Cruelty Free Burlesque (Patreon)

Thinking about reworking Judith, I thought I could maybe just have iridescent blue underwear, so that I'm stripping from something "wrong" to something that fits more. I started planning out my usual process; look for cheap underwear in the neighborhood stores, browse through corset-story.com for something I can modify...But then the guilt started. Didn't I have enough corsets and underwear? And wasn't buying super cheap stuff just *ensuring* that I was supporting slave labor? Yes and Yes, unfortunately.

In an online discussion of fur, a burlesque performer said she would never wear fur and all of her clothes were "cruelty free." That stuck in my craw for two reasons. 1: Plastic (aka faux fur, faux leather, etc) is WAY worse for the environment and animals than actual fur. And 2: No they fucking aren't.

The way our fashion economy is set up, it's virtually impossible to buy  new clothing that hasn't inflicted some cruelty on someone. Sewing is difficult, painful, dangerous, bad for you, and the people who make mass produced clothes are paid almost nothing. They're people in extremely poor countries, or prisoners, or both. Even if you  buy fabric and make it yourself, well, who made the fabric? How were the  materials harvested or processed?  How much fossil fuel was burned transporting that shit? Somewhere in that chain damage was done to the  environment and someone was exploited. Unless you raised and sheared a sheep, carded, spun and wove the wool, dyed it with natural dyes, and sewed the garment yourself. Oh, but wool is "cruel" because it comes from an animal.

Maybe the phrase "cruelty free" could be re-examined.

Unfortunately, this is not unique to fashion. This is true of about anything you buy new. I'm not saying nobody should ever buy anything new again. I just think that people should  acknowledge that their purchases wouldn't exist without without some  level of human misery. In the same way meat eaters should acknowledge that an animal died so they could eat it. People should spend their money mindfully when they can. If they're aware of these things, then they can take steps to lower their "cruelty footprint" if you will. Calling your lifestyle cruelty free because you don't use animal products erases the human suffering that goes into creating the world we live in.

Since I'm being more mindful about the gigs I take and the acts I do, I asked myself if I could make my burlesque truly cruelty free. I'm sure the answer is no, but I'm interested in the challenge. I've been trying to keep my cruelty footprint down by buying second hand as much as possible, why not extend that to everything that goes into my act? How much of an act can I make without buying anything new? I have a pretty huge stash of fabric, clothing, and sparkly things, so probably a lot. How much would I need to compromise and would it effect the quality of the costume? How much thrift store shopping would I have to do? How many shiny things would I need to paint with nail polish to get them the *right* color? If I get edible glitter so I stop polluting the earth with microplastics does that break the rule because I'm buying something new?

It's an intriguing idea.