You have previously described some stripping as being artistic, and therefore of value, and other (most) stripping as not being artistic, not of much value. You've further elaborated, as far as I recall, that artistic stripping is when the stripper is expressing her (or his) own sexuality and enjoying the process, while non-artistic (most) stripping is when the stripper is expressing sexuality that she believes that the audience wants to see, rather than her own.
Is that an accurate representation?
If so, what types of mindsets or enjoyment are different between the artistic sort and the non-artistic sort, for both the stripper and the viewer? What does a viewer experience from watching artistic stripping compared to non-artistic stripping?
Lyn, perhaps I should caution you this post will largely be an experiment to see if I can adequately express something as potentially subtle as the psychology of aesthetics while short on sleep and easily distracted by the beautiful day outside my cottage.
Did you accurately represent my position? I think you did an impressive job representing it while working from memory. I only have three quibbles. The first is truly trivial: I don't believe we need to enjoy creating art for it to be art. So, a stripper could be creating art without necessarily enjoying the process.
You must think me an idiot by now to have mentioned something so trivial, but my next quibble is somewhat more substantial: I harbor within my beating breast a broad sense of what is art. Consequently, it doesn't matter whether a stripper is expressing herself (I will use "her" in this context, but I mean
both women
and men) authentically (such as when being true to herself) or inauthentically (such as when pandering to the audience without being true to herself). I either case, I view the expression as "art". The latter, however, might not have the same consequences for the audience as the former.
My third quibble is more of an elaboration. I believe stripping can be an art even if it expresses more than a person's (or an audience's) sexuality. For instance, it is conceivable to me that a stripper might wish to express her contempt for the audience (I think I've seen that done a few times). Such expression is to me just as much of an art as it would be if she were expressing her sexuality.
By the way, for the sake of avoiding the likelihood of a much, much longer post, I am avoiding any attempt to formally define what I mean by "art". I hope you fully appreciate how much dull boredom I am saving you from.
I will now attempt to address your second question, Lyn, which, if you don't mind, I will reformulate in two sentences as, "What, if anything, can a viewer experience from watching an authentic act of stripping as compared to watching an inauthentic act of stripping? And what, if anything, can a stripper experience while performing authentically as compared to inauthentically?"
I think your question pleasantly requires us to get into the psychology of aesthetics, a subject in which I by no means consider myself competent. But I'll give it a shot anyways because my incompetence is fortunately matched by my sense of adventure.
Perhaps we can begin by briefly noting an effect that authenticity (in other people) can have on us in general. I think, among other less relevant effects of our experiencing authenticity in another person, their authenticity has the potential to inspire and encourage us to be more authentic ourselves. And we might even subjectively experience that as liberating. "Liberating" as an emotional response: We
feel freer, less restricted, more likely to achieve our potentials, etc.
Once again, I will spare you the details of why I think experiencing authenticity in another person can both inspire us to greater authenticity in ourselves, and induce in us feelings of liberation. But I will mention that what I've laid out here has been my own experience, as well as the experience of a very few other people that I've managed to discuss this subject with (Yet, my experience is fairly compelling evidence to me, but I wouldn't expect it to be necessarily compelling to anyone else).
Now, if the above is more or less the case, then I think we can apply it to the specific case of what an audience might experience while watching a stripper perform authentically. Briefly, the audience can then experience inspiration and encouragement to be more authentic themselves, as well as experience feelings of liberation. And, assuming the theme of the stripper's authentic performance is her sexuality, I would expect the audience can experience inspiration and encouragement to be more
sexually authentic, and feelings of
sexual liberation.
Please note that I've been saying "can" rather than "will". I have only guesses to go on when estimating the proportion of people in a given audience who will experience these things. My hunch is it's generally low, that few people typically come away from a strip club feeling liberated and encouraged to be more sexually authentic. In part, that's because I think most of the audience is there simply to be sexually titillated. But if that happens to be true, I don't think it invalidates the experience of some people, such as myself and a few of my friends, in finding in the experience the things we've been discussing. Would a great painting be any less a painting if only one in a hundred people could appreciate it as such? I myself think not. Other people's mileage may vary.
To me, the things we've discussed cannot be -- or at the very least, are unlikely to be -- experienced when watching a stripper perform inauthentically. I don't recall ever having experienced them myself in those circumstances.
As an aside, I do not believe the above entirely exhausts what an audience can get out of stripping. Among other things, I think they can experience the beauty of the stripper herself, and all the emotions of pleasure and well-being that we typically experience when confronted with beauty; I they can find themselves in the end more greatly reconciled, if only for a while to themselves and to living in this world; and other things. If there's a difference between these things and the things derived form experiencing authenticity, it's that these things we seem able to experience even if the stripper's performance is not notably authentic.
Last, what does the stripper herself get out of performing authentically versus performing inauthentically? I'm largely going to plead ignorance here. I have myself never been a stripper. In the past, I've had strippers who were causal friends of mine, and there's even a former stripper in my "adopted" family, but I recall discussing stripping in this light with only one stripper, and she was someone who so greatly impressed me with her general authenticity (I never saw her strip, I am referring to her authenticity in all my experiences of her) that I'm almost inclined to think she could even run for high political office without betraying herself! To her, being as authentic as one reasonably can seems to come natural, and her attitude towards being authentic while performing can more or less be summed up as, "Well, of course!".
Of course, I would fully expect any general benefits that come from living authentically to extend extend to performing authentically as a stripper.
It just occurred to me that you might be interested to know I myself cannot recall anything else I've experienced in my life from which I can derive the same mix of benefits as from watching the rare stripper deliver not a merely authentic performance, but deliver an authentic performance that is good art. There are a few experiences like it, but nothing entirely like it. Consequently, I think -- and maybe no one else would agree with me -- that stripping has the potential not only to be good art, but also to be an unique art, as opposed to a merely distinct art.
Lyn, my apologies for being so long winded. I've thought so long on this subject that it is easy for me to go on and on without thinking I've exhausted all that could be said about it. But I've really bent your ear here and I apologize for that.
