Award this badge to yourself if you’ve ever written—well, let’s just say anything involving parts of the body or clothing, which throbbed, heaved, ripped, or enlarged, or characters blessed with milk-white skin and raven locks. If you’ve ever written anything that would embarrass an elderly, conservative relative. If you’ve ever written under your burlesque name.
Burlesque, for those of you who don’t yet qualify for the Writers of a Certain Age badge, was a form of entertainment popular in Britain and the United States from approximately 1880 to 1920. It involved ribald humor and dances that would embarrass an elderly, conservative relative. The women who danced in burlesque theaters worked under pseudonyms, sort of nom-de-danse names.
What better symbol for writers of the purple page than a Mardi Gras mask? As they say where I come from, Laissez les bon temps roulier—Let the good times roll. If you're a little hesitant about going public with having written purple prose, you have my permission to keep this badge in a drawer instead of displaying it on your badge sash.
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