How did the women of this time period react to burlesque?

At the end of the first chapter, Allen poses a dilemma between how women should act and be represented onstage and how the relationship between the women onstage to real world women.  This makes me wonder what the “real world” women of this time thought of this performance.  This was a very different time period than today, especially in terms of women’s rights, but was there a female reaction to this?  In the book, we see the male reaction that, of course, is mainly focused on the physical attractiveness of the performance and not the actual themes the show was conveying.  Later, in chapter 4, the ‘“true” woman’ is defined and she is modest and pure.  Women’s fashion of the time reflected this in that dresses became wide around the hips, to hide the lower half of the body.  The “true woman” was refined, well mannered, spiritual, and definitely not sexual.  The Thompsonian burlesque troupe was the exact opposite of this kind of woman.  Women were told not to go the theater during the ballets, which were much tamer than burlesque, but did they still go to the scandalous burlesque shows?  The author points out that a female in the audience thought the female ballerina “danced beautifully.” Burlesque was different than ballet, because ballet was considered art, so how did they react seeing untraditionally beautiful women play all the male roles? I wonder how the real world women of this time reacted to this, was it liberating to see women take on such a different role than they were used to seeing in the theater?  Does this have any impact on the changed fashion and norms of the 1920s, when the flapper look became popular? 

I think the female reaction to this may have been similar to I reacted to Miley Cyrus’s new look.  For me, I wasn’t opposed to her bleached, short hair and videos like “Wrecking Ball,” but it didn’t mean I was going to cut my hair like that and wear more suggestive clothes.  Her music has entertainment value, regardless of how sexualized the performance is.  Allen’s dilemma of how women onstage relate to the women offstage is still going on and will most likely remain unresolved.