By Katie Fedosenko
WAGS/SOCI prof wins Clio award for researching the striptease entertainment industry and contributing to Vancouver history
Stanley Park, Gassy Jack, logging, Expo 86-these are some typical topics in the history of Vancouver. The study of exotic dancing, although very economically and socially prominent in the west coast city during the twentieth century, has been virtually ignored until now.
Dr. Becki Ross, Associate Professor of Sociology and Chair of Women’s and Gender Studies, has spent the last ten years developing a comprehensive history of the exotic dancing industry in Vancouver from 1945-1980. She was recently awarded the Clio Prize (British Columbia) by the Canadian Historical Association in recognition of excellence in historical research and writing for her book, Burlesque West: Showgirls, Sex, and Sin in Postwar Vancouver (University of Toronto Press, 2009).
Becki’s research drew on archival sources such as news articles, burlesque costumes, booking agents’ diaries, advertising and maps. She also conducted fifty in-depth interviews with business insiders, including retired dancers, club owners, choreographers, and musicians.
When Becki’s book launched in September 2009, there was an intensity of curiosity from the public and local, national, and international press- quite unusual for scholarly research. Her work was covered in Geist, BC BookWorld, Herizons, Globe and Mail , XTra West newspaper and a variety of blogs. Becki also appeared on CBC’s national radio show The Current, hosted by Anna Maria Tremonti, with two former dancers, Choo Choo Williams, 81, and Foxy Lady, in her early 60s.
Even with all the positive publicity surrounding the book, Becki has had to defend her work, which has been openly debated.
In 2000 when news of Becki’s SSHRC grant for this research was circulated in the local Vancouver press, “the rich, controversial subject provoked heated debate internationally and in the Canadian House of Commons. There was a firestorm of protest and backlash; people argued that it was a worthless waste of taxpayers’ dollars which was better off spent writing histories of men’s experiences in timber, mining & forestry industries, not women’s experiences in the sex industry.” This response reaffirmed for Becki the importance of her study, which helped to fill the yawning gap in Vancouver historiography.
Through Burlesque West, Becki acted as a medium for business insiders to share their stories. Former dancers and club owners have spoken at her book launch at the Vancouver Public Library, which overflowed with attendees, and appeared with her in the media. Furthermore, Burlesque West is a cross-over book that can be enjoyed by many audiences. “I wrote this for my mother, my father and my step-mother,” shared Becki.
“Burlesque West is about entertainment and is itself entertaining. What’s more, Ross knows she’s straddling two worlds with the book. As an educator, she knows she needs to teach. And as a writer on popular culture, she knows the need to delight. Burlesque West accomplishes both.”
-From Xtra article ‘Sexual rebels and striptease artists’
Winning the Clio prize for Becki was very significant. “Peer recognition from other Canadian social historians is so gratifying,” she shared.
Another SSHRC funded project lies ahead for Becki. Continuing to enrich Vancouver history, Becki is researching the expulsion of sex workers from the West End, which she sees as linked to the mass murders and disappearances of sex workers from the early 1980s.
