The Frustrated Arab: Amnesty International: NATO, “Keep The Progress Going”

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Andrea Plaid: Who would like to run down what Dita Von Teese did? (Don’t everyone jump in at once…;-D)

Chicava HoneyChild: I first noticed the piece a few summers ago when Dita was promoting Cointreau. There’s a tease of it on YouTube. When I saw it I thought, “No one’s going to say a word about this, huh?” She’s above the burlesque community, if you will. It hasn’t been run very much in America, I don’t think. When I saw I considered the difference between being an artist vs. an entertainer or, more accurately, [in your approach] are you an image-maker or a meaning-maker. A meaning-maker does research to gather information and develop an understanding of the subject. The resulting imaging is the fruit of that investigation. Creating from an image maker’s approach places greater importance on the sensational than origin and implications.

Shanghai Pearl: I first noticed it then, also. I saw some photos and video and, yes, I had some unsettling feelings about it then as well, especially since there are so many ongoing conversations about cultural appropriation in the burlesque community. But I made the decision to stay pretty quiet about it publicly because I had not had a chance to see it in person. And then I got to see it…

Then there was a lot of press about it debuting in London for a reported six figures and I thought “Does anyone else think it’s weird that this white woman is being paid a large sum of money to perform this Opium Den act in the very country that perpetrated the vicious Opium Wars?”

Dita Von Teese created an act called Opium Den that is the finale to her show Strip Strip Hooray, the act uses negative two dimensional stereotypes of Asian Women to invoke sex. The act has a mash up of many Asian cultures in the set, music, costume, and movement. Every ‘Sexy Asian Lady’ stereotype (China Doll, Geisha Girl, Dragon Lady) makes an appearance. The music incorporates gongs, koto, and a loop of the stereotypical ‘something or someone Chinese (or more generally Asian) is happening’ riff.

AP: I didn’t want to go there about the “Opium Den” title, but yeah, I thought the same thing when I saw the title. And I couldn’t help but think, “I smell a shitshow.” The photos just proved what I thought…and now, with your synopsis of the show, Shanghai…SMDH.

CHC: The mashup of [distinct] cultures is problematic for me [sic] in art and pop culture throughout America and the world, [that] cherry-picking the bits you are interested in the image of and placing it together. A great example is the American Tribal Bellydance, pulling on Afghan, African, Indian, Arabic cultures, and even hip-hop. I appreciate the dance but, at a given point, it’s just a beautiful dance and no longer bellydance. Bellydance is a culturally specific form.

AP: The assumption is people are too ignorant to know better…or at least bust out a book, get their hands on some recordings, or otherwise get some information that offers some nuance. It all becomes this lump of what the late Edward Said called “Orientalism.” And that’s what Von Teese, to me, is perpetuating, too, with this “Opium Den” fooliganery.

CHC: In my opinion it is Orientalism, and by employing it she harkens back to the movements of the 1800s and 1900s when all things Oriental were vogue. It appeals to the good ole days much like the re-appearence of blackface that’s been popping up in culture on Broadway and in the art scene. No matter the artist’s objective that messaging can’t be avoided.

ExHOTic Other: …also the connection of what Said talked about with the idea of Orientalism, is this western obsession with the other–the “East,” the “Orient”–coupled with wanting to conquer and control this thing–and this is also the time 1850s-1970s when there are explicit laws in the US targeting Asian people. The first ever anti-immigrant law in the US of “undesirable” immigrants for coming in is actually against Asian women: The Page Act 1875, who were [assumed by lawmakers] to come [to the US} and become sex workers. [And] actual wars being fought against Asian countries.

So, while in media and art [content makers] have people dressing in yellowface and making fun of and dehumanizing Asian people–creating, as Shanghai Pearl talks about, these two-dimensional beings–the actual effects of this behavior is it allows for actual real-life effects of laws being passed and wars to be waged against Asian people and Asian countries….

[A]ll trying to say that art has actual effects on society: it did when yellowface was popular back in the day, and it continues to have real life effects today in a climate where there’s so much anti-immigrant sentiment and laws continue to be passed.

SP: I read that she smoked opium in her research for the act, so I would be surprised if the Opium Wars did not turn up in her research.

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