Naked: On Sex, Work, and Other Burlesques

by Fancy Feast

In Naked , a celebrated burlesque performer, sex educator, and social worker bares it all, with incisive and hilarious essays about selling, performing, and consuming desire.

Fancy Feast draws back the curtain to reveal a world that most denizens of the daytime never see. Part exclusive backstage pass, part long-form literary striptease, these essays confront our culture’s tightly held beliefs—like so many clutched pearls—about sex, communication, power, and the messiness of life on the margins of respectability. In “Dildo Lady,” Fancy recounts her time compensating for the failures of the American sex education system while working retail at a sex toy store. In “Doing Yourself,” Fancy tackles fatphobia and dating, self-love, and fantasies. In “Yes/No/Maybe,” Fancy brings the reader from sex parties to polyamorous relationships as she contrasts the undeniable sexiness of enthusiastic consent with the devastating effects of miscommunication and entitlement.

Fancy Feast does this all as a fat woman who makes a living taking off her clothes—a triumphant punch-back at a culture that wants fat people to be self-hating or sexless. For fans of Lindy West and Melissa Febos, Naked is by turns splashy, vulnerable, and always powerful.
 

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Audiobook, Sexuality, Feminism, Essays, Biography Memoir

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2023

Reviews

[aphrodite · Rating 5 out of 5]

as an avid burlesque lover & overall sex positive person this was so—pardon the pun—fucking good.

humorous, vulnerable, empowering, hopeful, and exciting fun. highly, highly recommend to memoir and sex lovers alike.

[Hannah Reber · Rating 5 out of 5]

so beautiful and entertaining and real and raw and mesmerizing. idk how many times i cried

[Kailey Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book I’ve actually finished in a while and it was well worth the journey I am so happy I got to meet Fancy Feast and was introduced to her beautiful essay style. This is the first essay collection I’ve wanted to finish in a long time.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

✨ Review ✨ Naked: On Sex, Work, and Other Burlesques by Fancy Feast

Memoirs and essay collections are far from a favorite genre of mine, but this was incredible. I loved every page of this book! Fancy Feast brings you into her world of burlesque, as well as working in a sex shop, doing sex education, virtual therapy and phone sex during the pandemic, and so much more. I think there probably is some element of voyeuristic exploration of these worlds that she shows us on these pages, but also so many of her messages resonate here in how our culture thinks of sex and work and sex work and artistry and communication, etc. etc.

An important caution that this does talk about her experiences during the COVID era in NYC and working as a virtual therapist as well as the loneliness experienced as the entertainment industry shut down.

Her writing was fierce and vulnerable, and each of these essays grabbed my attention. Highly recommend!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: memoir / essay collection
Setting: NYC
Pub Date: 10 Oct 2023

Thanks to Algonquin Books and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book!

[Emma Story · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really wish I could adequately express how much joy this book has brought me. I've bought it for like five people's birthdays so far, and I intend to recommend it to anyone who ever asks me what burlesque is like, or what New York is like, or what being a person in the world is like. It's perfect, and the audiobook is maybe even the most perfect.

[Maddie Harvala · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, beautiful prose. Not sterile or proper or forced or canned, just fresh candor. As the MC yelled at the burlesque show I bought this at, this is for the sluts who love to read.

[Jessica Mahajan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Through the essays, Fancy Feast weaves you in and out of her life as of a comfortably-sexual burlesque artist and social worker. Each essay caught me by surprise with its powerful social commentary, from the harms caused by lack of sex education to disenfranchised grief to how living her life is easier because she’s “white-enough” and has loving parents. Stories of her different jobs demonstrate the realities of classism, sexism, and racism, pointing out cultural norms that many of us go along with (like hating our own bodies) even when we don’t mean to.

I’m grateful this popped up on my recommended list from the library because I may not have found it otherwise. Fancy Feast brilliantly elicits emotional responses with her stories—humor, sorrow, grief, love,… with so much nuance along the way.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely raw and genuinely poetic. An incredible glimpse into a life of glitter and glamour, workplace comedy and mundanity. And as a fat femme myself, it felt genuinely revolutionary to read about her work and experience her confidence. (I know she gets that a lot, but I am being very earnest here!) A must read!

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will surely be in my list of Top Ten Books of 2024

[KATY MASLOW · Rating 5 out of 5]

Naked is the first book I’ve finished in many moons. Like 24 moons, tbh. But! Not just finished - slow sipped and savored like a glutton. It’s been so long since the whimsy of words have wormwended their way into my brain in this way. This book may say ESSAYS, but I drank these in like liquid smooth prose. Fancy Feast is a poet. The rich world of language, the rocketing imagery, the universe of viscera. And us, with our telescopes, zooming in on the most appealing bits.

For me, it is seeing a world of glamour and thinness through a fat lens. Even more specifically, a fat, queer, Jewish, progressively political lens. It is glitz and glamour; it is big and sassy; it is analytical and class conscious. It is, ultimately, wildly fascinating - and more than that, heartwarming with an immediate tribute to fats and fems in the dedication. For the author often speaks of marginalized identities in a whirlwind of neon splendor and the diurnal doldrums of NYC. The author refers to experiencing the bends when going between selves, and what a ride it is between each incarnation.

From Coney Island to Rikers to the Met; from being a provider of social services and mental health care, to being a provider of sexual services and mental health care. We are taken for an epic journey of perspective shift, but handled with such a caregiver's grace and experience, using humor, honesty, and an artistry of language to charm us. And boy howdy did it work.

Getting Naked, as per usual, leaves you wanting more.

[Ky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not much of a non-fic reader these days but I enjoyed this book SO MUCH! Fancy Feast’s memoirs and essays brought me into the world of burlesque, sex shops, and much more.
Learning about Fancy’s life was so powerful and vulnerable! The way she proudly talks about sex work and sexual artistry all while keeping clear communication with those involved is so inspiring and not something you see talked about enough. AND she does all of this with brilliant comedic anecdotes.
Not one chapter of this book lost my attention.
SUCH a great and insightful read that I recommend to everyone!

Big thanks to Algonquin Books for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. This one comes out 10/10!

[C.M.B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t know what the thesis of this book would be other than: “release your shame around sex & bodies, there is so much fun & joy to be had.” Everyone needs a taste of these essays, especially if you still need to understand that nudity does not equal morality and that SW is work😤

To say this, Fancy Feast takes us through the highs and lows of her own sexual escapades as a fat bodied femme as well as her experience in sex work, namely as a sex shop worker/educator and phone sex operator. She paints riveting pictures of orgies and sex parties, beautifully capturing the unique intimacy that is sexual exploration in spaces meticulously carved for such occasions.

She speaks of burlesque performance with such reverence. Anyone in live, sex-centered entertainment will be able to relate to her articulation of such an exhilarating art form. There’s also many snippets of outrageous and amazing performances she’s done or witnessed over the years in the NYC scene.

“American culture hates it when people financially benefit from sexualized labor.”

“Once you can sell a pair of nipple clamps to just about any stranger in NYC, you have transferable skills.”

She’s sharp as hell & has a tight grip on words.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of all the books I expected the Jewish Book Council to recommend, this was not one of them. However, I'm incredibly grateful they did. I loved that Fancy did not shy from addressing uncomfortable topics, from the lack of adequate sex education curricula in schools to how weight plays into the dating scene. Judging by her writing alone, I can see how Fancy can command a room. There were many moments where I laughed out loud - some not unironically in a therapist's waiting room - and other times where I felt my heart break a little bit at a time. Highly recommend.

A couple of my favorite moments:
"The life of a store-display masturbation sleeve is brutal and short."

"... we are more than who we are on our worst days."

"The me who inventories nipple pasties when I pack for the Slipper Room or the me who makes notes in the margins of the set list for the orgy preshow has just as much of a right to exist as the me who provides therapy from my bed during a pandemic or the me who works a phone sex line or the me who teaches cancer patients about lube."

[Mady · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much! I attended my first burlesque show in 2023 and was awed at the creativity and artistry that goes into each act. When this book popped up on a list of recommended reads, I jumped at the chance to learn more.
Not gonna lie, I listened to the audiobook and I cried at the end. Each essay brought new emotions, questions, learning opportunities and laughs, so I was sad that it had ended.
From being a sex shop worker to sex educator to phone sex operator to burlesque performer and social-worker the many facets of Fancy Feasts’ life are on display. Her emotions are bared in essays that truly capture your attention and ask you to challenge your thoughts on social and political norms. Why do we consider things dirty when so much love, enjoyment, effort and pleasure coalesce in such a situation or space? How might we inhabit spaces that starkly contrast one another and yet still seem to fit together? And oh so many more. I highly recommend giving it a read.

[Bonnie Thrasher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir by Fancy Feast has left me breathless. It should be required reading by every eighteen year old who identifies as female. I have tried twice to vocalize to friends why I am so moved by Fancy’s words. It came out as nonsense. So I’m sure this review will too. The work is just so authentic and relatable although obscure. Fancy is and has always been fat. She doesn’t want nice terms made to make the person saying them feel better. But she’s always wanted to be sexy publicly. Her premise is that these ways of being are unattractive misnomers to most. Sex kittens are tiny. Fat people are jolly but shy. Even the name Fancy Feast has deep meaning. I learned so much about burlesque, communication, and even phone sex. But this isn’t porn. Make no mistake. Brilliant.

[Via :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is so much care and empathy that went into this book. Fancy Feast, a fat, Jewish, burlesque performer (among many other things) takes you through all the different parts of her life, all the different hats she wears. Among the biting, startling accurate commentary on how America treats and views sex workers, fat people, queer people, poc, Jews, anyone who doesn’t fall into the mythical norm. Among stories ranging from Ms Coney Island to becoming a sex phone operator during a global pandemic. Among all of that is such genuine tenderness. Fancy Feast enraptures you with her stories and performances, but you fall for her because of the deep emotional chord she strikes within.

[Sydney McFadden · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars!

This was an excellent collection of essays that utilizes burlesque performer Fancy Feast’s reminiscences on sex, performance, and social work to shine an open, adoring light on the radical, inclusive, liberating essence that exists in the delicious underbelly of our puritanical society.

The writing was beautiful and vulnerable, the audiobook narration equally so. I was thoroughly entertained and enlightened and think this is a criminally under read work. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in memoirs, social commentary, and/or queer shit.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was drawn to read this book as a new burlesque performer, and it didn't disappoint. Even if you have no knowledge of burlesque, it's so well written. I read lots of memoirs and autobiographies, and few are page-turners like this one. Fancy Feast transitions so well between hilarious chapters and others that are traumatic, all of which keep the reader engaged. I laughed, I cried, I would recommend this to everyone.

[Dominique · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this collection of essays after an artist I enjoy recommended it, and Im so glad I did.
I related so hard to the chapter called "Doing Yourself" as someone who is also diagnosed with PCOS. I couldn't help but tear up at our similar experiences as fat femmes, and to just be seen like this, I just knew I was gonna rate this 5 stars.

[Samantha Amberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured this book like bites of cake from Fancy’s manicured fingers. Flash and dazzle with miles of depth packed into every chapter. Long live burlesque, passport and permission slip, birth and death, monstrous and divine. ✨ Now excuse me while I buy a ticket to Tansy’s Carrot Machine at the Slipper Room…

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me so happy, I love it so much. Been trying to migrate back to non-fiction after a near year of nothing but smutty fantasy, and I was having a hard time focusing on books without that pace and content. This was easy to get into, and I can’t believe it took me so long to start it 💗

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hilarious and insightful book that tells readers it takes so much more than a willingness to show skin to make it as a burlesque star. Fancy shares the facets of her identity that all combine to form the outrageous and titillating stage presence that New York has loved for years.

[Merrill Glist]

big fucking slay, fancy feast is so cool

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fascinating to me and such an interesting look into the world of burlesque.

[Sam (world’s gassiest) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Screaming!! I feel so seen by this book and learned so much and it is just…wow!!

[sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of essays was good, especially as a future social work student who wants to be a sex therapist

[Timmy Hubbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes I give a five stars and think about how someone would refute it. Like they would look at it read the book and judge me for giving that book such high esteem.
With this book I don’t think that could happen. This was objectively great! A look behind the scenes, slice of life, social justice, educational, funny, shocking. It had it all. I knew that this book was going to be impactful within the first two hours of the audiobook. One thing in particular is calling out the number of ways society intentionally or accidentally encourages self hatred. There were so many different angles to explore that one topic.

[Margie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not read

[Mandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest & unbiased review.]

I am not normally a fan of essay collections or memoirs - so by all accounts, I should not have enjoyed this book as much as I did. But Fancy Feast had me hooked from at least the second essay (“Dildo Lady”).

While I have never performed burlesque, I have spent over a decade in the field of sex education; much of which has involved reviewing and discussing sex toys. So when she writes statements like, “Shake me awake in the middle of the night tonight with a butt plug in each hand and ask me to compare and contrast them for you, and I could do it, no problem.” Well…all I can say is that, I relate. (And she worded it much more humorously than I ever could.)

But Naked doesn’t stop at the funny anecdotes and glamorous moments that individuals like to imagine for burlesque performers. Naked dives deeper into all of the fucked up ways that our society views sex (and sex workers), along with the harmful laws & policies that occur as a result. Naked also peeks behind the velvet curtain at the issues of nonconsensual behaviors, sexual harassment and assault.

“Yes/No/Maybe,” an essay unsurprisingly focused on consent, was one of the most powerful but simultaneously hard to finish pieces of media that I’ve encountered in a while. Fancy Feast includes explicit in-your-face accounts of the gendered violence that she experienced as part of her time in film school. When she writes that a fellow (male) student had to excuse himself because he simply could no longer watch what was occurring, you as the reader understand perfectly. Just like so many other moments, Fancy’s writing makes you FEEL what she is describing. And in this case, it’s both heartbreaking and rage-inducing.

There were so many times I wanted to cry from the genuineness of these essays (changing lives with lube or making a real connection with a phone sex client) - but there were countless other times that I found myself laughing aloud too. And that’s what impressed me so much about Naked. Sure, as with any collection of writings, there were essays that I liked better or less than others. But Fancy Feast’s writing was ALWAYS on point. I can only hope that this is the first publication of many!

[Maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never read an entire book this fast. Naked is an insightful and hilarious look at sex work, outcast art and freaks of all kinds.

Truly a brilliant and revolutionary work. I’m so grateful I picked this up on a whim. Fancy Feast you will always be famous!