Howdy Kumquats.
Just popping by with a real-time update for you on how it’s going wrestling the culture back from the most immediate haters. As I said, I believe it’s time for everyone to do a version of this in their lives so that we succeed in restoring some sanity, not to mention actual fun. Somehow, as the control agenda of the owners-controllers has ramped up, the world got populated with all these self-righteous bullies, but we’re taking the playground back. From both the owners and the bullies. This crap has made the culture worse and it needs to be over now.
That’s the mission, folks.
As you recall, last week I wrote at length about my intellectual property complaint regarding a drag queen on television copying a costume that took 2 years to complete and features prominently in my repertoire. Believe it or not, that essay got OVER 1,000 VIEWS on this little Substack. A record! I was shocked. Who knows if it was supporters or haters. Probably both. But if people took the time to read an actual thoughtful essay about it, I applaud them.
The comments on Instagram are definitely coming from the dullest knives in the drawer. Facebook has been better, but that’s because it’s not public. There was a lot of activity on Instagram about my essay too, which quickly segued from being about intellectual property and professional ethics to being about what a “racist trans-phobe” I am for accusing an Asian drag queen of stealing an idea— because THAT could never happen (gasp and clutch pearls here). At first these attacks were coming from the Drag Race fan community. But my personal haters in the burlesque world do not miss a beat! Even after 7 years of policing what I do, you’d think they’d be bored…but NOPE!
After a couple days they caught wind of it and jumped in. Next thing I knew people were sending me private messages of support sharing their stories of being bullied or stolen from. One Native American pinup model reached out to me after one the mean girls in her world posted about what a “trash person” I was. She asked me what I did to deserve that and I told her I told bullies to f*ck off. She was very supportive of me after that because she saw the hateful pattern in this person and took up the defense— shooting back at the idiocy in my comments. Bless her heart!
Another woman from Australia was updating me on what the burlesque trolls were saying in their secret spy camps— they have these private groups on Facebook where they keep track of the people they are blacklisting and torturing. I knew about these groups before I got cancelled— it’s how they spread slander to every corner of the globe so fast. They were all in an uproar— suggesting that the Burlesque Hall of Fame should take back my crown, and saying that I was having a mental break down, like I did in 2017.
One woman of color I knew from the 00s in Baltimore, did try to stand up for me— telling some of the trolls that you can’t be a racist or a transphobe in a city like Baltimore and do what I did, bringing shows to dangerous neighborhoods.
I mean, I was getting very spicy and funny in my comments too, but these people are so immune to humor, you basically have to explain jokes to them. Which kills the magic. So, it wasn’t even fun after a while.
By Saturday, I turned the comments off on my Instagram post so people can see it, but not leave their opinion, and just let it be. It’s up to about 500 views and counting. I really needed to let this go and start promoting my show. I was starting to worry that yet another scandal could get in the way of what I came here to do.
I was also feeling very defiant. Very tired of this nonsense. I arrived back in Baltimore last week and being here connects me back to my roots, of course. One of my main artistic influences from Baltimore is the work of the film director and writer, John Waters. He’s embraced as the patron saint here and has made an entire career out of intentionally pissing off conformists.
In the 70s he invented a drag queen character named Divine with his best friend that he described as a mix of Godzilla and Jayne Mansfield that was intentionally designed to “piss off the hippies.” LOL. He mastered a kind of absurdist social commentary that I find hilarious.
I also thought a lot about the word ‘burlesque’ which means to parody, to make fun of, to mock— to make a burlesque of something. Burlesque evolved out of vaudeville and initially comedic acts alternated with striptease acts. The comedy was inseparable from the sex, until the sexual revolution, legalized nudity and strip clubs.
I also thought about comedians I love, who speak the truth about society. There are so many of them— the greats. Those are my actual heroes, not these knuckleheads. I always try to keep my artistic heroes in the front of my mind. I feel responsible for carrying forward their bravery. My artistic ancestors all had a tough time too. That’s how it works. I used to wonder if you could even BE a great artist and have a good childhood.
Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés always said a version of this too. She said that the story of every artist is the story of the Ugly Duckling. Of trying to fit in with ducks when you’re a swan. You just don’t know it. Being an artist is about discovering who you are, going to find your proper flock and spreading your wings without shame.
Really, that’s not just the work required to be an artist, it’s the work of being human too.
Saturday night, just to amuse myself, I made a joke flyer for my show with National Enquirer style headlines owning all the crap that’s been said about me, but making it a point of pride. It really made me laugh and I wanted to post it just to take the piss out of these people. I slept on it and decided to go for it. Of course that was like throwing a hand grenade in enemy camp, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Taking the piss out of people is really the only way to fight bullies— you deflate their power by making whatever they detest the thing you’re most proud of. That’s called alchemy too, by the way. It’s literally the only way to defeat bullies. It’s why so many people that were bullied are funny. I know that’s what happened to me. The bullied have to become quick on their feet— with wit and a sharp tongue.
If used correctly, as the fuel and motivation that they are, bullies are very useful.
They basically force you to grow your confidence 300% and you never look back.
So, here’s my flyer.
I find it very funny, I crack myself up all the time. The line “You know it’s fun if woke people hate it” is so true! Spoiler alert: they hate EVERYTHING!!!! The trolls did not find this funny when I posted it, of course.
Most of the main haters this time were white women. Definitely clutching the pearls. The white guilt thing is the worst. How people act on behalf of others is WAY more over blown than how they would act on behalf of themselves. Taking the weight of the world on your shoulders like that is sad. I’m sure we’ve all done it at some point, but it’s spiritual immaturity.
At the heart of it, there is this deep self loathing within all of them. I’m acutely aware of the sadness operating beneath the surface of the hatred. I do feel for them, but it’s not a license to drive the culture off a cliff.
I just see the world so differently. I don’t believe we have this one life and that’s it. I believe our souls CHOOSE what body, family and place to be born. Including race or sexual preference or whatever unique combination of strengths and “weaknesses” you have. I put “weakness” in quotes because really those things are like a billboard on the highway indicating where your alchemical work in this lifetime lies.
I believe our souls have an entire soul contract in which we promise to do certain things during our time on Earth and expand our consciousness through the friction and challenges. We only learn anything by being challenged. It’s hard by design. You gotta work for it.
I also wouldn’t dream of treating anyone as if they are powerless or a victim of anything. Not even a prisoner. It strips their power and sovereignty away to pity people like that. We all have immense personal power and dignity at all times— because we are body being driven around by a timeless soul. WE ARE SOURCE. We don’t know the bigger cosmic reasons that people go through hardship. Source operates from the light and the dark, because the contrast of the bitter is what eventually tastes so sweet.
The second you start feeling like a victim, you’re done. You will create more situations that disempower you, thus creating an entire world around you in which you are a victim. That’s why this behavior is so toxic. Focusing on what you don’t want, creates more of what you don’t want. So, it’s reckless and destructive spiritual behavior to me.
Same thing with focusing on war or the oppressors “out there”— you have to be clear on the truth, but use your imagination and focus to envision what you actually want. And then get to work. You have to take the power back, suck out the poison and spit it out. Or else all the fears pile up and you start to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The woke avengers took over the culture at least as far back as 2017. Have they made the world a better place? Not by a long shot. Have they made a new kind of fair and equal society based on love? No. Have they made a party you even want to attend? Hell no.
Why are we letting them keep us trapped in fear? What they have done is used shame, blame and aggression to recreate the exact same conditions and beliefs they claimed to be fighting against. They have made more racists, not less. IT HAS NOT WORKED. Time to pivot.
On top of it, they actually only have power on the internet. This crap doesn’t work in the real world.
Spiritual people have to be very careful about living in the muggle view of the world.
The materialist / muggle view of the world is very dark. They will use their logic and weirdly academic language like a magnifying glass in the sun, to burn us ants right up. They will try to kill your magic. These returning intuitive muscles are very tender. I felt them as a child, but using them to navigate the world as an adult, is a whole other thing.
I also remember what it felt like for me to live disconnected from God-Source-Universe too. It was a long road back. But now I’m working to make a re-enchanted world where our psychic connection to Nature and Spirit is restored.
Connection feels sooooo much better than disconnection. Believing the Universe runs on love is comforting. Yes, we have a lot of work to do, but this process can be quantum now. Get your soul and human self working together and then you get God on board— things can happen like magic. It’s not linear like the muggle world is.
This is all part of the old upside-down world. It’s not coming with us in the new world we are making. Loving ourselves the most is the same as loving Source, Oneness, Divine. Making that flip was not easy. But it is necessary.
There were a few burlesque people of color who stopped by to call me a racist and bigot— which is hate speech, so I reported them. If these gals spent as much time on their art as they do policing other people’s behavior— I might respect their opinion more. It was just the same old crap said by people I’ve never met before.
One interaction really did bum me out. It was with a fan of mine who has been following me for many years. She even had a poster I’d signed in 2008. She was very disappointed in me and told me at length about it. She said if I was silenced and my career, reputation and social life was ruined, it was a consequence of my actions. Meaning I deserved it.
I wouldn’t wish what I went through on my worst enemy. So we disagree there.
I was disappointed in myself that I took the bait from her and got into a long back and forth. Everyone always says not to engage with them. But because she was a way-back fan of mine, I felt bad. I wanted her to see my perspective at least, even if we didn’t agree. Of course it back fired. That ol’ muggle logic twists things around and next thing you know they are using ALL CAPS to blame every injustice in the world on you.
I finally was like— I just don’t agree with you. About anything. Period. Goodbye.
After that, I counted up the lessons I’ve learned from this last round with the trolls and decided to focus on analog methods of promoting my shows so that I can take a break from social media. I’m just tired of it and the internet isn’t coming to my show, real people within a 10 mile radius of me are.
Last night with my girlfriends, we were trying to come up with analog promotion schemes— and our best idea was to borrow a classic Cadillac and decorate it like a parade float so I could cruise around neighborhoods announcing the show on a loud speaker strapped to the roof. I really like this idea.
I’ll keep you posted.
Oh, if you have any friends or Baltimore or Brooklyn, please encourage them to go to my show. Word of mouth is still the best promotion of all.
And let me know if any of them own a classic Cadillac!
Talk soon,
Trixie
PS Here is another smart-sharp clip from Bill Maher, sent to me by one of closest friends, another brilliant performer who was cancelled in the burlesque world too.
In it he asks the question— are these people really all about the cause or is the cause being used as a means to bring them to you?