On Oct. 17, some Windcrest residents received an anonymous mailer featuring risqué photos of a woman wearing pasties. The woman in the images was burlesque performer Susie Hamilton, who happens to be running for a spot on the suburb’s city council.
The municipality of around 5,000 residents is enveloped by Northeast San Antonio. It’s the kind of place where everyone knows everyone’s business. Hamilton argues the mailer is an attempt to smear her over her background as a burlesque dancer, something she maintains she’s been “very transparent” about as she’s campaigned for office.
“I’ve never tried to hide anything,” Hamilton told the Current via FaceTime from a cruise to Cozumel. “I’ve never tried to keep any part of my life private.”
Indeed, Hamilton has made her experience as a dancer part of her campaign. Last week, after the initial round of mailers were distributed, she even had a fellow burlesque performer join her on stage for a campaign meet-and-greet.
A second mailer has since gone out, identical to the first other than being printed on nicer paper, according to Hamilton. Both had first-class postage but no return address.
The first round used people’s colloquial names rather than their legal ones, Hamilton said. That lead her to believe the sender initially targeted people they knew personally. The scope seemed to have expanded with the second mail-out, she added.
City employees also received the mailer while at work, according to Hamilton. She argued that those who received the risqué images didn’t consent to be exposed to them.
“If someone’s at burlesque show, you bought a ticket,” she said. “When you go to work, you go to work with the expectation that you won’t be faced with content that shouldn’t be in the workplace.”
Hamilton said she and members of her campaign suspect they know who’s behind the flyers, but she declined to name the possible culprit.
When asked if he was behind the mailer, Hamilton’s incumbent opponent, Wes Manning, sarcastically replied, “Yeah, I would answer that — of course I would.”
Joking aside, the councilman said he doesn’t know who’s behind the anonymous flyers but wishes he did.
“Why in Windcrest would someone do something like that?” Manning said. “It’s not a bloodsport.”
Hamilton’s two other opponents for the council seat, Billy Gipson and Narquiz Cervantez, were unavailable for comment at press time.
Sexist strategy?
Hamilton said this isn’t the first time anonymous mailers went out during a Windcrest election. She recalls a similar distribution in 2018 and thinks the same party is behind the latest batch.
“It’s a group with, I feel, a very specific generational mindset — which is, ‘We can use shame to control people,’” Hamilton said.
The pearl-clutching mailer speaks to a broader generational divide within Windcrest, according to Hamilton.
“I’m 41, but in Windcrest, I’m young,” she said.
At Hamilton’s recent meet-and-greet, friend and fellow burlesque performer Giselle J’Adore spoke about Windcrest’s conservative values and the irony that Hamilton represents those ideals in many ways. The candidate is a married mom of four with a nice house and a quiet, suburban life.
Hamilton has also been bothered by what she sees as the inherent sexism of the situation.
“I don’t think a male candidate would be attacked for their body,” Hamilton said, noting that all three of her opponents are men.
Hamilton said Windcrest residents have spoken to her husband about the flyers and raised the concern that the images might create friction in their marriage.
“I don’t see why his feelings would be a part of this,” Hamilton said, adding that her husband already knew about her burlesque career. “This is my body being used to tell someone else’s narrative.”
Despite the sexism she sees in the situation, women are running in every race in Windcrest right now, Hamilton pointed out.
“We have the potential for a woman to win every position on the ballot,” she said.
Scandal or satire?
Hamilton, who works as a freelance production designer for film and television, started performing burlesque as alter ego Suki Jones in 2006. For years, she performed as a member of the Stars & Garters burlesque troupe, which bills itself as San Antonio’s longest-running burlesque show.
During performances, Hamilton embodied different characters, from a sequined showgirl to ones that take on a political or satirical edge. She once performed as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, revealing a superhero costume underneath. She’s also portrayed Grandpa Joe from Willy Wonka and a turkey with a speech impediment.
Another of her recurring characters, Louise De Luis, is an elderly woman in a wig and polyester two-piece suit. In Louise, Hamilton found a way to criticize “the older generation that we all felt pressure from,” she explained.
By saying outright the rude things that might only get implied in polite conversation, Louise existed “to call out the micro-aggressions, racism and gender assumptions” of Baby Boomers, according to Hamilton, although she added that many of her political supporters are “open-minded Boomers.”
Though Stars & Garters has been dormant since the 2020 death of founder S.T. Shimi, who performed as Black Orchid, Hamilton doesn’t rule out performing again in the future, city office or no.
Running for change
Hamilton hopes that by defying social norms with her run for office, she will inspire others to run, so Windcrest doesn’t keep seeing the same names and faces in its halls of power.
To that end, Hamilton’s platform includes instituting term limits for the municipality’s mayor, council and board presidents.
Hamilton has also pledged to increase pay for first responders and rejuvenate outdoor recreational areas in Windcrest’s parks, including its community pool. Additionally, she has her sights set on expanding the municipality’s boundaries through strategic land purchases.
But for now, Hamilton just has to get through this election season. She said her “win number” is around 800 votes, meaning few voters need to be swayed one way or another to achieve a different outcome in this race.
Despite the anonymous attack, Hamilton has pledged to run a clean campaign and has no plans to confront the senders or name them publicly.
“Then I’m no better than they are,” Hamilton said. “The perfect outcome is that they never do this again.”
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This article appears in Oct 16-29, 2024.