I have chosen the key-word ballroom culture.
DEFINITION: Ballroom culture describes the culture surrounding the drag shows that majority Black and brown queer people participated in in New York starting in the 70s and 80s. They are drag performances where people perform different identities such as femme queen, executive realness, and town and country. People can either perform for a house, which is a group of people, or as an individual. They are judged based on how well they embody the category.
PURPOSE: I intend to create an online newspaper article. An example of this format is a New York Times article, and some of the generic conventions of this format are quotes, catchy titles, and linking to outside sources in the article.
CONTENT: I intend to talk about my key-word in relation to films such as Paris is Burning, and the queer experience in major cities like New York during the AIDS crisis. I also want to talk about how ballroom culture has become more mainstream through shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race.
COURSE THEMATIC: I think that my key concept intersects/overlaps with class in these ways:
- Intersectionality is central when talking about ballroom culture. Not only are almost all of the participants queer, but they are also majority people of color. In the 60s there weren’t separate balls for people of color, and balls were very prejudiced toward them. The judges were mainly white, and Black contestants were expected to lighten their skin in order to have a chance of being scored well.
- Disidentification is very relevant when thinking about ballroom culture. Bell hooks argued that specifically the ballroom culture shown in Paris is Burning showed the people in the balls playing into the very identities that oppressed them. They both play into the identities by having “realness” as a category, and they reject them by playing with gender and dressing in drag. They don’t, however, completely reject gender as a concept at all, which would be disidentification.
- Queerness is also a central concept in ballroom culture. Most people who walk in balls are queer, and even if they identify as straight, playing with gender through their dress could be seen as queer since it opposes strict gender norms. Ballroom culture provided solidarity and a feeling of home for many young queer people who were kicked out of their homes or had to hide who they were from society.
QUESTIONS: I am struggling with how to approach the breadth of this topic. Ballroom culture is very broad and spans decades, so consolidating it into one paper might be difficult. I might like some advice on what to include and what to leave out. I’m also struggling to find when these events started being called “balls”. I have one source that writes a little bit about it but it’s not very comprehensive.
SOURCES: I have decided to use the following five sources, because they provide a comprehensive history of ballroom culture as well as an exploration into the various themes within ballroom culture, such as race and queerness as well as the AIDS crisis.
- Bailey, Marlon M. “Gender/Racial Realness: Theorizing the Gender System in Ballroom Culture.” Feminist Studies, 2nd ed., vol. 37, Feminist Studies Inc, pp. 365–386. JSTOR, file:///Users/margaretheconner/Downloads/Gender_Racial%20Realness%20Marlon%20Bailey.pdf. Accessed 18 Nov. 2022.
- “Ballroom Culture.” VAN VOGUE JAM, https://www.vanvoguejam.com/ballroom-history.
- Stabbe, Oliver. “Queens and Queers: The Rise of Drag Ball Culture in the 1920s.” National Museum of American History, 4 June 2019, https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/queens-and-queers-rise-drag-ball-culture-1920s.
- “Subcultures and Sociology.” Grinnell College, https://haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/subcultures-and-scenes/underground-ball-culture/#:~:text=Balls%20are%20competitions%20that%20consist,conventional%20mannerisms%20of%20that%20gender.
- “Understanding Ballroom Culture and Its Incredible Impact!” MozartCultures, 7 May 2021, https://mozartcultures.com/en/understanding-the-ballroom-culture-its-incredible-impact-on-the-world/#:~:text=The%20ballroom%20scene%20or%20ballroom,at%20events%20known%20as%20balls.