Have you ever been to a burlesque show? I mean that in a completely un-snarky way. Truth be told, the audiences at your average burlesque show are mostly women. The ones in the audience screaming, hooting and hollering? Mostly women.

I think women rely on sexuality to be empowered (and it’s not just in burlesque — femme fatale characters, the Gingers and the Mariannes — they’re everywhere) because it is by our sex we are defined.

Why is it that women make 30% less than men for doing the same work? Why is it that it’s taken 200+ years to have a woman as the Speaker of the House? Is it because we’re weaker? Less intelligent? No. It’s because we’re women.

When a people is oppressed, historically, for one arbitrary reason or another (in this cause, our sex/sexuality), I don’t think it’s wrong or unreasonable for the oppressed to use that very same thing as a means of empowerment.

Sharon, the dance class sounds fun (way more than some spin class); I just can’t help but wonder (having never been to a burlesque show) if being a burlesque dancer is truly empowering in the long run or if it just feels empowering. Whether it’s women or men hooting and hollering in the audience doesn’t change the fact that the dancer’s body — no matter if the body is the world’s definition of “beautiful” or “ugly” — is being objectified. I understand the concept of repurposing something once used to diminish someone. However, does a woman who uses her sexuality get taken seriously? Given the country’s puritanical attitude toward sexuality and its sexism, can a woman go from being a burlesque dancer to becoming Speaker of the House, even if she is intelligent?

Not yet, I’m afraid.

I’ve taken Dottie’s classes and have, for the past year, been performing fairly regularly as a burlesque dancer. And I can tell you from personal experience, it was one of the smartest things I ever did. My wiggly bits still wiggle and my butt is still big, but I love the skin I’m in, FINALLY.

And while certainly there is an inherent objectifying quality anytime the body is on display, I in no way feel objectified when I perform. I feel supported by a tremendously loving community (both the performers backstage and the regular audience members).

And while I’m fairly certain that my chances of running for President have been obliterated, and I’m fairly certain that Nancy Pelosi never wore pasties, any woman who empowers herself, who says, “My body is sexual and sensual and beautiful and I can show it off tonight and run my company tomorrow” is a step in the right direction, I think.

Don’t forget, an Italian porn star was elected to her country’s Parliament. And that’s in one of the most Catholic countries in the world.

Maybe -maybe maybe maybe- with more and more women in power in this country than ever before, and with more and more women demanding control over the way they are viewed, as beings, not just as objects — maybe we can finally catch up to countries like Liberia and Pakistan and have a woman hold the highest office in the land.