A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely , in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a " stripper " or an "exotic" or " burlesque " dancer.
157-398: The origins of striptease as a performance art are disputed and various dates and occasions have been given from ancient Babylonia to 20th century America. The term "striptease" was first recorded in 1932. In Western countries, the venues where stripteases are performed on a regular basis are now usually called strip clubs , though they may be performed in venues such as pubs (especially in
314-628: A sprachbund . Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as the spoken language of Mesopotamia somewhere around the turn of the third and the second millennium BC (the precise timeframe being a matter of debate). From c. 5400 BC until the rise of the Akkadian Empire in the 24th century BC, Mesopotamia had been dominated by largely Sumerian cities and city states, such as Ur , Lagash , Uruk , Kish , Isin , Larsa , Adab , Eridu , Gasur , Assur , Hamazi , Akshak , Arbela and Umma , although Semitic Akkadian names began to appear on
471-490: A language isolate , not being native Mesopotamians. It retained the Sumerian language for religious use (as did Assyria which also shared the same Mesopotamian religion as Babylonia), but already by the time Babylon was founded, this was no longer a spoken language, having been wholly subsumed by Akkadian. The earlier Akkadian and Sumerian traditions played a major role in the descendant Babylonian and Assyrian culture, and
628-467: A "disrobing" act onstage as early as 1896, which was captured in the 1901 Edison film Trapeze Disrobing Act . Another milestone for modern American striptease is the possibly legendary show at Minsky's Burlesque in April 1925 that inspired the novel and film The Night They Raided Minsky's . Another performer, Hinda Wassau , claimed to have inadvertently invented the striptease in 1928 when her costume
785-458: A "holy city" where any legitimate ruler of southern Mesopotamia had to be crowned, and the city was also revered by Assyria for these religious reasons. Hammurabi turned what had previously been a minor administrative town into a large, powerful and influential city, extended its rule over the entirety of southern Mesopotamia, and erected a number of buildings. The Amorite-ruled Babylonians, like their predecessor states, engaged in regular trade with
942-486: A "mystifying spectacle", a "reassuring ritual" where "evil is advertised the better to impede and exorcise it". By the 1960s "fully nude" shows were provided at such places as Le Crazy Horse Saloon . In the United States, striptease started in traveling carnivals and burlesque theatres, and featured famous strippers such as Gypsy Rose Lee and Sally Rand . The vaudeville trapeze artist Charmion performed
1099-476: A New Burlesque troupe. Until the 1970s, strippers in Western cultures were almost invariably female, performing to male audiences. Since then, male strippers have also become common. Before the 1970s, dancers of both sexes appeared largely in underground clubs or as part of a theatre experience, but the practice eventually became common enough on its own. Well-known troupes of male strippers include Dreamboys in
1256-419: A bas relief arranged in the position as described by Yeats. Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío 's 1892 poem "Leda" contains an oblique description of the rape, watched over by the god Pan . H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) also wrote a poem called "Leda" in 1919, suggested to be from the perspective of Leda. The description of the sexual action going on makes it seem almost beautiful, as if Leda had given her consent. In
1413-846: A bas-relief temple in Uruk and Kurigalzu I (1415–1390 BC) built a new capital Dur-Kurigalzu named after himself, transferring administrative rule from Babylon. Both of these kings continued to struggle unsuccessfully against the Sealand Dynasty. Karaindash also strengthened diplomatic ties with the Assyrian king Ashur-bel-nisheshu and the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III and protected Babylonian borders with Elam. Kadašman-Ḫarbe I succeeded Karaindash, and briefly invaded Elam before being eventually defeated and ejected by its king Tepti Ahar. He then had to contend with
1570-420: A beautiful go-go dancer who aspires to quit her job. In 2009 a DVD called, "Crazy Horse Paris" featuring Dita Von Teese was released. Magic Mike (2012) features a male stripper Mike Lane ( Channing Tatum ) guiding a younger male stripper in his first steps into stripping in clubs. Ancient Babylonia Babylonia ( / ˌ b æ b ɪ ˈ l oʊ n i ə / ; Akkadian : 𒆳𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 , māt Akkadī )
1727-528: A book published in Venice in 1499. This shows Leda and the Swan making love with gusto, despite being on top of a triumphal car, being pulled along and surrounded by a considerable crowd. An engraving dating to 1503 at the latest, by Giovanni Battista Palumba , also shows the couple in coitus , but in deserted countryside. Another engraving, certainly from Venice and attributed by many to Giulio Campagnola , shows
SECTION 10
#17327827566161884-460: A bureaucracy, with taxation and centralized government. Hammurabi freed Babylon from Elamite dominance, and indeed drove the Elamites from southern Mesopotamia entirely, invading Elam itself. He then systematically conquered southern Mesopotamia, including the cities of Isin, Larsa, Eshnunna, Kish, Lagash , Nippur, Borsippa , Ur, Uruk, Umma, Adab, Sippar , Rapiqum , and Eridu. His conquests gave
2041-608: A century. This composition is known from many copies, including an ambitious engraving by Cornelis Bos , c. 1563; the marble sculpture by Bartolomeo Ammanati in the Bargello, Florence; two copies by the young Rubens on his Italian voyage, and the painting after Michelangelo, ca. 1530, in the National Gallery, London . The Michelangelo composition, of about 1530, shows Mannerist tendencies of elongation and twisted pose (the figura serpentinata ) that were popular at
2198-559: A deliberate archaism in reference to the previous glory of the Akkadian Empire . It was often involved in rivalry with the older ethno-linguistically related state of Assyria in the north of Mesopotamia and Elam to the east in Ancient Iran . Babylonia briefly became the major power in the region after Hammurabi ( fl. c. 1792 –1752 BC middle chronology, or c. 1696 –1654 BC, short chronology ) created
2355-421: A fabric and feather "swan" neck which coiled around Dietrich's own neck, as well a pair of large feathered wings, one stretching downwards across her chest and the other one upwards across her left shoulder. Sixty-six years later, at the 2001 Academy Awards, Icelandic singer Björk wore a dress by Marjan Pejoski in nude mesh and a white tulle skirt. The skirt gradually narrowed upwards over the torso to turn into
2512-593: A film-performance called 7/64 Leda und der Schwan in 1964. The film retains the classical motif, portraying, for most of its duration, a young woman embracing a swan. There is a life-sized marble statue of Leda and the Swan at the Jai Vilas Palace Museum in Gwalior , Northern Madhya Pradesh , India. American artist and photographer Carole Harmel created the "Bird" series (1983), a Jean Cocteau-influenced collection of photographs that explored
2669-556: A girl who becomes a stripper to earn enough money to enter college and study journalism. Dancing at the Blue Iguana (2000) is a feature film starring Daryl Hannah . The female cast of the film researched the film by dancing at strip clubs and created their parts and their storylines to be as realistic as possible. The Raymond Revuebar the Art of Striptease (2002) is a documentary, directed by Simon Weitzman. Los Debutantes (2003)
2826-618: A great lover of painting, had periodic crises of conscience about his way of life, in one of which he attacked the figure of Leda with a knife. The damage has been repaired, though full restoration to the original condition was not possible. Both the Leonardo and Michelangelo paintings also disappeared when in the collection of the French Royal Family, and are believed to have been destroyed by more moralistic widows or successors of their owners. There were many other depictions in
2983-508: A known inscription describes his exploits to the south as follows: The freedom of the Akkadians and their children I established. I purified their copper. I established their freedom from the border of the marshes and Ur and Nippur, Awal , and Kish, Der of the goddess Ishtar , as far as the City of ( Ashur ). Past scholars originally extrapolated from this text that it means he defeated
3140-756: A legitimate actress. Gilda (1946), showcases one of the most famous stripteases in cinematic history, performed by Rita Hayworth to " Put the Blame on Mame ", though in the event she removes just her gloves, before the act is terminated by a jealous admirer. Murder at the Windmill (1949) (US title: Mystery at the Burlesque ), directed by Val Guest is set at the Windmill Theatre, London and features Diana Decker , Jon Pertwee and Jimmy Edwards . Salome (1953) once again features Rita Hayworth doing
3297-513: A love-making scene, but there Leda's attitude is highly ambiguous. Palumba made another engraving, perhaps in about 1512, presumably influenced by Leonardo's sketches for his earlier composition, showing Leda seated on the ground and playing with her children. There were also significant depictions in the smaller decorative arts, also private media. Benvenuto Cellini made a medallion, now in Vienna, early in his career, and Antonio Abondio one on
SECTION 20
#17327827566163454-406: A mid-19th century mansion. Directed by Samuel Tressler IV and starring Adeline Thery , the story focuses on a pregnant Leda, nightmarishly haunted by the image of a swan and lost between dream and reality in a state of trauma. The Philadelphia cigar maker Bobrow Brothers made a brand of cigars with the name "Leda" which was sold at least into the 1940s. The cigar label depicted Leda and the Swan in
3611-420: A much reduced Babylon, Samshu-iluna's successor Abi-Eshuh made a vain attempt to recapture the Sealand Dynasty for Babylon, but met defeat at the hands of king Damqi-ilishu II . By the end of his reign Babylonia had shrunk to the small and relatively weak nation it had been upon its foundation, although the city itself was far larger and opulent than the small town it had been prior to the rise of Hammurabi. He
3768-568: A portrait of Leda in his "And Jeopardize the Integrity of the Hull" series. Zeus, as the swan, only appears metaphorically. Ronsard wrote a poem on La Défloration de Lède , perhaps inspired by the Michelangelo, which he may well have known. He imagines the beak going into Leda's mouth. "Leda and the Swan" is a sonnet by William Butler Yeats composed in 1923 and first published in
3925-522: A possibly legendary account of the birth of striptease at Minsky's Burlesque theatre in New York. In 1968, the sci-fi film Barbarella depicted Jane Fonda stripping in zero-gravity conditions whilst wearing her spacesuit. Marlowe (1969) stars Rita Moreno playing a stripper, in the finale of the movie simultaneously delivering dialogue with the title character and performing a vigorous dance on stage. The Beatles movie Magical Mystery Tour has
4082-660: A review called The Whitehall Follies. By the 1950s, touring striptease acts were used to attract audiences to the dying music halls. Arthur Fox started his touring shows in 1948 and Paul Raymond started his in 1951. Paul Raymond later leased the Doric Ballroom in Soho and opened his private members club, the Raymond Revuebar, in 1958. This was one of the first of the private striptease members clubs in Britain. In
4239-462: A scene where all the men on the tour bus go to a gentleman's club and watch a woman strip on stage. Ichijo's Wet Lust (1972), Japanese director Tatsumi Kumashiro 's award-winning Roman porno film featured the country's most famous stripper, Sayuri Ichijō, starring as herself. A British film production of 1976 is the film Get 'Em Off , produced by Harold Baim . Alain Bernardin the owner of
4396-524: A separate area of the pub. Striptease became popular in Japan after the end of World War II . When entrepreneur Shigeo Ozaki saw Gypsy Rose Lee perform, he started his own striptease revue in Tokyo's Shinjuku neighborhood. During the 1950s, Japanese "strip shows" became more sexually explicit and less dance-oriented, until they were eventually simply live sex shows . Modern striptease acts typically follow
4553-437: A series of female clones (Leda) and a series of male clones (Castor) who are also brothers and sisters clones as they derive from one mother who is a chimera with male and female genomes. Musical artist Hozier released the single Swan Upon Leda in 2022, referencing the myth as a tool to advocate for reproductive rights. The 2021 wordless, 3D feature film Leda transports the myth to dark forests and deep lakes that surround
4710-996: A short period of civil war in the Assyrian empire, in the years after the death of Tukulti-Ninurta. Meli-Shipak II (1188–1172 BC) seems to have had a peaceful reign. Despite not being able to regain northern Babylonia from Assyria, no further territory was lost, Elam did not threaten, and the Late Bronze Age collapse now affecting the Levant, Canaan , Egypt , the Caucasus , Anatolia, Mediterranean , North Africa , northern Iran and Balkans seemed (initially) to have little impact on Babylonia (or indeed Assyria and Elam). War resumed under subsequent kings such as Marduk-apla-iddina I (1171–1159 BC) and Zababa-shuma-iddin (1158 BC). The long reigning Assyrian king Ashur-dan I (1179–1133 BC) resumed expansionist policies and conquered further parts of northern Babylonia from both kings, and
4867-537: A short-lived empire, succeeding the earlier Akkadian Empire, Third Dynasty of Ur , and Old Assyrian Empire . The Babylonian Empire rapidly fell apart after the death of Hammurabi and reverted to a small kingdom centered around the city of Babylon. Like Assyria , the Babylonian state retained the written Akkadian language (the language of its native populace) for official use, despite its Northwest Semitic -speaking Amorite founders and Kassite successors, who spoke
Striptease - Misplaced Pages Continue
5024-462: A sleazy Soho strip club owner who gets stabbed to death by a stripper. Gypsy (1962), features Natalie Wood as the famous burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee in her memorable rendition of " Let Me Entertain You ". It was re-made for TV in 1993 Starring Bette Midler as Mama Rose and Cynthia Gibb as Gypsy Rose Lee. The Stripper (1963) featured Gypsy Rose Lee, herself, giving a trademark performance in
5181-417: A slow, sensuous undressing. The stripper may prolong the undressing with delaying tactics such as the wearing of additional clothes or putting clothes or hands in front of just undressed body parts such as the breasts or genitalia . The emphasis is on the act of undressing along with sexually suggestive movement, rather than the state of being undressed. In the past, the performance often finished as soon as
5338-526: A specific Hittite king either, Trevor Bryce concludes that there is no doubt that both sources refer to Mursili I and Samsu-ditana . The Hittites, when sacking Babylon, removed the images of the gods Marduk and his consort Zarpanitu from the Esagil temple and they took them to their kingdom. The later inscription of Agum-kakrime , the Kassite king, claims he returned the images; and another later text,
5495-580: A striptease act; this time as the famous biblical stripper Salome, performing the Dance of the Seven Veils. According to Hayworth's biographers this erotic dance routine was "the most demanding of her entire career", necessitating "endless takes and retakes". Expresso Bongo (1959) is a British film which features striptease at a club in Soho, London. In 1960, the film Beat Girl cast Christopher Lee as
5652-446: A swan-neck made out of fabric which coiled around the wearer's neck in exactly the same way as Dietrich's dress from 1935. Although Dietrich's costume remains largely unknown to the general public, Björk's dress "attained cult status instantly" and became an icon of red carpet culture . Yet, the reference to Marlene Dietrich's costume was rarely (if ever) mentioned at the time. In June 2021, Maria Grazia Chiuri as creative director for
5809-564: A thriving sector of the economy. Canadian style pole dancing, table dancing and lap dancing , organized by multi-national corporations such as Spearmint Rhino , was exported from North America to (among other countries) the United Kingdom, the nations of central Europe, Russia and Australia. In London, England a raft of such so-called "lap dancing clubs" grew up in the 1990s, featuring pole dancing on stage and private table dancing, though, despite media misrepresentation, lap-dancing in
5966-402: A wide variety of national and local laws. These laws vary considerably around the world, and even between different parts of the same country. H. L. Mencken is credited with coining the word ecdysiast – from " ecdysis ", meaning "to molt" – in response to a request from striptease artist Georgia Sothern , for a "more dignified" way to refer to her profession. Gypsy Rose Lee , one of
6123-582: A young stripper just arrived in London from America. Crazy Horse Le Show (2004) features dance routines from the Crazy Horse, Paris. Mrs Henderson Presents (2005) portrays the erotic dance routines and nude tableau-vivants which featured at the Windmill Theatre before and during World War II. The film Factotum (2005) (by Norwegian director Bent Hamer ) concludes with Matt Dillon (in
6280-635: Is a Chilean film set in a strip-club in Santiago . In the Cradle 2 the Grave a 2003 action film a woman named Daria, played by Gabrielle Union performs a striptease to distract a man named Odion, played by Michael Jace from the infiltration of a night club owned by a crime lord named Jump Chambers, played by Chi McBride . Portraits of a Naked Lady Dancer (2004) is a documentary, directed by Deborah Rowe. In Closer (2004), Natalie Portman plays Alice,
6437-536: Is leaving: "Did the swan apologize to Leda? Did an eagle apologize? Did a lion apologize? Hell no!" In Robert Galbraith 's 2020 novel, Troubled Blood , one of the main characters, Robin Ellacott, visits a painting gallery where she sees a painting of Leda and the swan done by one character who is an artist in the novel. Furthermore, the other protagonist of the Strike series, the eponymous detective Cormoran Strike,
Striptease - Misplaced Pages Continue
6594-508: Is likely that the women performing these dances did not do so in an indigenous context, but rather, in response to the demand for this type of entertainment. Middle Eastern belly dance , also known as oriental dancing, was popularized in the United States after its introduction on the Midway at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago by a dancer known as Little Egypt . Some claim the origin of
6751-598: Is not clear precisely when Kassite rule of Babylon began, but the Indo-European Hittites from Anatolia did not remain in Babylonia for long after the sacking of the city, and it is likely the Kassites moved in soon afterwards. Agum II took the throne for the Kassites in 1595 BC, and ruled a state that extended from Iran to the middle Euphrates; The new king retained peaceful relations with Erishum III ,
6908-532: Is now in the Louvre . From before 3000 BC until the reign of Hammurabi, the major cultural and religious center of southern Mesopotamia had been the ancient city of Nippur, where the god Enlil was supreme. Hammurabi transferred this dominance to Babylon, making Marduk supreme in the pantheon of southern Mesopotamia (with the god Ashur , and to some degree Ishtar , remaining the long-dominant deity in northern Mesopotamian Assyria). The city of Babylon became known as
7065-533: The BBC in 1962. The play features the voices of three women. The first is a married woman who keeps her baby. The second is a secretary who suffers a miscarriage. The third voice, a student who is pregnant and gives her baby up for adoption, mentions "the great swan, with its terrible look,/ Coming at me,/ There is a snake in swans./ He glided by; his eye had a black meaning." and repeats a refrain of "I wasn't ready" stating "the face/ Went on shaping itself with love, as if I
7222-717: The Dial in June, 1924 , and later published in the collection 'The Cat the Moon and Certain Poems' in 1924. Combining psychological realism with a mystic vision, it describes the swan's rape of Leda . It also alludes to the Trojan war , which will be provoked by the abduction of Helen , who will be begotten by Zeus on Leda (along with Castor and Pollux , in some versions of the myth). Clytaemnestra , who killed her husband, Agamemnon , leader of
7379-576: The Dynasty IV of Babylon, from Isin , with the first native Akkadian-speaking south Mesopotamian dynasty to rule Babylonia, with Marduk-kabit-ahheshu becoming only the second native Mesopotamian to sit on the throne of Babylon, after the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I . His dynasty was to remain in power for some 125 years. The new king successfully drove out the Elamites and prevented any possible Kassite revival. Later in his reign he went to war with Assyria, and had some initial success, briefly capturing
7536-615: The Egyptian chronology . Possible dates for the sack of Babylon are: Mursili I , the Hittite king, first conquered Aleppo , capital of Yamhad kingdom to avenge the death of his father, but his main geopolitical target was Babylon. The Mesopotamian Chronicle 40 , written after 1500 BC, mentions briefly the sack of Babylon as: "During the time of Samsu-Ditana , the Hittites marched on Akkad." More details can be found in another source,
7693-569: The Marduk Prophesy , written long after the events, mentions that the image of Marduk was in exile around twenty-four years. After the conquest, Mursili I did not attempt to convert the whole region he had occupied from Aleppo to Babylon as a part of his kingdom; he instead made an alliance with the Kassites , and then a Kassite dynasty was established in Babylonia. The Kassite dynasty was founded by Gandash of Mari. The Kassites, like
7850-466: The Suteans , ancient Semitic-speaking peoples from the southeastern Levant who invaded Babylonia and sacked Uruk. He describes having "annihilated their extensive forces", then constructed fortresses in a mountain region called Ḫiḫi , in the desert to the west (modern Syria ) as security outposts, and "he dug wells and settled people on fertile lands, to strengthen the guard". Kurigalzu I succeeded
8007-535: The Telepinu Proclamation , a Hittite text from around 1520 BC, which states: "And then he [Mursili I] marched to Aleppo, and he destroyed Aleppo and brought captives and possessions of Aleppo to Ḫattuša. Then, however, he marched to Babylon, and he destroyed Babylon, and he defeated the Hurrian troops, and he brought captives and possessions of Babylon to Ḫattuša ." The movement of Mursili's troops
SECTION 50
#17327827566168164-511: The obverse of a medal celebrating a Roman courtesan . A fresco depicting the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan was unearthed at the Pompeii archeological site. Leonardo da Vinci began making studies in 1504 for a painting, apparently never executed, of Leda seated on the ground with her children. In 1508, he painted a different composition of the subject , with a nude standing Leda cuddling
8321-483: The old master print , and mostly from Venice. They were often based on the extremely brief account in the Metamorphoses of Ovid (who does not imply a rape), though Lorenzo de' Medici had both a Roman sarcophagus and an antique carved gem of the subject, both with reclining Ledas. The earliest known explicit Renaissance depiction is one of the many woodcut illustrations to Hypnerotomachia Poliphili ,
8478-503: The "Leda and the Swan" myth in tightly cropped, voyeuristic images of a nude female and an undefinable birdlike creature hinting at intimacy. Bristol Museum and Art Gallery currently exhibits Karl Weschke's Leda and the Swan , painted in 1986. The Winnipeg Art Gallery in Canada has, in its permanent collection, a ceramic "Leda and the Swan" by Japanese-born American artist Akio Takamori . Genieve Figgis painted her version of Leda and
8635-473: The 1720 German translation of the French La Guerre D'Espagne (Cologne: Pierre Marteau, 1707), where a galant party of high aristocrats and opera singers entertain themselves with hunting, play and music in a three-day turn at a small château: The dancers, to please their lovers the more, dropped their clothes and danced totally naked the nicest entrées and ballets ; one of the princes directed
8792-461: The 1930s, when Laura Henderson began presenting nude shows at the Windmill Theatre , London, censorship regulations prohibited naked girls from moving while appearing on-stage. To get around the prohibition, the models appeared in stationary tableaux vivants . The Windmill girls also toured other London and provincial theatres, sometimes using ingenious devices such as rotating ropes to move their bodies round, though strictly speaking, staying within
8949-484: The 1960s, changes in the law brought about a boom of strip clubs in Soho with "fully nude" dancing and audience participation. Pubs were also used as a venue, most particularly in the East End with a concentration of such venues in the district of Shoreditch . This pub striptease seems in the main to have evolved from topless go-go dancing. Though often a target of local authority harassment, some of these pubs survive to
9106-505: The 20th century BC had asserted itself over the northeast Levant and central Mesopotamia. After a protracted struggle over decades with the powerful Assyrian kings Shamshi-Adad I and Ishme-Dagan I , Hammurabi forced their successor Mut-Ashkur to pay tribute to Babylon c. 1751 BC , giving Babylonia control over Assyria's centuries-old Hattian and Hurrian colonies in Anatolia. One of Hammurabi's most important and lasting works
9263-414: The 3rd millennium BC, an intimate cultural symbiosis occurred between Sumerian and Akkadian-speakers, which included widespread bilingualism . The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian and vice versa is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a massive scale, to syntactic, morphological, and phonological convergence. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium as
9420-616: The Akkadians fully attain ascendancy over the Sumerians and indeed come to dominate much of the ancient Near East . The empire eventually disintegrated due to economic decline, climate change, and civil war, followed by attacks by the language isolate speaking Gutians from the Zagros Mountains to the northeast. Sumer rose up again with the Third Dynasty of Ur ( Neo-Sumerian Empire ) in the late 22nd century BC, and ejected
9577-673: The Amorite and Canaanite city-states to the west, with Babylonian officials or troops sometimes passing to the Levant and Canaan, and Amorite merchants operating freely throughout Mesopotamia. The Babylonian monarchy's western connections remained strong for quite some time. Ammi-Ditana , great-grandson of Hammurabi, still titled himself "king of the land of the Amorites". Ammi-Ditana's father and son also bore Amorite names: Abi-Eshuh and Ammi-Saduqa . Southern Mesopotamia had no natural, defensible boundaries, making it vulnerable to attack. After
SECTION 60
#17327827566169734-491: The Amorite rulers who had preceded them, were not originally native to Mesopotamia. Rather, they had first appeared in the Zagros Mountains of what is today northwestern Iran. The ethnic affiliation of the Kassites is unclear. Still, their language was not Semitic or Indo-European , and is thought to have been either a language isolate or possibly related to the Hurro-Urartian language family of Anatolia, although
9891-588: The Amorite states of the Levant (modern Syria and Jordan ) including the powerful kingdoms of Mari and Yamhad . Hammurabi then entered into a protracted war with the Old Assyrian Empire for control of Mesopotamia and dominance of the Near East. Assyria had extended control over much of the Hurrian and Hattian parts of southeast Anatolia from the 21st century BC, and from the latter part of
10048-473: The Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I (1243–1207 BC) routed his armies, sacked and burned Babylon and set himself up as king, ironically becoming the first native Mesopotamian to rule the Mesopotamian populated state, its previous rulers having all been non-Mesopotamian Amorites and Kassites. Kashtiliash himself was taken to Ashur as a prisoner of war. An Assyrian governor/king named Enlil-nadin-shumi
10205-552: The Assyrian king) in 1333 BC, a usurper named Nazi-Bugaš deposed him, enraging Ashur-uballit I , who invaded and sacked Babylon, slew Nazi-Bugaš, annexed Babylonian territory for the Middle Assyrian Empire, and installed Kurigalzu II (1345–1324 BC) as his vassal ruler of Babylonia. Soon after Arik-den-ili succeeded the throne of Assyria in 1327 BC, Kurigalzu II attacked Assyria in an attempt to reassert Babylonian power. After some impressive initial successes he
10362-624: The Crazy Horse in Paris directed the film,"Crazy Horse de Paris" [1977]. Paul Raymond's Erotica (1981) stars Brigitte Lahaie and Diana Cochran and was directed by Brian Smedley-Aston. The Dance routines were filmed at the Raymond Revuebar Theatre. In addition to lesser-known videos such as A Night at the Revuebar (1983), the 1980s also featured mainstream films involving stripping. These included Flashdance (1983), which told
10519-419: The Dior dress was directly inspired by Pejoski's iconic 2001 creation. However, only a few days later, Dior openly defended the inspiration of the dress referring to it on its Twitter account as a recreation of a costume worn by Marlene Dietrich, who was, famously, an important and loyal client of the French brand during the 40s and 50s. Notably, Chiuri's 2021 Dior dress featured feathered swan-wings spanning over
10676-433: The Elamite capital, the city of Susa, which was sacked. After this a puppet ruler was placed on the Elamite throne, subject to Babylonia. Kurigalzu I maintained friendly relations with Assyria, Egypt and the Hittites throughout his reign. Kadashman-Enlil I (1374–1360 BC) succeeded him, and continued his diplomatic policies. Burna-Buriash II ascended to the throne in 1359 BC, he retained friendly relations with Egypt, but
10833-438: The Elamite ruler Shutruk-Nakhunte eventually conquered most of eastern Babylonia. Enlil-nadin-ahhe (1157–1155 BC) was finally overthrown and the Kassite dynasty ended after Ashur-dan I conquered yet more of northern and central Babylonia, and the equally powerful Shutruk-Nahhunte pushed deep into the heart of Babylonia itself, sacking the city and slaying the king. Poetical works have been found lamenting this disaster. Despite
10990-559: The French fashion house Dior , designed a collection strongly inspired by Hellenistic culture, the Olympic Games , and Ancient Greek Mythology, and showed it at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens as an homage to the Olympic tradition (the collection was shown a month before the beginning of the 2020 Summer Olympics ). The collection's closing pièce de résistance was a Leda-inspired swan dress. The immediate visual similarity between Chiuri's swan Dress and Björk's swan dress sparked excitement on social media as most people inevitably thought
11147-427: The Greeks at Troy, was also supposed to have hatched from one of Leda's eggs. The poem is regularly praised as one of Yeats's masterpieces. Camille Paglia , who called the poem "the greatest poem of the twentieth century," and said "all human beings, like Leda, are caught up moment by moment in the 'white rush' of experience. For Yeats, the only salvation is the shapeliness and stillness of art." See external links for
11304-762: The Gutians from southern Mesopotamia in 2161 BC as suggested by surviving tablets and astronomy simulations. They also seem to have gained ascendancy over much of the territory of the Akkadian speaking kings of Assyria in northern Mesopotamia for a time. Followed by the collapse of the Sumerian "Ur-III" dynasty at the hands of the Elamites in 2002 BC, the Amorites ("Westerners"), a foreign Northwest Semitic-speaking people, began to migrate into southern Mesopotamia from
11461-458: The Hittites under king Mursili I is considered crucial to the various calculations of the early chronology of the ancient Near East , as it is taken as a fixed point in the discussion. Suggestions for its precise date vary by as much as 230 years, corresponding to the uncertainty regarding the length of the "Dark Age" of the much later Late Bronze Age collapse , resulting in the shift of the entire Bronze Age chronology of Mesopotamia with regard to
11618-573: The Renaissance, including cycles of book illustrations to Ovid, but most were derivative of the compositions mentioned above. The subject remained largely confined to Italy, and sometimes France – Northern versions are rare. After something of a hiatus in the 18th and early 19th centuries (apart from a very sensuous Boucher , ), Leda and the Swan became again a popular motif in the later 19th and 20th centuries, with many Symbolist and Expressionist treatments. Also from that era were sculptures of
11775-678: The Swan . From these accounts, it appears that the practice was hardly exceptional nor new. It was, however, actively opposed by the Christian Church , which succeeded in obtaining statutes banning it in the following century. The degree to which these statutes were subsequently enforced is, of course, opened to question. What is certain is that no practice of the sort is reported in texts of the European Middle Ages. An early version of striptease became popular in England at
11932-505: The Swan in 2018 after an earlier work by François Boucher . Figgis’ contemporary version reinvents the idyllic romantic scene of lavish playfulness with a dark humor creating a scene of profanity and horror. There is a sculpture in neon lights depicting Leda and the Swan in Berlin, near Sonnenallee metro station and the Estrel hotel, designed by AES+F . Photographer Charlie White included
12089-578: The Swan, with the two sets of infant twins (also nude), and their huge broken egg-shells. The original of this is lost, possibly deliberately destroyed, and was last recorded in the French royal Château de Fontainebleau in 1625 by Cassiano dal Pozzo . However it is known from many copies, of which the earliest are probably the Spiridon Leda , perhaps by a studio assistant and now in the Uffizi , and
12246-599: The U.S., laws forbid the exposure of female (though not male) nipples, which must be covered by pasties . In early 2010, the city of Detroit banned fully exposed breasts in its strip clubs, following the example of Houston, where a similar ordinance was implemented in 2008. The city council has since softened the rules, eliminating the requirement for pasties but keeping other restrictions. Both cities were reputed to have rampant occurrences of illicit activity linked to striptease establishments. For some jurisdictions, even certain postures can be considered "indecent" (such as spreading
12403-521: The UK and Chippendales in the US. Male strippers have become a popular option to have at a bachelorette party . A variation on striptease is private dancing, which often involves lap dancing or contact dancing. Here the performers, in addition to stripping for tips, also offer "private dances" which involve more attention for individual audience members. Variations include private dances like table dancing where
12560-419: The UK as Striptease Lady ) (1943) based on the novel The G-String Murders (1941), by famous striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, stars Barbara Stanwyck as a stripper who gets involved in the investigation of murders at a burlesque house. A play by Gypsy Rose Lee entitled The Naked Genius (1943) was the inspiration for Doll Face (1945), a musical about a burlesque star ( Vivian Blaine ) who wants to become
12717-540: The United Kingdom), theaters and music halls . At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at a bachelor or bachelorette party . In addition to providing adult entertainment , stripping can be a form of sexual play between partners. This can be done as an impromptu event or – perhaps for a special occasion – with elaborate planning involving fantasy wear , music, special lighting, practiced dance moves, or unrehearsed dance moves. Striptease involves
12874-512: The act as the origin of modern striptease. In 1905, the notorious Dutch dancer Mata Hari , later shot as a spy by the French authorities during World War I, was an overnight success from the debut of her act at the Musée Guimet . The most celebrated segment of her act was her progressive shedding of clothing until she wore just a jeweled bra and some ornaments over her arms and head but exposing her pubic region. Another landmark performance
13031-624: The chest and shoulder. This dramatic detail, taken directly from Dietrich's costume from 1935, sets Chiuri's dress for Dior entirely apart from Björk's red-carpet dress, and makes it, irrefutably, a reference to Dietrich's costume, and by extension, to the myth of Leda and the Swan. A version of the Leda and the Swan story is the foundation myth in the Canadian futuristic thriller television series Orphan Black which aired over 5 seasons from 2013 to 2017. A corporation uses genetic engineering to create
13188-443: The classic American burlesque striptease of the early half of the 20th century. New Burlesque focuses on dancing, costumes and entertainment (which may include comedy and singing) and generally eschews full nudity or toplessness. Some burlesquers of the past have become instructors and mentors to New Burlesque performers such as The Velvet Hammer Burlesque and The World Famous Pontani Sisters . The pop group Pussycat Dolls began as
13345-399: The dance in the earlier sections. Striptease dance routines are usually improvised, except for male strippers who generally choreograph their performances and focus as much on the earlier sections as the later. Recently pole dancing has come to dominate the world of striptease. In the late 20th century, pole dancing was practised in exotic dance clubs in Canada. These clubs grew up to become
13502-557: The death of Hammurabi, his empire began to disintegrate rapidly. Under his successor Samsu-iluna (1749–1712 BC) the far south of Mesopotamia was lost to a native Akkadian-speaking king Ilum-ma-ili who ejected the Amorite-ruled Babylonians. The south became the native Sealand Dynasty , remaining free of Babylon for the next 272 years. Both the Babylonians and their Amorite rulers were driven from Assyria to
13659-605: The delightful music, and only the lovers were allowed to watch the performances. An Arabic custom, first noted by French colonialists and described by the French novelist Gustave Flaubert may have influenced the French striptease. The dances of the Ghawazee in North Africa and Egypt consisted of the erotic dance of the bee performed by a woman known as Kuchuk Hanem . In this dance, the performer disrobes as she searches for an imaginary bee trapped within her garments. It
13816-669: The disaster that awaited those suffering from the pride of Hubris . Especially in art, the degree of consent by Leda to the relationship seems to vary considerably; there are numerous depictions, for example by Leonardo da Vinci , that show Leda affectionately embracing the swan, as their children play. The subject was rarely seen in the large-scale sculpture of antiquity, although a representation of Leda in sculpture has been attributed in modern times to Timotheus ( compare illustration, below left ); small-scale sculptures survive showing both reclining and standing poses, in cameos and engraved gems , rings, and terracotta oil lamps. Thanks to
13973-459: The early Amorite rulers were largely held in vassalage to Elam. Babylon remained a minor town in a small state until the reign of its sixth Amorite ruler, Hammurabi , during 1792–1750 BC (or c. 1728 –1686 BC in the short chronology ). He conducted major building work in Babylon, expanding it from a small town into a great city worthy of kingship. A very efficient ruler, he established
14130-403: The empress. This account is heavily disputed for the biases Roman aristocrats including Procopius had towards the role of women and the reputation of actresses and sex workers at the time. The subject undoubtedly owed its 16th-century popularity to the paradox that it was considered more acceptable to depict a woman in the act of copulation with a swan than with a man. The earliest depictions show
14287-530: The evidence for its genetic affiliation is meager due to the scarcity of extant texts. That said, several Kassite leaders may have borne Indo-European names , and they may have had an Indo-European elite similar to the Mitanni elite that later ruled over the Hurrians of central and eastern Anatolia, while others had Semitic names. The Kassites renamed Babylon Karduniaš and their rule lasted for 576 years,
14444-431: The film in a cameo role. Massive Attack : Eleven Promos. "Be Thankful For What You've Got" (1992), directed by Baillie Walsh, includes one dance routine by Ritzy Sparkle at the Raymond Revuebar Theatre. Exotica (1994), directed by Atom Egoyan , is set in a Canadian lap-dance club, and portrays a man's ( Bruce Greenwood ) obsession with a schoolgirl stripper named Christina ( Mia Kirshner ). Showgirls (1995)
14601-490: The first mention of her removing seven veils occurs in Oscar Wilde 's play Salome , in 1893. In ancient Greece, the lawgiver Solon established several classes of prostitutes in the late 6th century BC. Among these classes of prostitutes were the auletrides : female dancers, acrobats, and musicians, noted for dancing naked in an alluring fashion in front of audiences of men. In ancient Rome , dance featuring stripping
14758-518: The introduction of the Policing and Crime Act 2009 , a local authority licence is required for venues in England and Wales (and later Scotland) where live nude entertainment takes place more than 11 times a year. The legal status of striptease in Iceland was changed in 2010, when Iceland outlawed striptease. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir , Iceland's prime minister said: "The Nordic countries are leading
14915-496: The invading Amorites to the south and Elamites to the east, but there is no explicit record of that, and some scholars believe the Assyrian kings were merely giving preferential trade agreements to the south. These policies, whether military, economic or both, were continued by his successors Erishum I and Ikunum . However, when Sargon I (1920–1881 BC) succeeded as king in Assyria in 1920 BC, he eventually withdrew Assyria from
15072-528: The king lists of some of these states (such as Eshnunna and Assyria ) between the 29th and 25th centuries BC. Traditionally, the major religious center of all Mesopotamia was the city of Nippur where the god Enlil was supreme, and it would remain so until replaced by Babylon during the reign of Hammurabi in the mid-18th century BC. The Akkadian Empire (2334–2154 BC) saw the Akkadian Semites and Sumerians of Mesopotamia unite under one rule, and
15229-408: The late 2000s (decade) to the present day with high-profile adult film performers such as Jenna Haze and Teagan Presley scheduling feature shows through the US. In December 2006, a Norwegian court ruled that striptease is an art form and made strip clubs exempt from value added tax . In the latter 1990s, a number of solo performers and dance groups emerged to create Neo-burlesque , a revival of
15386-417: The law. These allowed a naked dancer's body to be concealed by her fans or those of her attendants, until the end of an act, when she posed naked for a brief interval whilst standing stock still, and the lights went out or the curtain dropped to allow her to leave the stage. Changes in the law in the 1960s brought about a boom of strip clubs in Soho, with "fully nude" dancing and audience participation. Following
15543-430: The legs). In Britain in the 1930s, when the Windmill Theatre , London, began to present nude shows, British law prohibited performers moving whilst in a state of nudity. To get around that rule, models appeared naked in stationary tableaux vivants . To keep within the law, sometimes devices were used which rotated the models without them moving themselves. Fan dances were another device used to keep performances within
15700-497: The letter of the law by not moving of their own volition. Another example of the way the shows stayed within the law was the fan dance , in which a naked dancer's body was concealed by her fans and those of her attendants, until the end of her act in when she posed nude for a brief interval whilst standing still. In 1942, Phyllis Dixey formed her own company of girls and rented the Whitehall Theatre in London to put on
15857-635: The literary renditions of Ovid and Fulgentius it was a well-known myth through the Middle Ages, but emerged more prominently as a classicizing theme, with erotic overtones , in the Italian Renaissance. The historian Procopius claims, in his Secret History, that the Roman Empress Theodora acted in a reproduction of this particular myth at some point in her youth in the early sixth century CE prior to her becoming
16014-489: The longest dynasty in Babylonian history. This new foreign dominion offers a striking analogy to the roughly contemporary rule of the Semitic Hyksos in ancient Egypt . Most divine attributes ascribed to the Amorite kings of Babylonia disappeared at this time; the title "god" was never given to a Kassite sovereign. Babylon continued to be the capital of the kingdom and one of the holy cities of western Asia, where
16171-593: The loss of territory, general military weakness, and evident reduction in literacy and culture, the Kassite dynasty was the longest-lived dynasty of Babylon, lasting until 1155 BC, when Babylon was conquered by Shutruk-Nakhunte of Elam, and reconquered a few years later by the Nebuchadnezzar I , part of the larger Late Bronze Age collapse. The Elamites did not remain in control of Babylonia long, instead entering into an ultimately unsuccessful war with Assyria, allowing Marduk-kabit-ahheshu (1155–1139 BC) to establish
16328-510: The modern striptease lies in Oscar Wilde 's play Salome (play) , in 1893. In the Dance of the Seven Veils , the female protagonist dances for King Herod and slowly removes her veils until she lies naked. After Wilde's play and Richard Strauss 's operatic version of the same , first performed in 1905, the erotic "dance of the seven veils" became a standard routine for dancers in opera, vaudeville, film and burlesque . A famous early practitioner
16485-477: The most famous striptease artists of all time, approved of the term. The origins of striptease as a performance art are disputed and various dates and occasions have been given from ancient Babylonia to 20th century America. The term "striptease" was first recorded in 1932. There is a stripping aspect in the ancient Sumerian myth of the descent of the goddess Inanna into the Underworld (or Kur). At each of
16642-477: The mountains of what is today northwest Iran. Babylon was then attacked by the Indo-European-speaking , Anatolia-based Hittites in 1595 BC. Shamshu-Ditana was overthrown following the "sack of Babylon" by the Hittite king Mursili I . The Hittites did not remain for long, but the destruction wrought by them finally enabled their Kassite allies to gain control. The date of the sack of Babylon by
16799-647: The native Mesopotamian king of Assyria, but successfully went to war with the Hittite Empire , and twenty-four years after, the Hittites took the sacred statue of Marduk , he recovered it and declared the god equal to the Kassite deity Shuqamuna . Burnaburiash I succeeded him and drew up a peace treaty with the Assyrian king Puzur-Ashur III , and had a largely uneventful reign, as did his successor Kashtiliash III . The Sealand Dynasty of southern Mesopotamia remained independent of Babylonia and like Assyria
16956-428: The north by an Assyrian-Akkadian governor named Puzur-Sin c. 1740 BC , who regarded king Mut-Ashkur as both a foreign Amorite and a former lackey of Babylon. After six years of civil war in Assyria, a native king named Adasi seized power c. 1735 BC , and went on to appropriate former Babylonian and Amorite territory in central Mesopotamia, as did his successor Bel-bani . Amorite rule survived in
17113-423: The north. Around 1894 BC, an Amorite chieftain named Sumu-abum appropriated a tract of land which included the then relatively small city of Babylon from the neighbouring minor city-state of Kazallu , of which it had initially been a territory, turning his newly acquired lands into a state in its own right. His reign was concerned with establishing statehood amongst a sea of other minor city-states and kingdoms in
17270-555: The northern Levant , gradually gaining control over most of southern Mesopotamia, where they formed a series of small kingdoms, while the Assyrians reasserted their independence in the north. The states of the south were unable to stem the Amorite advance, and for a time may have relied on their fellow Akkadians in Assyria for protection. King Ilu-shuma ( c. 2008 –1975 BC) of the Old Assyrian period (2025–1750 BC) in
17427-581: The older tradition of burlesque dancing. Carol Doda of the Condor Night Club in the North Beach section of San Francisco is given the credit of being the first topless go-go dancer. The club opened in 1964 and Doda's première topless dance occurred on the evening of June 19 of that year. The large lit sign in front of the club featured a picture of her with red lights on her breasts . The club went "bottomless" on September 3, 1969 and began
17584-558: The one at Wilton House in the United Kingdom (illustrated). Also lost, and probably deliberately destroyed, is Michelangelo 's tempera painting of the pair making love, commissioned in 1529 by Alfonso d'Este for his palazzo in Ferrara , and taken to France for the royal collection in 1532; it was at Fontainebleau in 1536. Michelangelo's cartoon for the work—given to his assistant Antonio Mini, who used it for several copies for French patrons before his death in 1533—survived for over
17741-418: The pair love-making with some explicitness—more so than in any depictions of a human pair made by artists of high quality in the same period. The fate of the erotic album I Modi some years later shows why this was so. The theme remained a dangerous one in the Renaissance, as the fates of the three best known paintings on the subject demonstrate. The earliest depictions were all in the more private medium of
17898-468: The performer dances on or by customer's table rather than the customer being seated in a couch. From ancient times to the present day, striptease was considered a form of public nudity and subject to legal and cultural prohibitions on moral and decency grounds. Such restrictions have been embodied in venue licensing regulations, and national and local laws, including liquor licensing restrictions. Numerous U.S. jurisdictions have enacted laws regulating
18055-407: The present day. An interesting custom in these pubs is that the strippers walk round and collect money from the customers in a beer jug before each individual performance. This custom appears to have originated in the late 1970s when topless go-go dancers first started collecting money from the audience as the fee for going "fully nude". Private dances of a more raunchy nature are sometimes available in
18212-407: The priests of the ancient Mesopotamian religion were all-powerful, and the only place where the right to inheritance of the short lived old Babylonian empire could be conferred. Babylonia experienced short periods of relative power, but in general proved to be relatively weak under the long rule of the Kassites, and spent long periods under Assyrian and Elamite domination and interference. It
18369-416: The region stability after turbulent times, and coalesced the patchwork of small states into a single nation; it is only from the time of Hammurabi that southern Mesopotamia acquired the name Babylonia . Hammurabi turned his disciplined armies eastwards and invaded the region which a thousand years later became Iran , conquering Elam , Gutium , Lullubi , Turukku and Kassites . To the west, he conquered
18526-477: The region would remain an important cultural center, even under its protracted periods of outside rule. Mesopotamia had already enjoyed a long history before the emergence of Babylon, with Sumerian civilization emerging in the region c. 5400 BC , and the Akkadian-speakers who would go on to form Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia appearing somewhere between the 35th and 30th century BC. During
18683-592: The region, preferring to concentrate on continuing the vigorous expansion of Assyrian colonies in Anatolia at the expense of the Hurrians and Hattians and the Amorite inhabited Levant , and eventually southern Mesopotamia fell to the Amorites. During the first centuries of what is called the "Amorite period", the most powerful city-states in the south were Isin , Eshnunna and Larsa , together with Assyria in
18840-410: The region. However, Sumu-abum appears never to have bothered to give himself the title of King of Babylon , suggesting that Babylon itself was still only a minor town or city, and not worthy of kingship. He was followed by Sumu-la-El , Sabium , and Apil-Sin , each of whom ruled in the same vague manner as Sumu-abum, with no reference to kingship of Babylon itself being made in any written records of
18997-408: The resurgent Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1050 BC) to the north was now encroaching into northern Babylonia, and as a symbol of peace, the Babylonian king took the daughter of the powerful Assyrian king Ashur-uballit I in marriage. He also maintained friendly relations with Suppiluliuma I , ruler of the Hittite Empire . He was succeeded by Kara-ḫardaš (who was half Assyrian, and the grandson of
19154-452: The role of Henry Chinaski - an alter ego of Charles Bukowski , who wrote the novel on which the film is based) having an artistic epiphany whilst watching a stripper in a strip club. I Know Who Killed Me (2007) stars Lindsay Lohan as Dakota Moss, an alluring stripper involved in the machinations of a serial killer, and features a long striptease sequence at a strip club. Planet Terror (2007) stars Rose McGowan as Cherry Darling,
19311-459: The same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra , children of her husband Tyndareus , the King of Sparta . According to many versions of the story, Zeus took the form of a swan and raped Leda on the same night she slept with her husband King Tyndareus . In some versions, she laid two eggs from which the children hatched. In other versions, Helen is a daughter of Nemesis , the goddess who personified
19468-438: The sense of bodily contact was forbidden by law. "Feature shows" are used to generate interest from potential customers who otherwise would not visit the establishment but know the performer from other outlets. A headlining star of a striptease show is referred to as a feature dancer , and is often a performer with credits such as contest titles or appearances in adult films or magazines. The decades-old practice continued through
19625-501: The sequence established in Burlesque : commencing in a dress, baring the upper body first, and continuing to a final reveal of the pelvic region. The traditional performance ended at this point, but modern acts usually continue with a nude dance section. This last element forms the major part of the act in small strip clubs and bars, but performances in larger venues (such as those done by feature dancers ) usually place as much weight on
19782-573: The seven gates, she removed an article of clothing or a piece of jewelry. As long as she remained in hell, the earth was barren. When she returned, fecundity abounded. Some believe this myth was embodied in the dance of the seven veils of Salome , who danced for King Herod , as mentioned in the New Testament in Matthew 14:6 and Mark 6:21-22. However, although the Bible records Salome's dance,
19939-416: The song "Power and Glory" from Lou Reed 's 1992 album Magic and Loss , Reed recalls the experience of seeing his friend dying of cancer and makes reference to the myth: I saw isotopes introduced into his lungs trying to stop the cancerous spread And it made me think of Leda and The Swan and gold being made from lead Sylvia Plath alludes to the myth in her radio play Three Women written for
20096-457: The south Assyrian city of Ekallatum before ultimately suffering defeat at the hands of Ashur-Dan I . Leda and the Swan Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus , in the form of a swan , seduces or rapes Leda , a Spartan queen. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces , children of Zeus, while at
20253-549: The story of blue-collar worker Alexandra (Alex) Owens ( Jennifer Beals ), who works as an exotic dancer in a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania bar at night and at a steel mill as a welder during the day. Stripping also was part of "genre" films, such as horror thriller Fear City (1984), by Abel Ferrara , about a mass-murderer who terrorizes dancers working at a seedy strip club in Times Square , New York City . The erotic drama 9½ Weeks (1986) depicted Kim Basinger stripping to
20410-455: The striptease. One of the more notorious local ordinances is San Diego Municipal Code 33.3610, specific and strict in response to allegations of corruption among local officials which included contacts in the nude entertainment industry. Among its provisions is the "six-foot rule", copied by other municipalities, that requires that dancers maintain a six-foot (1.8 m) distance while performing. Other rules forbid "full nudity". In some parts of
20567-520: The theme by Antonin Mercié and Max Klinger . Cy Twombly executed an abstract version of Leda and the Swan in 1962. It was purchased by Larry Gagosian for $ 52.9 million at Christie's May 2017 Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale. Avant-garde filmmaker Kurt Kren along with other members of the Viennese Actionist movement, including Otto Muehl and Hermann Nitsch , made
20724-428: The throne, and soon came into conflict with Elam, to the east. When Ḫur-batila , the successor of Tepti Ahar took the throne of Elam, he began raiding the Babylonia, taunting Kurigalzu to do battle with him at Dūr-Šulgi . Kurigalzu launched a campaign which resulted in the abject defeat and capture of Ḫur-batila, who appears in no other inscriptions. He went on to conquer the eastern lands of Elam. This took his army to
20881-484: The time of the Restoration . A striptease was incorporated into the Restoration comedy The Rover , written by Aphra Behn in 1677. The stripper is a man; an English country gentleman who sensually undresses and goes to bed in a love scene. (However, the scene is played for laughs; the prostitute he thinks is going to bed with him robs him, and he ends up having to crawl out of the sewer.) The concept of striptease
21038-489: The time. Sin-Muballit was the first of these Amorite rulers to be regarded officially as a king of Babylon , and then on only one single clay tablet. Under these kings, Babylonia remained a small nation which controlled very little territory, and was overshadowed by neighbouring kingdoms that were both older, larger, and more powerful, such as; Isin, Larsa, Assyria to the north and Elam to the east in ancient Iran. The Elamites occupied huge swathes of southern Mesopotamia, and
21195-547: The time. In addition, a sculptural group, similar to the Prado Roman group illustrated, was believed until at least the 19th century to be by Michelangelo. The last very famous Renaissance painting of the subject is Correggio 's elaborate composition of c. 1530 (Berlin); this too was damaged whilst in the collection of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans , the Regent of France in the minority of Louis XV . His son Louis , though
21352-536: The title role. A documentary film, Dawn in Piccadilly , was produced in 1962 at the Windmill Theatre. In 1964, We Never Closed (British Movietone) depicted the last night of the Windmill Theatre. In 1965, the feature film Viva Maria! starred Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau as two girls who perform a striptease act and get involved in revolutionary politics in South America. Also produced in 1965
21509-503: The trend of explicit " full nudity " in American striptease dancing. which was picked up by other establishments such as Apartment A Go Go . San Francisco is also the location of the notorious Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre . Originally an X-rated movie theater this striptease club pioneered lap dancing in 1980, and was a major force in popularizing it in strip clubs on a nationwide and eventually worldwide basis. In Britain in
21666-480: The tune of "You Can Leave Your Hat On" by Joe Cocker . Stripped to Kill (1987) was an exploitation film from Roger Corman about a lady cop who poses as a stripper to catch a murderer; which was followed by a sequel of the same name. Ladykillers (1988), was a 'whodunnit' murder mystery involving the murders of male strippers by an unknown female assailant. Blaze (1989) features Lolita Davidovitch as notorious stripper Blaze Starr . Starr herself appears in
21823-572: The undressing was finished, though recently strippers may continue dancing in the nude. The costume the stripper wears before disrobing can form part of the act. In some cases, audience interaction can form part of the act, with the audience urging the stripper to remove more clothing, or the stripper approaching the audience to interact with them. Striptease and public nudity have been subject to legal and cultural prohibitions and other aesthetic considerations and taboos . Restrictions on venues may be through venue licensing requirements and constraints and
21980-462: The way on women's equality, recognizing women as equal citizens rather than commodities for sale." The politician behind the bill, Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir , said: "It is not acceptable that women or people in general are a product to be sold." Mary Martin reprised her famous fur coat striptease of " My Heart Belongs to Daddy " in the 1940 movie Love Thy Neighbor and the 1946 Cole Porter biopic Night and Day . Lady of Burlesque (known in
22137-547: Was Carousella , a documentary about Soho striptease artistes, directed by John Irvin . Another documentary film, which looked at the unglamorous side of striptease, is the 1966 film called,"Strip", filmed at the Phoenix Club in Soho. Secrets of a Windmill Girl (1966) featured Pauline Collins and April Wilding and was directed by Arnold L. Miller . The film has some fan dancing scenes danced by an ex-Windmill Theatre artiste. The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) gives
22294-484: Was Maud Allan , who in 1907 gave a private performance for King Edward VII . In the 1880s and 1890s, Parisian shows such as the Moulin Rouge and Folies Bergère were featuring attractive scantily clad women dancing and tableaux vivants . In this environment, an act in the 1890s featured a woman who slowly removed her clothes in a vain search for a flea crawling on her body. The People's Almanac credits
22451-481: Was also widely known, as can be seen in the reference to it in Thomas Otway 's comedy The Soldier's Fortune (1681), where a character says: "Be sure they be lewd, drunken, stripping whores". Striptease became standard fare in the brothels of 18th century London , where the women, called "posture girls", would strip naked on tables for popular entertainment. Striptease was also combined with music, as in
22608-462: Was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria and Iran ). It emerged as an Akkadian populated but Amorite -ruled state c. 1894 BC . During the reign of Hammurabi and afterwards, Babylonia was retrospectively called "the country of Akkad" ( māt Akkadī in Akkadian),
22765-529: Was around 800 km from the conquered Aleppo to reach the Euphrates, located to the east, skirting around Assyria, and then to the south along the course of the river to reach finally Babylon. His conquest of Babylon brought to an end the dynasty of Hammurabi, and although the Hittite text, Telipinu Proclamation, does not mention Samsu-ditana, and the Babylonian Chronicle 20 does not mention
22922-400: Was born to a mother named Leda and swans appear in several of the novels. In 1935, German-born movie star Marlene Dietrich wore a dramatically designed Leda costume to a Hollywood costume party. Designed by the acclaimed costume designer Travis Banton , a longtime Dietrich collaborator, the white tulle and feather dress featured a thigh-slit, a mid-length train and, most characteristically,
23079-616: Was directed by Paul Verhoeven and starred Elizabeth Berkley and Gina Gershon . Striptease (1996), was an adaptation of the novel starring Demi Moore . Barb Wire (1996), starred Pamela Anderson (of Baywatch fame), who performs a wet striptease. The Full Monty (1997) is a story of British ex-steel workers who form a Chippendales-style dance revue and decide to strip naked to make an extra buck. It featured songs including an updated version of David Rose 's big hit The Stripper and Tom Jones 's version of "You Can Leave Your Hat On". The Players Club (1998) starred LisaRaye as
23236-442: Was followed by Ammi-Ditana and then Ammi-Saduqa , both of whom were in too weak a position to make any attempt to regain the many territories lost after the death of Hammurabi, contenting themselves with peaceful building projects in Babylon itself. Samsu-Ditana was to be the last Amorite ruler of Babylon. Early in his reign he came under pressure from the Kassites , a people speaking an apparent language isolate originating in
23393-470: Was in native Akkadian-speaking hands. Ulamburiash managed to attack it and conquered parts of the land from Ea-gamil , a king with a distinctly Sumerian name, around 1450 BC, whereupon Ea-Gamil fled to his allies in Elam. The Sealand Dynasty region still remained independent, and the Kassite king seems to have been unable to finally conquer it. Ulamburiash began making treaties with ancient Egypt , which then
23550-508: Was part of the entertainments ( ludi ) at the Floralia , an April festival in honor of the goddess Flora . Empress Theodora , wife of 6th-century Byzantine emperor Justinian is reported by several ancient sources to have started in life as a courtesan and actress who performed in acts inspired from mythological themes and in which she disrobed "as far as the laws of the day allowed". She was famous for her striptease performance of Leda and
23707-538: Was placed on the throne to rule as viceroy to Tukulti-Ninurta I, and Kadashman-Harbe II and Adad-shuma-iddina succeeded as Assyrian governor/kings,also subject to Tukulti-Ninurta I until 1216 BC. Babylon did not begin to recover until late in the reign of Adad-shuma-usur (1216–1189 BC), as he too remained a vassal of Assyria until 1193 BC. However, he was able to prevent the Assyrian king Enlil-kudurri-usur from retaking Babylonia, which, apart from its northern reaches, had mostly shrugged off Assyrian domination during
23864-695: Was ready." describing the unwanted pregnancy. Several references to the myth are presented in novels by Angela Carter , including Nights at the Circus and The Magic Toyshop . In the latter novel, the myth is brought to life in the form of a performance in which a frightened young girl is forced to act as Leda in accompaniment with a large mechanical swan. The myth is also mentioned in Richard Yates ' 1962 novel Revolutionary Road . The character Frank Wheeler, married to April Wheeler, after having had sex with an office secretary ponders what to say as he
24021-526: Was ruling southern Canaan , and Assyria to the north. Agum III also campaigned against the Sealand Dynasty, finally wholly conquering the far south of Mesopotamia for Babylon, destroying its capital Dur-Enlil in the process. From there Agum III extended farther south still, invading what was many centuries later to be called the Arabian Peninsula or Arabia , and conquering the pre-Arab state of Dilmun (in modern Bahrain ). Karaindash built
24178-457: Was shaken loose during a shimmy dance. Burlesque theatres in New York were prohibited from staging striptease performances in a legal ruling of 1937, leading to the decline of these " grindhouses " (named after the bump 'n grind entertainment on offer). However many striptease stars were able to work in other cities and, eventually, nightclubs. The 1960s saw a revival of striptease in the form of topless go-go dancing . This eventually merged with
24335-688: Was the appearance at the Moulin Rouge in 1907 of an actress called Germaine Aymos, who entered dressed only in three very small shells. In the 1920s and 1930s, Josephine Baker danced topless in the danse sauvage at the Folies, and other such performances were provided at the Tabarin . These shows were notable for their sophisticated choreography and often featuring the women in glitzy sequins and feathers. In his 1957 book Mythologies , semiotician Roland Barthes interpreted this Parisian striptease as
24492-527: Was the compilation of the Babylonian law code , which improved the much earlier codes of Sumer , Akkad and Assyria. This was made by order of Hammurabi after the expulsion of the Elamites and the settlement of his kingdom. In 1901, a copy of the Code of Hammurabi was discovered on a stele by Jacques de Morgan and Jean-Vincent Scheil at Susa in Elam, where it had later been taken as plunder. That copy
24649-518: Was ultimately defeated, and lost yet more territory to Assyria. Between 1307 BC and 1232 BC his successors, such as Nazi-Maruttash , Kadashman-Turgu , Kadashman-Enlil II , Kudur-Enlil and Shagarakti-Shuriash , allied with the empires of the Hittites and the Mitanni (who were both also losing swathes of territory to the resurgent Assyrians), in a failed attempt to stop Assyrian expansion. This expansion, nevertheless, continued unchecked. Kashtiliash IV 's (1242–1235 BC) reign ended catastrophically as
#615384