Cookie banner

This site uses cookies. Select "Block all non-essential cookies" to only allow cookies necessary to display content and enable core site features. Select "Accept all cookies" to also personalize your experience on the site with ads and partner content tailored to your interests, and to allow us to measure the effectiveness of our service.

To learn more, review our Cookie Policy, Privacy Notice and Terms of Use.

or
clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Jezebel Express Challenges Beauty Norms Through Burlesque

‘Dress the Part’ meets a dancer making her mark in the burlesque performance world.

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

“I deserve to be looked at,” says Jezebel Express, and her bold style certainly invites it. Jezebel is a New York-based burlesque dancer and instructor at one of the oldest burlesque schools in North America, and she favors bold colors, lace, sequins, feathers, and other glamorous touches befitting a stage performer.

That said, she isn’t quite the typical burlesque dancer you may be used to seeing. “I don’t have the body that you get to see on stage a lot,” she says. “It’s great for me to be this person who gets to blow people’s minds about what they think is sexy.”

Jezebel’s performances challenge conventional norms of beauty and empower her students to take risks.

“Bringing this body and my sexuality and saying, ‘What I have is enough, it’s more than enough, and it deserves to be dressed and celebrated, and I’m sharing it with you, and aren’t you lucky’ is a thing I’m so happy I get to do with my life.”

Follow Racked on YouTube for more videos | Like Racked on Facebook to never miss a video