It's a New Dawn, It's a New Day, It's a New Life...

Ooo-wee, I'm on fire!! Two posts in one week? I told y'all the Burly Blog is back!

(Happy Halloween, brought to you by this creepy hot-like-fiyah scene from US.)

Earlier this week, I talked about my burlesque beginnings and how it was rooted in self-respect and self-love and blah blah blah.

Well, I don't want to talk about that today. Today, I want to talk about MONEY.

When I first started, gaining money from burlesque was the last thing I ever thought about. I wanted to perform, get stage time, learn costuming basics, etc. -- to be honest, performing felt like a privilege! I felt lucky to be there and even when I didn't get paid (yep, I have performed for $0.00 since before) I still kept my head down (or was it up? sometimes I can't tell which is which) and performed my best anyway.

Four years later, and I can unequivocally and respectfully say, from the bottom of my heart and with my whole chest, F********************CK THAT SH*T. I will never perform for free again in my life. Peep the title? It's a new life for me, and I'm feeling really good about it!!

There are many reasons why I will never work for free again in my life, the first of which being that it's my body and I do what I want with my body. If I charge, then I charge. No one can demand access to my body on their terms. If I tell you that you have to pay me to see me dance and perform striptease, then that's exactly what I mean: pay to see a performance, support me in other ways, or please kindly don't message me or talk to me. Nobody in this universe is entitled to my body, period.

Another reason is that burlesque is hard work and it takes a lot of time to develop an act. The more years I put into this art form, the more challenging it becomes. When I first started, the hills I had to climb to be a professional were overwhelming but very basic: learn make-up staples (Ruby Woo for the win), learn wig styles that suit my face, learn a bit of theater lingo here and there. Now that my burlesque career is 4 years old, it's a bit more expensive: learn feather and fan work ($$$), experiment with different shoe styles (boots, skates, Pleasers, $$), learn wig styling, costuming, etc. etc. And every performer reading this knows this isn't even an exhaustive list. Trust, it gets very, very expensive to up your game in burlesque.

So when people ask me, with their sly sh*t-eating grins and grubby little hands, to perform at their event for free and then get upset at me for telling them my rate (yes, this has happened before), I get a little offended. To put it lightly.

The good news is that there are plenty of people who respect burlesque performers and go out of their way to treat us fairly and pay us accordingly. And I notice that when I interact with these types of people, I ALWAYS go above and beyond because they truly deserve it! They are paying for a service and I always want to serve and deliver the way they expect me to. And hopefully I leave them wanting even more!!

Burlesque performers are worth their weight in gold, and more. We do physical, mental, and emotional labor as performers, and we deserve to be paid for what we do. ALL SEX/SEXY WORKERS DESERVE TO BE PAID exactly how much we charge, if not more. If you don't agree with this, please find the nearest exit and don't ask me to tell you where it is because THAT'S GONNA COST YOU AS WELL! Haha! :-p

With love and until next time,

Bebe