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Policing Muses:

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Lady Mekaella received a humanities certificates from both Harvard & The Smithsonian Institute, while topless with a bottle of wine and a cat in her lap. She's a traveling showgirl known as Florida's Naked Nerd.  She's now working on her second certification class for historians from Harvard via online classes during Covid19 shutdowns.

"What, Like It's Hard?" - Elle Woods

The Knees of Gaby Deslys!

5/29/2020

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Gaby Deslys was a  vaudeville performer and actress most popular in the 1910’s. Her French stage name is a contraction of Gabrielle of the Lillies. Her success in Europe lead to her making later $4,000 a week in the United States alone. But how she got to this success was not without scandal and men telling her what she could and could not do with her body and her visibility onstage. Born in France in the 1881, She made her debut onstage 9 October 1902 as a chorus girl in Y a des Surprises. She quickly rose up into celebrity. Gaby left Paris in August of 1906 to fulfill a three-month contract with the Gaiety Theatre, after catching they eyes of George Grossmith, Jr. and, more importantly, his friend George Edwardes, who owned the Gaiety and scooped her up as talent for his venue as well as his own personal interests. Her rise to stardom had her gracing the stages of the Shubert Theatre in America & even back again to Paris for The Moulin Rouge. But imagine doing your job, being a woman in showbusiness, just doing your best in your career in Europe, paying your bills and creating art, and then meet the eras all white male equivalent of  the Westboro protestors picket lining your shows, over the fact they could see your knees onstage. This is what happened to Gaby in 1913. Her life and shows were interrupted by a group of English clergymen protesting her performance at the Palace Theatre. So concerned about her knees, a representative of this group of priests & the Bishop of Kensington stomped into the offices of The Lord Chamberlain about the performance demanding the show close. “A La Carte” was such a scandal it was all the papers could talk about in November & October of 1913 for London. In fact, the same newspaper we read online in news apps today for political and social news, The Guardian, is the same newspaper that broke this story of riled up priests crying INDECENT over a showgirls knees. The production had already passed The Censor, a rigorous system that was in charge of what shows in Londons theatres could go onstage before the public IF they followed morality codes. The Manager of the Palace theatre at the time, Mr Alfred Butt (What a missed opportunity for a burlesque career with that name, sir!) claimed to the press that the production had already been going on for eight weeks straight without complaint. But this group of clergymen where determined to have it taken down and hold Gaby accountable for her visible knees and indecentness of the scene she performed. One reporter even gave us details of the scene in which Gaby powders her knees, as part of a story in a setting; “The vision of Mdile. Gaby Deslys in her dressing room was originally in the third scene”  as “Purely a piece of high spirited tomfoolery.” after weeks of performances the clergymen demanded the Lord chamberlain to remove their licence to operate, essentially shutting down their show, putting Gaby & the hundred or so people involved in the production out of work for the rest of the contracted season. The Lord Chamberlain sent a few representatives of his department to see the show and discuss it with those involved. Both Gaby & a reverend, A.J. Waldron where interviewed towards the end of the debate. Ever the clever girl and skilled actress, Gaby had found a way to appeal to the representative of her oppressors, Rev. Waldron. She met with him on October 23rd and talked to him personally, charming him around the fact that she was a good girl, and he hadn’t even seen her production. Mr. Waldron seemed delight and won over, stating that she even showed him a crucifix she wore around her neck telling him “I’m a good girl, i was brought up in a convent, The last thing I want to do is be inmodest.” and so when the Lord chamberlain declared on October 24th that “The Matter was Closes” Reverand Waldron was not mad about it, and let it be. WHile other clergymen seemed disgruntled to be beaten. But Gaby could resume her show after two months of scandal and dragged out stress of the situation. When Interviewed with the Press during this victory she said “My performance is not in the least suggestive. It is simply an irresponsible gambol- a little roguish romp.” Her parisian knees had a solid leg to stand on in this victory. 
But it wasn’t the last time what she wore got her in the press. In 1919, the famous artist Erté began work with Gaby on her costumes, including the Harem Pants. This eastern inspired look was for her appearance in the production of "Les Rois des Legendes." Women wearing pants was a upraising of eyebrows and scandal within itself, and her gold threaded versions where no exception. Both Gaby & Erté knew that this type of press resulted in ticket sales and fame that was more beneficial than career ending, they rode this out as well to much success. In fact, thanks to his costumer beginnings with the showgirl, Erté would later be called the father of the ‘Art Deco’ movement. He later became a huge feature in Harper's Bazaar & Vogue. Who knew little ruckus for womens agency could be so chic that you could have a career around it?
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For more information on showgirls bodies being scandalized, read Policing Muses, available in hardback and paperback and ebook the fall of 2020!
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Decolettes or Disgrace?

5/17/2020

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In 1913, Blossom Browning was arrested for wearing a skirt with a slit a few inches above the knee received a fine of $25 for indecent exposure. $25 in 1913 is worth $647.45 today. She had to have multiple female friends help pay her bail
In 1890 Cora Hayes was arrested for wearing a too low cut Decolette Dress, that's right, an EVENING GOWN, FORMAL WEAR, as indecent exposure & it cost her $10, so today $281.75.....When Sergeant Anthony Shilling still demanded she appear in court, as he "wanted the matter{the dress} to be tested" she politely declined by not showing up to have her time wasted. Good for her.

Good For Her Arrested Development GIF from Goodforher GIFs

I will be honouring these women today by wearing clothes with my knees visible and my cleavage well framed. What will you wear today that would get you arrested in Cora & Blossoms time? How will you honour them?
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Be apart of my last chapter!

5/16/2020

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My Last Chapter will be hitting very close to home for many of us: Modern censorship of our bodies on the internet and IRL in our work fields.
But I want your voice heard. I our want our statistics to be an accurate presentation of our reality.
Are you a Sex worker? Burlesque showgirl? Sex Educator? Erotic Writer, 18+ cosplayer? Stripper? webcammer? draw lewds/n00ds?ect ect
Have you been effected by Shadowbans/FOSTA?
For the very last bit of my research for Policing Muses, I'd like to get statistics and some experiences on the modern Minsky raid for the social media era of bodily artistic censorship: Shadow Banning & FOSTA/SESTA.
I have a survey so your voice is heard and preserved. It can be anonymous or by your stage name/ alias. I'd really appreciate making sure I accurately represent our struggles.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScFpQiq_BmXw7FhU4kpsnB3zUb7oMdXNydvhdcsVwjfsvIMcg/viewform
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Rosa, Poor Rosa.

5/11/2020

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Snippet from a chapter
"The hypocrisy here came at great costs to women alone, outside of jail time: the death of one's dignity, respectability, societal place and freedom in participating in the sartorial pleasures of art and fashion that men experienced. Throughout history we note over and over again that males and male presenting person's did not pay this price. And often a heartbreaking price paid was the passions or creative interest of a woman or her potential; 

The press in 1896 clamored around Rosa Blumenfeld as she was arrested at the request of her own father in a case of indecent exposure for merely posing nude for artists. It was her first time modeling. From the New York Journal to the Morning Herald of Kentucky Press described her looks, her fashions she wore in court, to describing her tears, her address was even listed. But nothing was said of the artists that had booked her and used her. They were not criticized nor described. She was only 19 or 20(research results were inconsistent.) One reporter wrote Rosa was “a rather pretty girl with a graceful figure” but nothing about her father or the artists involved. Reported claimed the art made of her that she posed for “TOO inappropriate to describe” thus causing more sense of shame around such an trivial thing we look at today as posing for artists. With tears in her eyes reporters quoted her telling the court “Had I known that I was doing such a horrible thing when i posed...I should have never had done so”
When the press demanded to know if she would model again, it’s recorded that she hung her head and hesitated. When she raised her head she said “That is a question I can not answer. I have already received many letters from artists in this city, New York, and nearby towns, to pose. But all of these letters I have destroyed so you see it is very likely that I may never do so again.” This must have been devastating. Your first time posing, feeling confident, contributing to art before the turn of the century, full of hope and excitement. Only to be arrested at the demand of your own father, harassed by the press, and then destroy the letters that could have meant a successful career of bookings. I imagine her there at night, burning the letters to keep from her father and his misogynistic rage, tears in her eyes. A muse pulled from the sky once she learned she had wings.
And if this had been a predatory situation, male artists praying upon unsuspecting and inexperienced young women wanting to be models, then this was just another case of the age old victim shaming. Holding her accountable for the sins of men who put themselves in positions of authority. With no safety nor solace within her own family, while her father punished her for the sake of preserving his name.

Another factor is to take into account of antisemitism. One article was even as bold to describe her clothes as “costly” in a negative tone in the same breath as saying she was of Hebrew heritage. 
Upon finding these articles I was filled with such a boiling sense of injustice and relatability i had nearly thrown my laptop across the room. Once again we were denied the potential of art and the potential of this young woman as a form of artist herself, even as a model, because of the ideals of “Morality” around womens bodies. We gaze at art in museums all day long, but what of the anonymous women who posed for them and what did they experience in exchange? 

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To read and learn more then buy a copy of "Policing Muses" available this fall!
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