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"Paris Is Burning"
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Jennie Livingston's documentary explores the late- s ball culture within the transgendered Latino and ...... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Jennie Livingston's 1991 documentary explores the late-1980s "ball culture" within the transgendered, Latino and African American community of NYC, and helps explore the traditional definitions of masculinity and femininity as gay drag performers compete to be considered "real" women.
Paper Introduction:
This paper is a discussion of Jennie Livingston\'s documentary Paris Is Burning which depicts the ball culture of the late s inNew York City A seminal exploration of the Ball competitions this filmportrays the transgendered community many of whom are also members ofethnic minorities Paris Is Burning provides a powerful portrait of amarginalized social group whose elaborate drag competitions specializedpresentational traditions and heightened vocabulary allowed participantsto become close-knit members of a distinct subculture The film highlightstheir efforts to redefine their individual identity
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. . Works CitedAgger, Ben. Phelan summarizes the complexity of the portrait of gender painted by"Paris Is Burning": "Livingston's film documents the impossibility ofsecuring the authentic view of anyone or anything. . Phelanargues, "Racism and homophobia are seen in Paris as more hostile than theforces of sexism-and this I believe is partially because the informants aremen and less astute about the impact of sexism on identity than they areabout the impact of racism and homophobia" (1 5). Gender, Culture, and Power: Toward a Feminist Postmodern Critical Theory. Phelan argues that the film focuses on "cross-dressingas a means of investigating the politics of culture, knowledge, and power"(94). "Paris Is Burning" provides a powerful portrait of amarginalized social group whose elaborate drag competitions, specializedpresentational traditions, and heightened vocabulary allowed participantsto become close-knit members of a distinct subculture. Watching the competitors becomes an intriguing exercise in trying todefine gender. As Phelan observes, "Underneath the image of the visiblewoman is a man, but it is extremely difficult to say what a man is" (1 2).The competitors are judged on their ability to pass as "real" women. "Paris Is Burning" was well received critically when it was releasedand has more recently been made available to a wider audience. Most of the participants are poor and either Latino or AfricanAmerican gay men, and most of them "walk" the runway, portraying whitewomen. Livingston chronicles the elaborate structure of the balls and thecompetitors, where separate "houses" (with family names adopted by theirmembers) vie for trophies and titles. Livingston wants that to be the message of her film-gender and sexuality are games played for keeps and no one who steps too far outside traditionally assigned roles is ever home free. The film mimes theperformance; the performance mimes the images of women; the images of womenmime the fantasies of men; the fantasies of men mime the 'real' whichunderscores all fantasy and so on" (1 7). But it may well be that Venus was murdered precisely because she did pass (Phelan 1 9).The image of the soft-spoken, almost ethereal Venus, provides a fitting wayto conclude this powerful documentary. Unmarked: The Politics of Performance. This paper is a discussion of Jennie Livingston's 1991 documentary,"Paris Is Burning," which depicts the "ball culture" of the late 198 s inNew York City. Livingston implies that Venus, found under a bed in a cheap hotel after four days, was murdered because she could not finally pass as a woman. The film allowed a wider audience to experience the event and thegender confusion, though this is only one component in a complex mix ofelements on display (from racism to the looming threat of AIDS). Outside theballs, participants are often marginalized, discriminated against, and madeto feel like freaks, yet within the circle of these events they can achievesome measure of validation and social support. Theentire point of the balls is to showcase men and to reward those who can"fool" the judges; no one is truly fooled, yet the illusion is sometimesquite remarkable. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1993.Livingston, Jennie. AsBen Agger writes, "Once we separate the personal from political, everydaylife from overarching institutions, we defuse the dialectic bridgingpresent and future and hence subvert democracy" (2). New York: Routledge, 1993. The film highlightstheir efforts to redefine their individual identity based on their ownunderstanding of gender, and it offers insights into gender theory anddefinitions of masculinity, femininity, and the blurred lines thatsometimes exist between the two genders. Livingston considers what role Venus'blurring of her true gender might have played in her death: Venus abandoned "being a man" in part because her version of masculinity gave her no currency (or even a negative currency, a perpetual debit) within the rigid economy of the sex-gender system. Getting to knowindividuals like Pepper LaBeija and Dorian Corey forces the watcher to movebeyond theoretical considerations. "Paris Is Burning" culminates with the murder of Venus Xtravaganza,one of the featured performers. The balls are, in Phelan's words,"embedded within a complex community of familial, linguistic, economic,psychic, aesthetic, political, and erotic signifiers" (95). Some of the participants are transgendered or are considering sex-change surgery to actually transform into women, but at least one balks atthat step as being too radical. Livingston's film combines interviews and footage of a culturalphenomenon, a series of competitive drag balls held in Harlem clubs in thelate 198 s. For that reason, it is anespecially useful educational tool. "Paris Is Burning." Miramax Pictures, 1991.Phelan, Peggy. Peggy Phelan observes, "The balls reveal the performers' longing tobe made unremarkable-to pass as 'normative' (and thus be unnoticed) ratherthan to be seen as 'other' (and constantly surveyed by the upholders of thenormative)" (93). The film also individualizes the issue of gender differentiation. Byfocusing on specific human beings who are consciously, deliberatelyblurring the lines between conventional definitions of masculinity andfemininity, Livingston allows the viewer to question those definitions. "After all, he points out, in many wayswomen have it a lot worse than men in this culture" (Phelan 1 5), and thefilm suggests that even those individuals who are the victims of homophobiaand racism have at least managed to avoid gender discrimination outside theballs by remaining male, however marginally. Althoughpart of its appeal is simply in the entertaining, broadly colorfulperformances of its subjects and the unfamiliar but intriguing world theyinhabit, it also serves to open the discussion about what it means to be a"real" man or a "real" woman in modern society. A seminal exploration of the Ball competitions, this filmportrays the transgendered community, many of whom are also members ofethnic minorities.
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