[London, November 25. Image via Getty]

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 25: A student takes part in a protest organised by the 'Stop the War Coalition', demanding that UK troops be withdrawn from Afghanistan, in Parliament Square on November 25, 2009 in London, England. The protesters staged a 'die-in' in front of the Houses of Parliament before demonstrating at the gates of Downing Street for the immediate return of combat forces from Afghanistan. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

[London, November 20. Image via Getty]

Hula hoop artist 'Marawa' performs during a photocall to promote the 'La Clique' Cabaret in London, on November 20, 2009. The show is a mixture of cabaret, burlesque, circus and variety and runs in London, from November 20 until January 17, 2010. AFP PHOTO/Leon Neal (Photo credit should read LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images)

[London, November 17. Image via Getty]

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 17: Royal Ballet dancer Steven McRae is made up as the Devil for a performance at a service to dedicate a memorial to the Founders of The Royal Ballet at Westminster Abbey on November 17, 2009 in London. Earlier a Tablet to the Founders of The Royal Ballet was unveiled at Poet's Corner in the Abbey. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

[London, November 11. Image via Getty]

A woman wearing 3D glasses during a screening of the preview screening of 'The Queen In 3D' at the Channel 4 studios in Central London on November 11, 2009. AFP PHOTO/Ben Stansall (Photo credit should read BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images)

[London, November 11. Image via Getty]

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 11: (UK TABLOID NEWSPAPERS OUT) Fans attend The Twilight Saga: New Moon - UK fan event at Battersea Evolution on November 10, 2009 in London, England. (Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

[London, November 3. Image via Getty]

LONDON - NOVEMBER 3: The cast of 'Hairspray' perform before the Christmas lights are turned on at St Paul's Cathedral on November 3, 2009 in London, England. (Photo by Samir Hussein/Getty Images)

[London, November 2. Image via Getty]

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 02: A girl takes a picture of a window display at Selfridges department store on Oxford Street on November 2, 2009 in London, England. Figures released today by consumer research firm Mintel, suggest that shoppers expect to spend around the same this Christmas as last with consumer confidence rising to it's highest levels in 18 months according to research by the British Retail Consortium. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

[London, November 2. Image via Getty]

A dancer from the Rambert Dance Company performs 'The Comedy of Change' during a press preview at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in central London, on November 2, 2009. The Rambert Dance Company will perform at the Sadler's Wells Theatre from 3 to 7 November. AFP PHOTO/Shaun Curry (Photo credit should read SHAUN CURRY/AFP/Getty Images)

[London, October 28. Image via Getty]

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 28: A child runs through fallen leaves in Hyde Park on October 28, 2009 in London, England. The week has seen un seasonably warm Autumn weather, with temperatures around 19 degrees ranging across much of the country, and is expected to continue into the weekend. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

[London, October 14. Image via Getty]

A woman fits herself into a small gap as she and other performers from an outdoor movement entitled 'Willi Dorner's Bodies in Urban Spaces' make 'body sculptures' in central London, on October 14, 2009. Austrian artist Willi Dorner aims to guide volunteers on a run throughout central London for three days from October 16th, where they will be invited to take part in 'body sculptures.' AFP PHOTO/Leon Neal (Photo credit should read Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)

• Oy. Vey. When Mark Fast chose to use three plus-size models in his Friday show, one staffer allegedly quit in protest and the stylist was so abusive to the models that she was fired; a Telegraph stylist stepped in. [Fashionista]

• And it gets worse! Because some claimed that "the larger models were in need of supportive underwear beneath the tight dresses." [Guardian]
• Ashley Dupre - otherwise known as the hooker who brought down New York governor Eliot Spitzer - was not welcome at the Tommy Hilfiger store opening. [NY Post]
• Gisele is getting her helicopter pilot's license. [TMZ]
• She's also been named a United Nations Environment Programme Ambassador. Maybe that's why she needs the license? [New York]
• And she's taking on the Brazilian government over Amazon deforestation! [AP]
• Agyness Deyn is reportedly back on with Albert Hammond, Jr. Does this count as fashion news? [Daily Express]
• Pringle of Scotland is remaking its trad tweeds image in time for London Fashion week. [Independent]
• Burberry's pinning its economic hopes on Spring 2010, premiering tonight in London. [TimesUK]
• A good sign: Mary-Kate and Ashley will reportedly be at the show. [Sassybella]
• Celebrating a quarter century, London Fashion Week doesn't feel a day over 24: "London fashion has been iconoclastic and edgy for a quarter of a century, and the shows on the runways - from wacky 1980s revivals to whimsical romance - are bringing a gust of energy to a chastened fashion world." [NYT]
• La Wintour agrees: "I love the spirit of London, it is such a place for original talent. I love the way they can makes clothes out of nothing, conjure up an atmosphere out of nothing. It's very special." [Telegraph]
• Who needs nothing when you've got Naomi Campbell? "The supermodel took the Issa Spring/Summer 2010 show by storm, revealing the same flawless figure she debuted 20 years ago." [Daily Mail]
• The word on Jimmy Choo for H&M: it's ok. [Racked]
• Speaking of "democratic" collabs, Ruffian is designing for Anthropologie. [WWD]
• Norma Kamali does them one better: she's designing for Wal-Mart. And eBay. On an iPhone. [WWD]
• Which is nice for eBay, because they were just fined 80,000 euros for ripping off LVMH. [Reuters]
• LVMH can use the money, because they may be investing in fashion It girls Rodarte. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Donna Karan is launching her own line of Spanx. Except they're not called Spanx, they're called Smoothies. [WWD]
• Also in packaging news: Brian Reyes is designing condom wrappers, the proceeds of which go towards Planned Parenthood. [Sassybella]
• This is clearly going to sell out instantly. "The YSL Edition New Vintage collection will comprise a numbered range of archival styles in various fabrics from the Paris firm's inventory." Okay, probably not to us. [WWD]
• DVF talks about her husband's sexuality, which we thought was acknowledged to be gay, but whatever. "He doesn't know why (he never dated women.) He was very held and reserved. And with me it's like, shumm! [She mimes a door bursting open.] So I was flattered." [TimesUK]
• Are we ready for The Real Kate Moss? Apparently a new documentary on her friend, celeb stylist James Brown (not the dead one) will show us "how funny and warm and caring she is." [WWD]
• Twiggy: "I'm careful what I eat now as I'm older but I love food and I love cooking. I've definitely changed shape...When I was younger I weighed six and a half stone but ate like a horse. I'm now eight and a half stone and at last I have boobs – I never had those in the Sixties." [Daily Express]

[London, September 18. Image via Getty.]

LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 18: A model prepares backstage before the Emilio De La Morena fashion show at the BFC tent at Somerset House on September 18, 2009 in London, England. (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

[London, September 1. Image via Getty]

LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 01: Evacuee Margaret Taylor displays her name label before a Commemorative Service at St Paul's Cathedral on September 1, 2009 in London, England. Operation Pied Piper evacuated 1.5 million people, mostly children, on the 1st September 1939 to save the population from German bombing during World War Two. The children were moved to rural areas where they stayed with local families. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

[London, August 26. Image via Getty]

Protesters arrive at their week-long Climate Camp on Blackheath, in south London, on August 26, 2009. Around 1,000 activists descended Wednesday on a stretch of open land in London after the location of the week-long Climate Camp was finally revealed. Protesters arrived from several areas of the capital to Blackheath in south east London, setting up the camp on a hill overlooking Docklands and Canary Wharf. AFP PHOTO/Leon Neal (Photo credit should read Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)

[London, August 26. Image via Getty]

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 26: A woman brushes her hair from her eye at Climate Camp on Black Heath on August 26, 2009 in London, England. Protesters are due to occupy an area of London for a week long campaign to highlight climate change and to lobby for Government action ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

[London, June 26. Image via Getty]

LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 26: A young girl cries next to a poster for 'Thriller Live' a musical featuring the songs of Michael Jackson in front of the Lyric Theatre on June 26, 2009 in London, England. Singer Michael Jackson died last night after suffering a heart attack at home in Beverly Hills. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

[London, May 22. Image via Getty]

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 22: Two women recline in deckchairs as they enjoy good weather in St James' Park on May 22, 2009 in London, England. Warm weather is forecast for much of Britain throughout forthcoming the bank holiday weekend. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

As we mentioned last week, burlesque has been in the news lately, since a London council classified a hipster burlesque show as "adult entertainment," tantamount to lap-dancing. To those of us who've watched the rise of neo-burlesque as an act of self-described performance art and subversive empowerment - and its acceptance as a standard part of any urban gym's fitness menu -such a ham-handed move seems laughable. But in an essay in the Guardian, one young woman, Laurie Penny (who, at least, must have had her choice of stage names. We'd have gone with 'Penny Dreadful' like cheap Victorian fiction) claims that the reality of working as a burlesque dancer was, for her, anything but subversive - and that the business now is not what the 90's revival had in mind.

Says she,

Polestars, one of the largest ­companies to run these classes, says they offer "a chance for the modern-day woman to learn the old art of seduction and improve your body image ... to release your inner minx and use your femininity in saucy ­burlesque style!"...Burlesque shouldn't have anything to do with your inner minx. Done properly it should be uncomfortable to watch – even terrifying. It certainly shouldn't be about ­reproducing gender norms, with women performing ­sexually, and submissively, for an audience. However, as my troupe became more successful, the managers ditched our most subversive acts. First to go were the cross-dressing, my favourite political sketch, and the reverse striptease (where a young woman ripped the clothes off a male plant in the audience). What was left was ­threadbare.

It's hard to know if this is more characteristic of the author's employer than of the industry as a whole - I know several friends who perform in genuinely subversive acts (granted, primarily for an LBGT audience) and enjoy it tremendously. But Penny's next point is truly interesting:

I began to realise that what really differ­entiated my act from that of your average stripper wasn't the performance, or the ­costumes, but simply class. Like the ­majority of women who choose to get involved with burlesque, our troupe was made up of middle-class girls, with the act offering us an opportunity to indulge in raunchy exhibitionism without feeling "cheap" (at least initially).

Stripping is conflated in the public imagination with desperation: no one's doing it because it's her life's dream. Doing burlesque, on the other hand, is all about fantasy fulfillment, be it of empowerment, of old-fashioned glamor, of owning one's sexuality in a controlled environment. When we hear lady Gaga worked at New York's burlesque center the Slipper Room, it enhances her image as a provocateur. If it had been Scores, we'd hardly feel the same way. And of course, the intention, the control the environment, do change everything - they make it performance art. But is the difference in the intention, or in the perception? Or does it just come down to class? Can burlesque only qualify as subversive while it's a sideline, a choice - and if so, is the much-vaunted issue of "control" simply one of economics?

Says Penny, "the sexual tease, in all its forms, is a game that girls are taught to play from early ­adolescence, and for many of us it is the first real power we know." But if she's right, burlesque touches on an equally hard reality - that of class and money.
Burlesque laid bare [Guardian]

Earlier: Burlesque Crackdown: Expression Of New Puritanism?

• Men's Health and Women's Health magazines have named Salt Lake City the healthiest city for women. • Operation Santa was (perhaps temporarily) shut down after a registered sex offender in Washington tried to partake in the "adopting" of Santa letters. • Mice revenge! A fire at a Canadian Humane Society that killed two kitties may have been caused by mice chewing on electrical wires. • Watch out "friends:" a CA Supreme Court ruled that a paralyzed woman can sue a buddy who helped pull the woman out of a car following an accident. • A Pennsylvania man was sentenced on Wednesday for calling a bomb threat on a high school to get his girlfriend out of class early. • The Pakistani government will commemorate the first anniversary of Benazir Bhutto's assassination with a limited 10-rupee coin. • Awesome: women who live in New York City live longer on average than New York men. • A woman in Boulder, Colorado who ran naked in the streets with a pumpkin on her head on Halloween escaped sex-offender status by accepting a plea deal on Thursday. • Heavy metal is making a quiet comeback in Egypt. • The Chessington Zoo in London had to issue an apology to guests after it fed its gorillas Brussels sprouts, which induce strong farts in the animals. • A new study reports that men who were sexually abused in childhood are ten times more likely to contemplate suicide. • Marie Douglas-David, a Swedish countess in the middle of divorce from United Technologies Chairman George David, claims she has $53,000 of weekly expenses (and this is after she has scaled back) that she wants her soon-to-be-ex-husband to cover. • Illinois officials discovered 69 rabbits in a one-bedroom apartment during a recent eviction. • In New York, a young store clerk returned a granny's discarded $1 million-winning lottery ticket after she asked him to throw it away. • A new study claims that the older a father is when his child is born, the more likely that child will have autism, lower IQs and/or poor social abilities. • A recent study says that dumber Scottish soldiers were more likely to survive WWII than their more intelligent counterparts. • The first British baby to be genetically screened and cleared from the breast cancer gene will be born next week. • A special online promotion from Sony BMG Music Entertainment allows users to sing a duet with Elvis. • For men who love literary ladies, poetry and garter belts there is now the Poetry Brothel in NYC. • Sam Davies, a British yachtswoman, left her solo round-the-world race to rescue a badly injured French competitor who was stuck at sea. • A man in China held his girlfriend out of a third-story window and then held her hostage at knifepoint until police overtook him. •