'S-art, mate!

The guardians of our morality in the media and parliament are apoplectic over the decision of a government funded Climate Change conference in Canberra to employ a 'striptease' show for its end-of-conference entertainment.

If you were to believe all the media beat-up (all over the radio this morning), it sounds like a bad-taste, plastic-raincoat type strip act with lap dancing thrown in. Barista digs deeper to turn up a women's burlesquen. Check his post out, (he also has a photo):

Miss Kitka runs burlesque classes here in Canberra and this was the performance outcome. It was wonderful to see all these beautiful local gals having such fun with the art form, as well as bringing out the inner sex kitten that their friends and family knew was always there…

…this is not your traditional plastic-breasted nudie-sweatie tickle at Mr Stiffie. The oldest person is 58. This is joy, and play and a celebration of the physical.

It's art, mate!

Though it may gave turned out to be rather poorly chosen 'artform' for the organisers of the conference, who now face losing funding from a pissed-of puritan government. The tendency at Barista is to view this as an expression of the new puritanism under Howard's decade.

But, let's not dismiss the fact that some delegates felt decidedly uncomfortable at the performance and stormed out!

So, is this up there with art-censorship and 'Piss Christ', or knee-jerk reactions to an old-boys-science-club's inability to keep abrest of the changes to cultural norms generated since the feminist movement?