Intertextualism In Paris Is Burning

In The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto, Imani Perry argues that the over-sexualized, unattainable bodies of black women in popular culture will lead to the breakdown of feminism and the positive body image of the everyday black

Beginning in the mid-1980’s, a number of efforts were initiated to bring awareness and enlightenment to the actual tragedy of AIDS. Two films that evolved out of these awareness campaigns were the documentaries “Paris Is Burning” and “How to Survive a Plague” . Both films, although in significantly diverse ways, provide a window into the alternative lifestyles of LGBT people of the times and the problems and issues they faced. A comparison of these two documentaries demonstrates the initial fears of the public and affected people and the beginnings of acceptance or at least tolerance of these alternative lifestyles.

We recently watched the film Paris is Burning, a documentary about black drag queens in Harlem and their culture surrounding balls. Directly related we also read two feminist critiques, Gender is Burning: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion by Judith Butler and Is Paris Burning by bell hooks. Two areas of critique I focus on and question are the critiques regarding the filmmaker, audience and drag queens and how they participate to reinforce a heterosexual racist patriarchy. Furthermore I ask if this line of investigation is the most beneficial way to view and understand the film and its various participants.

Over the past few years tragic events seem to be surrounding our society. An array of killings, social protests, police brutality and racism have startled the nation. Lately celebrities have been addressing these issues more and more on TV, in interviews and in the public eye. One incredible artist just used her talent to address all of these issues and more in her new music video "Formation". Beyoncé is an iconic figure in our culture, spreading her talent, feminist views and activism worldwide. This video is one of a kind. It is not centered on her but on Black America. There have been many critics disagreeing with Beyoncé 's video. They felt that she spread negative messages of police throughout her video. Others, however, loved her video. They felt she used her platform to reach out and address issues. Supporters and critics of the video have expressed their opinions in many different ways. In this paper I will analyze this video that has been shared worldwide. The question I ask is: "How does Beyoncé depict the complexity of Black Americans?" In order to answer this question, I will apply Pentadic criticism to analyze this discourse.

For an erotic dancer appears naked amongst the men, peering through “an abstract mask, the eyes hollow,” allowing her to smile at the class and also be in distress behind it. The men who control the money, control her, which degrades the symbolic image of a woman because men both desire her body, yet desire to “spit upon her” as a result of her being an erotic dancer. Both white and black men can’t touch her innocence, but white men still have the opportunity to achieve her through social norms. Black men and minorities are only left to gaze, but not touch her, for “some threatened us if we looked, and others if we did not,” making minorities live in a paradox. This paradox of social views essentially leaves minorities “stripped” down like the woman in the Battle Royale. Yet throughout it all, the “nakedness” of the women shows an American flag tattooed on her stomach to remark at the social irony of the era. For it is apparent she believes in the true freedom of America, yet her, a white woman, and the minorities are being controlled by white men for pure enjoyment and to continue to “strip” away their

The purpose of the essay, “From Fly-Girls to Bitches and Hos,” by Joan Morgan, is to not just address the issue of sexism in hip-hop, but to understand and dissect it. Jean Kilbourne’s major claim in “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” is that advertising has gained a spot where bodies are depicted as objects thereby normalizing attitudes that contribute to sexual aggression. Both these authors use rhetorical strategies effectively such as ethos, pathos, and logos as well as using key language and tone to target their specific audiences.

The 1990s documentary film, Paris is Burning, was significant because it was one of the first major productions that brought national visibility to the LGBTQ community and the subculture of black and Latina/os who participated in ballroom performances. This seemingly new phenomenon incorporated dissing or “throwing shade,” referred to as voguing, in New York City during the 1980s, and mainly consisted of poor, people of color. These performative shows attempted to challenge and imitate dominant, white heteronormativity by role playing socially powerful categories like business executives and students, that poor, gay people of color are often denied opportunistic access to. Intersections of class highlight the devastating and somber effects

The entertainment of a Harlem cabaret hypnotizes Helga Crane, the protagonist of Nella Larsen's Quicksand. She loses herself in the "sudden streaming rhythm" and delights in the sexually suggestive moves of the dancers. Helga is "blown out, ripped out, beaten out by the joyous, wild, murky orchestra" in a moment suggestive of a sexual climax. But when the music fades, Helga returns to reality and asserts that "she wasn't, she told herself, a jungle creature." Helga feels this struggle between sexual freedom and restraint throughout the novel. As Larsen shows in the cabaret, black women of the early twentieth century repressed their sexual desires so that white America would perceive them as respectable. In its fight for equality, the black social elite wanted women to emulate the conventions of mainstream society. Maintaining a good image was intended not only to produce change within the race, but also to combat white stereotypes that caused discrimination against black people. Thus, described as primitive and promiscuous since slavery, black women hid their sexuality under socially accepted behavior. But, as Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham refers to it, this "politics of respectability" had profound consequences.

Within her collection of essays, Roxane Gay uses personal anecdotes that appeal to reader’s pathos, constructing her argument that women are misrepresented and generalized in popular culture by providing an emotional tether upon which readers can latch on. For example, Gay writes of her experiences as a struggling adolescent

These questions are posed by what Young calls the “refugee art” of Kara Walker. As displaced subjects, the characters in Walker’s art take on a renewed sense of empowerment even while falling victim to and participating in acts of violence and humiliation. This paper seeks to explore issues of spectatorship and agency in the artwork of Kara Walker, taking into special consideration the critical essays of Kevin Young in the catalogue My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love (2007) and Dust Jackets for the Niggerati (2013) alongside a full-length study of the artist by Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw titled Seeing the Unspeakable: The Art of Kara Walker (2004). Both authors discuss the revisionary history of Walker’s visual narratives, yet formulate conclusions from two very different frames of reference. While Young examines Walker’s art from various cultural and historical perspectives, Shaw’s reading takes into account the personal experiences that influence Walker’s work.

When many aspects of a woman life are controlled for her and she can no longer make decisions for herself, she becomes a slave to her oppressor. Throughout the class, the theme of women being controlled by other oppressing forces, can be seen in many texts. Women have their decisions made for them in terms of their, food intake, appearances, and lifestyle choices. These ideas are seen in Beyond the Lights, where Noni’s mother Macy both what Noni eats as well as how she looks. Again in “The Gilded Six Bits,” Missie May’s hunger and food intake are controlled and judged by Joe, who believes because he is a working man, his hunger is more important. In Color Stories: Black Women and Colorism in the 21st Century, society controls women’s appearances by pressuring them to look a certain way to be considered beautiful. In both Not That Kind of Girl and Borderlands: La Frontera, women’s decisions about their bodies in a sexual manner are controlled by the pressures of men. Oppressing forces play such a strong role in so many of the texts covered in class this semester, it makes one wonder if this oppression and forceful control is an accurate representation of our society today.

The title of this piece informs the reader about what the content will hold and suggests that the author feels strongly about the injustice of black women in the hip-hop scene. Jennifer Mclune, the author, is an activist, librarian, and writer that resides in Washington, D.C. This particular piece appeared in Z Magazine Online, which is an independently founded magazine whose mission is to publish articles that go in depth when critiquing the social structures of society and pride themselves on being a predominant activist webpage. With these factors combined, it is clear that the author is qualified to have written such an essay. After reading the information presented about the

The documentary, “Paris is Burning” follows individuals involved in New York’s “ball culture” during the late ‘80’s and early ‘90’s, which included Black, Latino, gay, and transgender individuals (Green, 1993). Many of the participants in the balls lived in “Houses” which serve not only as a team for ball competitions, but also as a family (Green, 1993). These houses are a place of safety since many individuals are rejected by their families of origin (Green, 1993). The subjects of the film face racism, homophobia, poverty, and AIDS (Green, 1993). One of the subjects of the film, Angie Xtravaganza, died from AIDS related liver failure and another individual was murdered (Green, 1993). Some were thrown out of their homes, engage in

The environment in which people live in demonstrates the societal norms and values of said culture. In Émile Zola’s The Belly of Paris, Florent, a political outcast, returns to Paris only to find that the regime has drastically changed. Napoleon III, a self-elected emperor, has torn down many of the streets of Old Paris to make room for the angular and orderly streets of New Paris as well as the new markets of Les Halles. Throughout the novel, the character’s lives revolve around the various markets in Les Halles and the streets of Paris. Zola uses descriptions of architecture and city planning as well as how people use space within Paris to demonstrate the city’s corruption, signifying that the architecture of a city is a reflection of

Cléo from 5 to 7, directed by Agnes Varda, is a film about one woman’s struggle to come to terms with the possibility of her potential illness. Not only is Cléo struggling with her physical health, but she is also dealing with her beauty and the consequences of being an attractive woman in the modern world of the 1960s. When examined through the lens of Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” theory, another aspect of the film comes to light. The film seems to objectify Cléo and thus trivialize her struggles with others’ perceptions of her throughout the film by adhering to the construct of the male gaze. Although Cléo from 5 to 7 appears to play into the construct of the male gaze through the repeated objectification of Cléo, it actually subverts this idea and instead confronts the viewer, and the notion of women as passive objects to be viewed.