no, it's actually not that i have some kind of problem with nudity. almost nobody in this world has seen me naked, and there's almost nothing anybody could do to convince me to undress for them, but i would feel comfortable enough in a nudist colony, or on a nude beach or something, so long as they were matter of fact about it.

and, burlesque actually involves very little nudity, from what i understand about it. it's not about taking your clothes off, it's about keeping them on...

what actually bugs me about burlesque and stripping and other things of the sort is that it's about controlling people. i don't enjoy being manipulated like that, nor do i have any desire to manipulate others in that way. and, i'm not able to see past the basic monetary exchange and erect something exciting about it; i don't fantasize about being taken advantage of, and i'm not naive enough to suspend disbelief and forget it. even if there's not actual money involved, it's still about control, and it's consequently still gross. and, i don't think there's a way to really sanitize it and make it fun without removing it from the public arena.

some people are going to talk about female empowerment, but i think this is taking the wrong approach to equality. i mean, it's easy to understand why a capitalist society would want to focus more on empowering women than it does on emasculating men, sure. but, when your end point is the abolition of all hierarchy and exploitation, this is actually kind of a massive step backwards. two wrongs don't make a right, sort of thing.

like i say: i'm not going to go out and protest it or anything, but i don't want to be anywhere near it.