Originally Posted by Brea

All right, I'm opening up this can of worms again. Yesterday I was in a bookstore reading a history book called "Horrible Prettiness" about the history of burlesque. According to this book, and other sources I have read, Little Egypt was the beginning of bellydance being involved in burlesque. At that time the dance was called the 'cooch' or 'hoochie-coochie'. Eventually with all the competing acts it started to become more raunchy and less variety show, and then the shows started having their 'cooch' dancers or bellydancers start taking clothes off. So basically according to this book bellydance is the forerunner of the striptease, much like vaudeville burlesque was the forerunner of the strip show.

I also picked up a book called 'Belly Dancing' by Pina Coluccia, Anette Paffrath, and Jean Putz. There is a great deal of silliness about the Mother Goddess/Great Goddess in there. Although I do admit I like how they focus on sexuality being a very important part of the dance, and talk (if all too briefly) about male bellydancers.

I often wonder how to dispel the goddess myth, as so many people nowadays tend to see the Goddess everywhere, even where she wasn't (such as Ireland or Scotland). In fact there are allegedly no cultures that are truly 'goddess' based...many pantheons but no one female deity. Anyway I'd really like to know how to dispel this myth with bellydance as well as with the Celtic and Pictish histories if anyone has any suggestions. I'm also curious to know what everyone thinks of the history of bellydance as it relates to striptease...this may be why so many people assume we are strippers, or similar.

-Brea