I did a burlesque routine last year around this very angle. I grew up Muslim and got supremely fed up with people assuming things about Muslim women, burqa-fied or not.

@CerebralMagpie: OMG YES. I have had a crush on him since I was 12. <3

@CatGaffney: Tis been done, for AIDS and 9/11.

@magstheaxe: THANK YOU. This happens elsewhere too - grew up in Malaysia, currently live in Australia, see this all the time. "But I don't condemn people to jail for their race! How dare you call me racist! BTW your English is very good, brownie."

@Tchotchke: I'm applying for permanent residency in Australia, sponsored by my aunt (but still under all the General Migration stuff that takes your job ability into account). I've already been marked as a taxpayer since I came in here on a student visa, but other than that and my interim Medicare card I get nothing.…

@Lulu82: Yes thank you!

@snugbug: The point they were making is that all the rhetoric about "we must make sure this never happens again!!!" is empty because it IS happening again, in greater numbers and with greater atrocity - but no one cares because the victims aren't privileged.

@VargasVegetarian: As someone who grew up Muslim in a Muslim country, I can tell you that the halal thing, while rooted in ethics, isn't followed for ethical reasons - people eat halal because they *have* to, and almost all the restaurants where I'm from serve halal food anyway. No one really cares about whether the…

If there was less stigma about death, if people welcomed death as just another part of life rather than something to avoid at all costs, would animal products be more common? Would it then be common and controversy-less to have human products - from breast milk to human leather?

@Lulu82: Can this comment be promoted please?

@blazedom: THANK YOU.

@whynotshesaid: I've heard about the issues with his personal life, but how is his business shady? #zines

@whynotshesaid: I have seen listings on tantric websites here in Australia for this very thing. I haven't seen any same-sex ones though.

@Inzombia: Where are you teaching this, and can I join? :D

@pesematology: Reverse strips are a somewhat common act. When my burlesque teacher worked as a stripper she noticed that the patrons won't look up from their drinks/meals until the end because they were only interested in the nudity. So she did reverse strips to psyche them out - she'd come out naked when they looked…

@topsy: Dita comes from the American tradition, where stripping is intrinsic. Even so, she's a more commercial version of the genre and arguably doesn't really represent many people that participate. For one thing, not all of us can afford Swarovski stockings!

@Suzie Wong: I'd recommend looking at British (and to some extent Australian) burlesque, since that's where the more subversive weird versions tend to flourish. The Ministry of Burlesque forums (and the members within) have tons of videos that make great reference material.

@BadHairLife: One good way is to change our inner attitudes - to regard sex workers and anyone vaguely related (I'm not sure burlesque performers count as "sex workers" per se, for example, but the fields do overlap) as people and respect them as such. Not as this "other" that's either horrid or needs saving.

@GalSwearengen: Yeah exactly. It's not the fault of the genre per se; it's just a side effect of commercialism.

@AramisQuadratus: Hi, I love you.