Paris is Burning

The 1990 documentary, Paris is Burning, follows the drag and transgender culture of New York City. This has long been one of my favorite films not only because it is thought-provoking, insightful and has beautiful subject matter, but because it is real and not fictional. It does an excellent job of telling the story of the individuals involved in the "balls" and explains the sub-culture and all of its facets and lingo through event footage and private interviews. Many of the drag queens are dealing with difficult situations (poverty, prostitution, banished from their family, and struggling with sex changes, disease), but use the balls as a strong motivation to work towards.

This situation of males putting on an elaborate performances in which they act as the socially constructed idea of females is discussed in Butler's "Peformance Acts and Gender Constitution" in which she points out that when it is a performance, the act is acceptable and entertaining, but once the act is taken off of the stage and into everyday life, it causes confusion, rejection and hatred. This is because it doesn't fall into any "pre-existing category that regulates gender reality." People want everything to fall into distinct categories of male and female, and when something appears to challenge those categories it is difficult for the average person to accept or understand. Butler discusses the difference between sex and gender, that sex is biological but gender is an act that is taught and enforced. So, all of us choose which gender we want to act as, regardless of our sex. In Paris is Burning, the drag queens choose to perform and act as women which brings them hope and excitement despite the challenges they must face from those who cannot understand.