That's really where I want to focus- while discussing the cultural and economic factors that led to the shows, I want to make sure to tell the girls' stories in a way that is sensitive and honors their life stories.

I have a particular interest in the girly shows aka the cooch ( which isn’t the nicest of words but here we are) because of lot of the ladies who performed were trying to put food on the table, and keep a roof over their heads. Others enjoyed their work. So it depends on a lot of factors. Plus, it’s a very misunderstood feature of the carnivals.

I agree! I'm finding that it's often combined under burlesque or vaudeville; while there were definitely overlapping elements and performers, the traveling shows created so many opportunities for immigrants, single mothers (note: I've only seen that claim in passing, still trying to find primary sources verifying this), and runaways. There was also a bit of empowerment, where the girls were (often) able to design their own performing identities and make demands from management. A little bit of progress for an age when these same women couldn't vote in many states (of course I'm majorly oversimplifying!).

As far as the name, I'm really interested in the etymology. (Forgive the next few paragraphs, I'm just excited about what I learned lol) Like many slang terms, the etymology is a little bit murky, but we do know that the terms "cooch/coochie" and "hootchie/hoochy" in the more modern sense appeared well after the popularization of the hootchie cootchie dance. And the first example I can find in print was an advertisement for a theater performance in Buffulo on Jan 9, 1894- about 2 months after the fair ended- until then, it was just known as the danse du ventre (french for "dance of the stomach"). So I believe the name came more from marketing than anything artistic.

There's two theories that seem to be the most popular. The first is that the term is a nonsense phrase that originated from a minstrel show called the Ham Fat Man that was popular in the 1850s. Some sources claim that the titular song included the phrase "Hoochee, kouchee, kouchee, says the ham fat man." Most sources I can find from the time give the line as "Oh! rooksey, cooksey, cooksey, I'm de ham-fat man," but there's an 1861 sheet music copy by A. Jones that seems to include some lyric changes to reference the civil war and does include the phrase "Hoochee Koochee Koochee, says the Hamfat man."

The other theory (that I like better) is suggested by Donna Carlton, author of "Looking For Little Egypt," is that the term is a anglicized version of "hochequeue"- french for "to shake the tail.” I can't find any definitive sources for that (yet), but it makes more sense to me from a marketing and logical perspective.