LITERARY CRITICISM
Roland Barthes’ “Striptease”: The Language of Seduction?
Structuralism as a form of criticism is not restricted to the examination of literary work, but indeed to all forms of human expression. This makes it all the more likely that the French literary critic and structuralist, Roland Barthes, would apply a structural reading to various phenomena within his cultural milieu. Many of these phenomena were deemed myths by Barthes, who saw myths as a form of speech with the ability to communicate a given message. In one of his many essays on cultural myths, Barthes offers a unique look at the popular ‘game’ of striptease.
Barthes’ opening statement serves to highlight his view that the connotative message in this myth is ambiguous to the point of being contradictory. He writes, “Striptease – at least Parisian striptease – is based on a contradiction: Woman is desexualized at the very moment when she is stripped naked.” (869) So, contrary to the widely held belief that the stripper, the object of desire, is a sexual vamp, Barthes posits that she loses her sexuality upon being naked. Another contradiction evident in this statement is the idea of ‘center of control.’ On the surface, one may be led to believe that the woman is in control, since she appears to have the power to tantalize and excite; but in his use of the passive voice, “she is stripped” Barthes is making it blatantly obvious that she (especially the amateur stripper) is not in control – the act is being done to her – albeit figuratively. Yet, despite all this, the act of stripping is somewhat liberating.
The liberatory power of the act is brought out when he states that, “evil is advertised the better to impede and exorcise it.” (869) Therefore, the act works like a vaccine that “inoculate [es] the public with a touch of evil” (869) and cures it of its evil desires. The public’s voyeuristic nature is what makes immunization possible.
Striptease is also portrayed as a game that the woman plays by pretending to strip herself bare, when all the time she is able to remain for the most part – “remote”. This pretence game is made possible by the “whole series of coverings placed upon the body of the woman.” (869) Chief among these coverings or barriers is the notion of exoticism. Hence, once these “incongruous and artificial clothing” have been removed, the exoticism follows. This essentially helps the woman regain “a perfectly chaste state of the flesh.” All the props present form a part of the lavish disguise that is used to meticulously exorcize sexual desires.
Ironically, the coverings used (furs, fans, gloves, feathers, and fishnet stockings) help to create a form of magical illusion that transforms the wearer into a temptress. The removal of the props thus erases the public’s ability to be a voyeur, which ultimately removes the intrigue. Additionally, these coverings represent some form of diacritics, which once removed transliterate the object/symbol of desire and make it (her) something else. Also contradictory in this act is the “G-string covered with diamonds or sequins which is the very end of the striptease.” The alluring diamond G-string, with its pure geometrical shape, forms a form of chastity-belt that, like the hard diamond “drives the woman back into a mineral world.”
The dancing and props together offer the woman the alibi of art, and for that reason the one who is unable to perform – the inexperienced, awkward, immobile stripper – stands more exposed and more erotic than the one who is able to hide behind her dancing.
Ultimately, Barthes shows how erotic clubs like the Moulin Rouge, use the pretence of sensuality as “another kind of exorcism.” (870) In making striptease a sport – an art even, the French are able to remove the stigma from the act, and give stripping “the magical alibi of work.” (870)
-Beverley Gregory
Barthes, Roland. “Striptease.” The Critical Tradition. MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.
