it looks like a photo. i made this still life with the dutch masters in mind, but with a twist. the still life consists of makeup (women MUST wear makeup! note my sarcasm). lots of makeup. and razors used for shaving (women MUST shave....note my sarcasm). and instruments used for pulling, plucking, curling our skin and hair into unnatural positions. i included many different types of powders and liquids used for covering up that which makes us individual (moles, freckles, scars, zits, bruses), because as dancers, we are not individuals. i included pills used for pepping us up, because we need to be peppy (again, the sarcasm). i threw in objects used to absorb our menstrual blood because no one wants to be disgusted or bothered by the idea of a naturally occurring event. i included paint used to cover our fingers and toes because "thats what girls do".
i made a still life out of many of the objects that we use to construct and rehearse (and therefore perform) this idea of the hyper feminine and hyper sexualized. This is an image of some ingredients used to construct a fantasy. I, personally, critique these fixed ideas of gender. I think there is trouble in this because our society seems to punish those who operate outside of these parameters.
In my opinion, the stripper is a parody of femininity.
A fantasy.
A construct.
Hyper-everything.
"Fantasy is a powerful, yet misunderstood category."

Day 4---
im thinking about act/action today with regards to performance. i have 15 minutes of footage from maymont. i have lots and lots of butterflies flying (dancing) around flowers and a peacock with its feathers folded, not performing, but rather, running away from my camera because i was chasing it.....i really wanted the shot. the butterfly is symbolic of transformation and time, but also joy and lightness.
for me, the butterfly symbolizes the transformation of the self into the performance. the life-span of a butterfly is very short (one month or so) and thus, suggests brevity and immediacy, such as the act of dancing (stripping); not only the shortness of the act of the stage set (10-20 minutes) but also the supposed time we are supposed to spend locked in the industry.
the video footage looks like theyre dancing (i know, i know, this is so whimsical i feel like im going to puke as well). they fly around, very carefree. although this comes naturally to the butterfly, it does not come naturally to the dancer, however, it is what the dancer projects. ease and carefree is part of the act.
is this cliché? it sounds cliché now that im saying it.
opposing the idea of the butterfly's brevity and immediacy, the peacock is a symbol of immortality (in christianity). it also is a symbol of wisdom, and incorruptibility......the footage is of the peacock running away and avoiding me. this speaks volumes. i thought that the peacock and the butterfly worked well together and itll be interesting to see what kind of piece comes out of that. i had also originally chosen the peacock for personal reasons....research and symbolism aside, i associate the peacock with ideas of over the top, ornate performance, specifically when they have their feathers fluffed up. this peacock was tucked away and wanted to be by itself........suggesting the opposite of the over the top ornate performance...in my head this is in contrast to the butterfly.