[220/365] I know why, but still

[cosmolinguist]

A thing I got to ask at my Monday morning team meeting: why is there no audio description at burlesque/drag shows?

It turns out that if they don't have audio description, two visually-impaired people in their might sit there, with only the singing to go on, talking about how much this reminds them of a nativity while someone is literally waving her boobs in their faces and wondering why they aren't reacting at all.

Comments

[otter]

I don't know why they don't, unless it's just that making events accessible isn't commonplace enough yet.

[cosmolinguist]

Some of that. But this was at a Pride and also there's an idea that queer (or indeed even queer-friendly) people can't be disabled as well.

And disabled people are infantalized and desexualized. Many people think we can't have a sexuality or like "sexy" things.

And I imagine it'd be less appealing to companies that do audio description of live events. They might not like what it could imply for their reputation, or struggle (or believe they'd struggle) to find someone who wants to say "nipple" that many times or whatever.

So as well as the logistics of the vast majority of live performances not having audio description, I think things like this are going to be an especially low priority.

[otter]

My experience locally is a that the disabled queers are quite active in building their own burlesque shows, and the kink community has quite a few disabled folks. But I certainly understand that it's been an uphill battle to gain access and acceptance. It's a lot of "by us for us" that isn't really welcomed by the larger community.

[cosmolinguist]

True; I should have mentioned here that this was part of an official Pride, and I expect a lot more "about us without us" at Prides.

[silveradept]

It seems a shame that more things aren't audio-described, but a love burlesque seems like one that would be trickier than usual, since you want to get both the audio content to come through and the visual content, and it feels like trying to describe the visuals while the song was being sing might step on it a little.

[jenett]

One of my coworkers does theatre audio description, and it's even harder than film or recorded video, because figuring out where the gaps in the dialogue are is so tricky. (And that's with a known script and no improving....)

And you don't want to overlap becuase that's super confusing to try and parse, and you lose the content of the song. (I gather a lot of it is "Describe things at the opening and then snag key moments that you couldn't get from the general context." but ... yeah, a lot tricker with a more fluid performance piece.)

[silveradept]

Extra happy fun times. I'm reminded of one of the episodes from the feed of the podcast Twenty Thousand Hertz that was about audio description, following someone who does audio description for his VI friend and I remember the movie that was going to be described was the Marx Brothers comedy Duck Soup, which apparently went over well enough, but that had to have been difficult to describe as the rapid-fire gags are happening, and also if they're funny, it's not like the movie stops for the describer to have a laugh in that situation.

Of course, I'm now also trying to imagine someone trying to practice their live description skills at a cabaret or a strip club, with the same potential situation as described above where there's someone basically describing the routine happening in front of them to the person that came to appreciate it but isn't able to see it as clearly as they might like.

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah I volunteer with an org that does theater etc. audio description here so I know it can be done but I think it requires an incredible skillset! I haven't gotten to experience it yet myself, I've had plenty of AD from TV and movies but nothing from a play or ballet or anything like that, but I'm hoping to soon.

[jesse_the_k]

I look forward to your thoughts!