Paris is burning”

Paris is burning”

“Paris is burning” is a film documentary from the United States that was directed by Jennie Livingstone. The documentary was filmed in the 1980s and captured the balling culture of New York City. It also captured the partying lifestyle of the Latino, African Americans, and the transgender communities that lived in New York. The movie captures the elaborate structures of the ball competitions that involved contestants adhering to particular categories and themes. The contestants were obliged to walk on runways like models and are judged based on criteria including their talents in dancing, the beauty of their costumes, as well as the realness of their drag. In the film, several members of the ball scene are interviewed, including Pepper LaBeija, and Dorian Corey. Most of the participants represented their houses. The house culture gave them a sense of support and community, especially for the extravagant and the socially shunned performers. The crossing and shifting between genders among the drags are well-played out in the film. Through the various interviews and ballroom scenes, Livingstone underscores the different kinds of oppression in the minority communities, including sexism, racism, racism, and discrimination based on one’s inability to fit into the mainstream society. As the director, tries to prove that these groupings are social constructs and can be created based on one’s belief system. Through the cross-dressing and the balls, she does an excellent job at it. However, due to the connectedness of these dichotomies and the precarious depiction of cultural rituals that relate to such marginalization, it is essential to appreciate the precariousness of the systems that link the marginalizing factors in the film..

The main characters in this documentary are quite aware of the fact that they do not fit in the gender binary roles that are greatly valued by society (Egbatan, 5). These roles are what are considered normal and acceptable. However, since they seem to deviate from the norms of the community, they are actively pushed to the edges of society. This is made evident in the opening scene where one of the participants tells his friend about the advice he got from his father. His father said to him that he already has three strikes against him in the world. Every black man has two since they are male and black, but he was black, male, and gay. With these words, his father reminded him that he would have a hard time in his life trying to fit in. In this light, they are forced to try and blend in with the mainstream society. In the ballrooms, they try to enact real women or real men (Nicolazzo, 1175). While outside, they walk like straight men or women to remain safe. In 18:00, the participant says, “To be able to blend. That’s what realness is.” This is a statement that asserts the mainstream definition of sexism to be what the society considers real as opposed to one’s expression of who they are. The ballroom gives them assurances that they could be whatever they wanted to be.

The concept of the ‘houses’ in the film underscores the various impacts of the marginalizing factors in society. For most of the participants, the inability to meet the ideal standards set by the dominant white straight culture in the United States makes them detach themselves from their real biological families. They join the houses that give them a sense of family as they find a community that does not judge them (Oishi, 255). As is asserted in the documentary, the definition of ‘house’ as a family is “…not a question of man and woman and children… it is a question of a group of human beings in a mutual bond.” Getting into the houses gives them a new reality, one that is not defined by the definition of straight and white. However, the houses serve the contrary to this as they soon have ‘mothers’ and ‘fathers.’ The meanings of the words are, however, arbitrary as they help to contrast the patriarchy in the straight white families. For instance, a mother is a transsexual woman. Therefore, in the house, the members get to redefine gender and gender roles. Besides, the fact that they can create new definitions for these words implies that sexuality is a social construction and may be liberating or confining to some people.

The film underscores the way the participants use fashion to cross the boundaries of classism. The members showcase resourcefulness and vitality to imitate the society that is dictated by the straight white who are, by society standards, quite wealthy. Through fashion, the film is depicted as an extravagant spectacle that is paradoxical of its representation of the poor minority. Fashion gives the participants the power to transgress the social norms and codes of class. Clothes are used as weapons of provocation and liberation in light of the oppression. The contestants assume personas that are empowering.

Conclusively, “Paris is Burning” is a film that celebrates every dichotomy of the oppressed in society. It underscores the resourcefulness with which the subcultural groups try to operate outside and against the dominant culture. The main characters in the film show how oppression based on sexuality, gender, race, and class pushes them to the periphery of society. The members use the ballrooms, the shows, fashion, and the houses to transgress the cords of what is considered normal in society. It is through these elements that the director shows that these dichotomies are social constructs. Nevertheless, the movie also shows that in the precarious system, all the factors defining the marginalization are connected.

Works Cited

Egbatan, Mine. “Paris is burning: A critic of gender.” (2017).

Nicolazzo, Z. “‘It’sa hard line to walk’: black non-binary trans* collegians’ perspectives on passing, realness, and trans*-normativity.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 29.9 (2016): 1173-1188.

Oishi, Eve. “Reading Realness: Paris Is Burning, Wildness, and Queer and Transgender Documentary Practice.” A Companion to Contemporary Documentary Film (2015): 252-270.