Explore every episode of the podcast The Stripping Scholar

Jonas Eklund holds a PhD in Theatre Studies from Stockholm University (2019).
In his dissertation The Sensational Body, he explores the spectator’s experience of bodies on stage in Circus, Burlesque and Freak Show.

What is the audience experience of burlesque and what is special about it?

Marnie Scarlet is the Queen of Fetish cabaret! Renowned for her surreal shows, larger than life looks and self constructed latex costumes.
Marnie Combines aspects of Cabaret with Drag and Burlesque, with fetish and performance art added into the mix.

The fetish scene in transformation.

Experimental artist, burlesque producer and filmmaker whose work references: sexuality as a material, traditional storytelling and art historical aesthetics through the filters of contemporary culture.
Works across media and has strong roots in art/technology research.

Seeing burlesque through the camera lens.

A Norwegian, internationally award winning performer. She is known for her body positive acts, with a fat friendly approach.
Fifi is also the producer of Fifi von Tassel presents, as well as being the head producer of Oslo Burlesque Festival.

Bodypositivity vs fat activism. Does influencers take over our movement?

Filmmaker, artist and PhD candidate in artistic research at Stockholm university of the arts.
Films include: Something must break (2014), She Male Snails (2012) with Eli Leven, Fruitcake (2010) as part of the experimental feminist film series Dirty Diaries.
What is erotic? Is it okay to be turned on by your work?

Singer, sociologist and trained in gender studies. She calls herself an “AA”, an artist and an activist, in both camps dealing with sexuality.
Active within RSFU: the National Association for Sexual Education. Working primarily with  sexual health and body rights.
Sexpositivity, joy and getting rid of shame.

NYC-based burlesque performer and emcee as well as a playwright and PhD candidate in the Theatre and Performance Studies program at the CUNY Graduate Center. His plays are glittery, gritty, and inspired by striptease and nightlife
Boylesque history, reference points and burlesque within academia.

A multi-dimensional performer stripper. Influenced by African dance, the Black diaspora, pop music, and the wild womxn spirit of Sex Workers. Akynos’ work is about upending the patriarchy and setting her own terms for what it means to be a womxn in a Black body.
Activism on and off stage, sexworkers art and Akynos experiences as a black performer.

The (Male) Gaze

Dramaturg and writer. His research connects around performance and performativity and includes the recent histories of contemporary dance, queering practices and camp misunderstandings.
Visiting lecturer at SKH, Head of Choreographic School at Sadler’s Wells in London.
We talk about gazes, the male gaze and of course, Laura Mulvey.

References for Episode 1
Laura Mulvey – Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
The Lily Pod – i always feel like somebody’s watching me ~ the panopticon, internalized male gaze, + body surveillance
Iris Marion Young – Throwing like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Body Comportment Motility and Spatiality
Bell Hooks, The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators
Samuel Delany – Times Square Red, Times Square Blue
Linder (Sterling) – artist 
Bell Hooks – Black Looks: Race and Representation