Abstract

Neon Nightz examines paradoxical notions of worship and intimacy in the sacred yet profane places in which we explore the ideologically linked emotions of desire and shame. It asks the question, is the strip club so different from the holy confession? When oppression, rather than necessity, is viewed as the mother of invention, what do people invent to subvert its tyranny?

It brings together female archetypes that are simultaneously revered and reviled and exposes the myths used to typecast women and the modern applications of religious allegory. It reveals what happens when The Virgin meets The Whore without interference of the masculine saviours who both contrive and condemn them. What happens when the whore speaks for herself, refuting what Louis Althusser would deem the imaginary relationships forced on the real conditions of her existence? If we took this concept, and refused to present it through coy symbolism but insisted on an application where “whored” bodies were also front and centre, we would have to see these spaces for all their complexities.

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