A burlesque and drag show event put on by “Port City Peep Show” and hosted at the Austin Street Brewery in Portland drew criticism from the seemingly left-wing social media users on Reddit after a child performed at the event featuring drag queens and strippers.
“I went to a burlesque show over the weekend and there was a kid performing. I’m not sure how old she was, but maybe middle school. She sang a song. She was cute and seemingly having a good time, but I’m feeling somewhat cringy. Is this normal at a show like this? Are kids allowed to perform in a brewery,” said the original poster on Reddit.
The Reddit user claimed that a middle-school-aged child performed at the event and raised concerns that the child was at the clearly adult-themed event hosted at a brewery.
“I’ve performed in burlesque shows and while a large part of it is parody humor and satire… another key element is strip tease and partial nudity. Having a child performing before and/or after stripping is … really odd and I don’t blame OP for having some feelings about it,” said another Reddit user in response.
The official Instagram account for “Port City Peep Show” posted a video of the minor, whose performance did not appear to be sexualized. It nevertheless raises serious concerns given the nature of the rest of the event.
“‘Twas a true honor to welcome the debut of this cool kid who has grown up around live performance, music, & art and wanted to channel her badass girl power with a cover of Jax’s iconic body positive anthem,” said the Instagram account in a post featuring a clip of the child singing.
Promotional material for the event, the “Cabin Fever” show, featured anti-ICE imagery along with drag queens and a male stripper.
Port City Peep Show highlighted one performer who goes by the name “Chrissy Bunz,” with an image of the apparent stripper wearing a gas mask, underwear, and jewelry clamped to his nipples.
Promotional material for the event described him as “the Bespectacled, Butt Plugged Bearded Bastard of Burlesque,” and urged attendees to “make a plan to get your butt near this butt.”
Despite the overtly sexual nature of the event, the listing for the “peep show” on Eventbrite specifies that minors may attend with a parent or legal guardian and sets no lower age limit for attendees.
Ironically, the brewery hosting the event requires internet users to affirm that they are 21 or older before entering their website but apparently allows minors to attend and even perform at what seemingly amounts to a strip show at their establishment.
The Maine Wire reached out on Tuesday to both Port City Peep Show and the Austin Street Brewery, but neither immediately responded. While Port City Peep Show did not respond, they did delete material about the event from their Instagram account after The Maine Wire reached out.
