Dancing Naked in the Material World

By Marilyn Suriani Futterman

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087975737X
• ISBN13: 9780879757373
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 137 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

I'm in the book

This book came out about ten years after I posed for the photos in it, so it's very intense to look at them now. I was in my early twenties then, I'm in my midforties now. Although stripping wasn't an ideal job, I got just about exactly what I wanted out of it. Now I have a miraculous career as a cabaret and burlesque performer and teacher, and I always want to pay homage to my roots in the adult entertainment industry. Being involved with this book was an amazing experience. As an activist and out stripper I've been interviewed and photographed and handled by the media a bit, and Marilyn was scrupulously honest and respectful with all of us. I was thrilled with the results when I saw the book, and it means a lot to me that the women I worked with in that era are represented so simply and clearly and realistically. The pictures tell stories words just can't. I'm writing this review very late in the game, considering how long ago the book was published, but I just wanted to take a minute to give Marilyn props for being an ethical documentarian. A lot of them aren't.

An Excellent Look at Nude Dancers

Marilyn Futterman is a photographer and this is largely a book of her photographs. Almost every other page contains a photograph or photographs and most of them are of women dancers in revealing costumes. Yet seldom are the pictures eroticized. They are documentary in nature. All are black-and-white and many use available light. Other were taken with on-camera flash, and still others were taken in a studio setting. The text accompanying the pictures are the dancers own words. They talk about why they do this work and how they feel about dancing and the customers they dance for. Some are more articulate and insightful than others, but all are thoughtful and personal. The book ends with an article, "Stripping for a Living," by Dr. Jacqueline Boles, a Sociology professor. It describes the history and current setting of nude dancing in American society. All in all, this is a well-conceived and executed documentary on an occupation halfway between entertainer and sex worker. It is a great book for anyone who has wondered about the women who dance in these clubs.

words and pictures

this is an excellent documentary of a variety of strippers spanning a number of years. the pictures are very well done and all of them are evocative. the strippers themselves write commentary about their lives, their work or whatever else pops into their head. it makes for some great and surprising reading. futterman obviously has great empathy for her subjects and this is neccessary in a field where the knee-jerk reaction is limiting stereotypes. i recommend this book as an excellent book for anyone interested in documentaries or strippers.