Always be a Lady
by Peppur Chambers
When I was a little girl, Grandma said, “Always be a Lady”. My lovely grandma, Alice Gordon, passed away on July 4th, 1994. I think of her whenever I see brilliant fireworks and when I’m doing something that she may not have considered genuinely “lady-like”….kinda like when I’m on-stage at The Mint in my silver-studded stilettos, fishnets, red-satin bustier, booty shorts, and garters singing a little ditty I wrote about being a “Sweetie Pie”. See, I perform in a 1940s cabaret that has the tease of burlesque combined with a theatrical element. If Grandma was still alive, and I had to explain what I do, I could mention theater all day long; Grandma wouldn’t care about that. What she would care about is that little B-word: “Burlesque” (that is, if she knew what it meant…Grams was a very religious Apostolic woman, and stopped paying attention to the secular world in the late 40s; she probably would have associated what I do with being some sort’a hootchie cootchie shimmy shake girl.). She’d say in her incredulous whisper, “Whaaaat are you doin’, Sweeeeetheart?” and I’d say, “Gram, I’m acting! I sing! I dance! Everything I always wanted… But I, uh, do it in my underwear. Tastefully! I’m, I’m, I’m still a Lady!”
Am I being a Lady? Grandma would probably say, “NO!” Maybe “Being a Lady” is subjective. Wouldn’t I be quite the hypocrite if I told one woman she was being less than a Lady because she wears booty shorts, a red-satin bustier, silver-studded stilettos and fishnets to a club and shakes her ass like she was competing for the lead spot on a reality show called, “Be My #1 Ho in My Video”? Some would agree and shout “YES!”, while others would disagree with my self-assessed hypocrisy.
Can we agree we need to get back to being a Lady? Can we agree we’ve collectively lost our sophistication and class and that we are not taken seriously…and that to some, we don’t even exist because of it?
Diplomatically, all I can say is that there is a time and a place for everything. I created my cabaret because I wanted to tell my personal relationship story of a woman looking for love in all the wrong places in a way that not only allowed me to perform all of my talents (that LA casting agents don’t seem to recognize), but also empowers me and the Brown Betties on stage with me. We know our world, i.e. media, is quick to marginalize, stereotype, and edit black women into oversexed, underprivileged, un-marriable, brainless, cracked-out, whacked-out discount Barbie Dolls. I want to show the world that I, too, exist and I’m waaay more than what they think I am…that I am a Lady.
In other words, I’m empowered: I have control over my body, my words, my intentions and my image. You do, too and it’s way past-due for all of us to do what my Grandma said and “Always Be A Lady”.
The "Brown Betties” are the sultry, sassy, sophisticated performers of LA’s 1940s bed-time story, “Harlem’s Night: A Cabaret Story” created by Peppur Chambers, in which she also performs.
Peppur is a writer/actor/producer living in LA. Read stories from her forthcoming book, "Making Lemonade: Bittersweet Tales from an Actress Being Squeezed in LA” at www.imapeppur.blogspot.com. She is published in "SPLIT: Stories from a Generation Raised on Divorce" which can be purchased on Amazon.com.
www.brownbetties.com, www.peppurchambers.com
Your E-mail not posted or shared:
Your Comment :
