I went to see my friends perform last night. There are two or three shows a year and I always love seeing what they have come up with. We learn routines together, for group performances but at the shows individuals or cliques can come up with their own routines, as in not those which the headmistress has choreographed. I am happy to be a stage kitten but not a solo performer, not yet at least.
It’s not a matter of shyness as I don’t really get tat but just that I don’t have the time to think of the song, the movements to go with it, the persona, the costume, the lighting. I love seeing all that though. I love the individuality, the female vision of sexuality, the absurdity some performers engage with, the performed femininity, the play with the female and male gaze, the different bodies and ages. It is a great equalizer to see the tits of women ranging from 20 to 60 and body shapes and sizes more varied than you could imagine.
It is a group of over 100 with around 50 performers at each show and they are for the most part all from similar backgrounds. Up for a laugh, in ownership of their own bodies and sexuality. There is no interest in making it as male gaze performers for titillation. Everything chosen by the performer is for their own joy, every detail or hair and make up and dress chosen meticulously.
It is communal and female gaze and performative, and glitter, and music, and fun, and sexual, and all the things I love. It reminds me of the line in common people:
I was sadly just an audience member this time though. I went as a bunny, as in every hot girl just puts on a pair of ears, but I’m not sure people got the mean girls reference.
Chelsea Swan 
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