Fabulous at Fifty
Mistress Kat - Fabulous at Fifty By David Steinberg [1]
As you can probably tell from the photos elsewhere in this issue of Spectator, Mistress Kat's Fabulous at Fifty Fantasy Ball, February 18th at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall, was a roaring success of a bash. Over 500 celebrants joined in the evening of song, drama, performance, dance, and appreciation of Spectator publisher Kat Sunlove for her decades of devotion to the causes of sexual liberation and full sexual expression, and for her wonderful energy, spirit and heart as one of this planet's wonderful human beings. The party, a benefit for Californians Against Censorship Together (Cal-ACT), Feminists for Free Expression, and COYOTE, the San Francisco prostitutes' rights advocate, was a financial success as well, grossing nearly $20,000 in ticket sales.
Dozens of notables from the nationwide community of sex advocates appeared on stage during the evening's full program of light-hearted fun and entertainment. There were comedy monologues by Gloria Leonard and Mimi-Freed, songs by Candida Royalle and Mistress Kat, an homage to the sacred whore by Cosi Fabian and Veronica Vera and to the profane whore by Scarlot Harlot, performance pieces by Annie Sprinkle and Carol Queen, stripteases by Juliet "Aunt Peg" Anderson and Nina Hartley, an elaborate fashion show of erotic creations from Stormy Leather and Romantasy, a birthday spanking of Nina Hartley and flogging of yours truly, both by Kat. Bobby Lilly of Cal-ACT, Rachel Hickerson of FFE, and founder Margo St. James of COYOTE spoke briefly of the work of their respective organizations, reminding the crowd of revelers that we need to work hard and remain politically vigilant as the national political climate turns increasingly repressive if we are to preserve the sexual free space we now enjoy.
For me, the high points of the program were a ritual performance by Cleo DuBois, Tora Kane, and X, during which Cleo transforms X from a woman in drag to a beautiful bird by attaching rows of feathered clothespins to her arms, breasts, and back -- and then removing them; and Layne Winklebleck's moving poem of loving celebration to Kat, his longtime partner, co-worker, love, lover, and soulmate, "Am I Lucky or What?" That and discovering that, aside from all her other talents, Kat Sunlove (or was it Mistress Kat?) is one hell of a fine torch singer. Her opening songs, "Fantasy" and "Deprivation Turns Him On" were rivetingly sexy and entertaining.
If there was any single theme to the evening it was celebrating the fact that women at 50 and 40 and 65 (fashion show model Maggi Rubenstein took the mike to proudly announce her age) can be at least as vibrant, sexy, outrageous, and just plain sexually alive as any of the sweet young things that capture so much of the nation's attention as porn stars and sexual entertainers. Collected in one room were dozens of sexual performers and activists, most of them women, each of whom has been working for decades to create a culture of sexual freedom and affirmation within a larger culture that seems bent on destroying free sexual pleasure, especially for women, every chance it gets. Dancers who are 25 may be seen as over the hill by the patrons of the O'Farrell Theatre, but two doors down the street, Mistress Kat's Fabulous at Fifty Fantasy Ball had a different point of view, and hundreds of Bay Areans were happy to join in the spirit of the affair.
That such a sexually outrageous and affirming event was staged at the historic Great American Music Hall was in itself a significant statement, bringing sexual celebration and entertainment into a respected and elegant mainstream venue. It was a kick to be circulating among the many wildly bedecked perverts and party-goers surrounded by the baroque decor of the Music Hall, to have the name of the event proudly emblazoned on the theatre's marquee, to see the event included among the happenings at the Music Hall in their weekly ads in the San Francisco Chronicle's pink section. (Did you know, by the way, that GAMH was built in 1906 as a classy post-earthquake bordello? Looking around at the rococo balconies and ceiling, it was fun to imagine the gentlemen and painted ladies of an earlier era filling the hall with their own version of a sexual celebration.) The management and staff of the Music Hall were both marvelously professional and completely enthusiastic in their support of the event. The only restriction imposed on the event by the house was the legal requirement ( given their liquor license) that there be no total nudity in the show.
Congress may have gone Republican, and the antisexual crusaders may be gearing up to storm the ramparts of sin cities such as ours, but here in the enclave, we call San Francisco, sexual joy and life are alive and well.
Spectator, March 10, 1995
Copyright © 1995 David Steinberg
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