The Positive Alternative To The Ball Culture In The Movie Paris Is Burning

Both Barbara Kingsolver and Lisa Miller address “nontraditional” family stereotypes, such as gay and failed marriages, in argumentative form. The authors approached each issue by providing ethos, logos, and pathos along with making connections to texts, events, and personal experiences; but also differed by the amount of rhetoric used in each writing. Targeted audiences for these arguments are people who wish to understand other viewpoints on topics in which society battles with.

The culture I choose to research is the Gay or LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgendered) culture. One aspect of their culture that reflects who they are the nationalized annual celebratory Gay Pride cultural event [2, 3]. The Gay pride events are held across the nation and in other countries and is used as a positive outlet and Pro-Gay rights promotional forum for the Gay and LGBT community [2, 4]. During the events there are fashion shows, music events, health and AIDS awareness summits, games, parties and cooking expos all directed to encourage pride and acceptance from all walks of life [1, 2, 3, 4]. The Gay culture has made a huge impact on the world as Gay marriage is now increasingly being accepted and legalized and the bad stigma once associated with being Gay is decreasing at a steady rate as Gay and LGBT people are encouraged to be more openly proud [1]. This cultural event can last anywhere from a week to months as activities occur on a daily basis throughout the world within the Gay and LGBT community [2, 3,

Gender transitions, cross dressing, and homosexual marriage are all unequivocally important social movements starting to gain recognition. Although gender transitions and homosexuality, along with other various LBGQT movement have been around for a while; social acceptance and safety for these various individuals is just beginning to occur. Merritt Kopas is able to confront and tackle this in her twine game, “Conversations with My Mother” by imparting a story about a mother’s letter to her child, using pathos to persuade the reader, and using strong visuals to tie the story together.

We have all seen the classic television scene, where a happy family consisting of one mother, one father, and two children is hovered around a table or a couch. Although still prominent, this scene is becoming less common nowadays as more families become non-traditional. More families than ever are consisting of one mother and children, one father and children, grandparents and children, and even two mothers or two fathers and children. These households, although not what most people consider a normal household, are becoming more common and regular in today’s society. Homosexual parents and families are indeed different from more traditional families, but not for the worse. This trend is not increasing

The homosexual community is one of the most misunderstood and degraded cultures in today’s society. Homosexuals are usually the brunt of much of the misunderstanding and, as a result, have most of the unban legends and denigrating jokes that are found in modern tradition centered on themselves. Two legends stand out above many others; the myth of “Gerbiling”, which describe a supposed cruel and exotic practice of gay men, and “The Gay Roommate”, in which a gay man sexually assaults his heterosexual roommate in a college dorm. Both of these legends exemplify the fact that, through misunderstanding or fearing a culture, you can create horrible monsters out of average men.

LGBT culture is a community made up of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. This community shares a common interest in social movements. Many people today have been able to come out and be who they truly are because of the LGBT community. Roughly, 6.7 percent of the U.S. world population is said to be a member of the LGBT community. However, many negative stereotypes do not support this community. People are very biased towards the LGBT community and it is unfair. The LGBT culture has always been frowned upon by many people, however, most of those people are uneducated and do not understand what the LGBT culture truly is. The LGBT community deserves a chance to be who they truly are without being judged and looked down upon by

In particular, their school quarterback is always attacking Jan and Les for being cheerleaders. In one scene, the quarterback, approach’s Jan and Les. He taunts them by saying “Whoa! It's sexy Leslie and Jan, Jan, the cheerleading man. Hey, fags.” There is no question that in this scene, both Jan and Les masculinity is being questioned because they are cheerleaders. Due to the association of cheerleading as a feminine activity the act of two men participating makes them “fags”. This exemplifies that the word “fag” is only associated with males once the they act outside their traditional gender

In Amigas and Amantes: Sexually Nonconforming Latinas Negotiate Family, Katie Acosta explores how Latina women, who sexually identify as lesbian, bisexual, or queer, struggle to create and maintain family ties. Recalling the lived experiences of these sexually nonconformity Latinas, Acosta uses the theory of intersectionality to examine how the different identity markers (such as race, gender, age, sex, etc.) profoundly affects the way these Latinas experience their family. In this essay, we’ll take a look at how intersectionality illuminates that struggle for visibility by studying the differences found in religion, class, country of origin, and heteronormativity. Furthermore, we’ll be analyzing how sexually nonconforming Latinas

"Homosexuality is against nature. Sexual expression is permitted only within marriage, between man and woman, male and female. Anything else is an abnormality and is against nature."- (Pope Shenouda III). Although praised in certain culture as a gift from god and “thought to have special curing powers” (The Essence of Anthropology, p.210) homosexual Americans are obligated to disrespect and held to a lower standard than their heterosexual peers. Discrimination against homosexual individuals are found in practically all settings of American culture that is Schools, military branches, the workforce and even families. The discovery and “Coming out” of a homosexual individuals within a family takes a major toile on relationships with family member that normally discourage this lifestyle. Families are forced to not only reconcile with their family members lifestyle choice but, likewise with the individuals’ partner. As seen in “Andre’s Mother” a play written by Terrence McNally, some relationships among family members are severely damaged and never reconstructed until a serious incident occurs, such as death or a major sickness. Throughout, America the idea of homosexuality goes against all cultural norms; it is often considered a disgrace to the family, work place etc. However, there are some heterosexual individuals that do accept the idea of homosexuality. One individual in particular is Terrence McNally; his play “Andre’s Mother” addresses the fear of neglect, from a mother

Paris is Burning shows the struggle of young gay adults in the world of 1980s New York City. This was a world where homosexuality did not exist as a part of daily life, and as a result, many gay individuals were beaten and ridiculed for their sexuality. Due to the lack of acceptance towards homosexuality, many parents disowned their children, forcing these teens out onto the street with nowhere else to stay. A specific example arises in the documentary when a drag member interviews a thirteen-year-old and a fifteen-year-old as they walk the streets of New York City at 2:30 in the morning. When asked where their mothers are, the one teen responds with, “I don’t have a mother. . . she’s gone. . . [my father’s] gone

In Mr. Strange’s Sociology 1301 class, we watched a movie called “But I’m A Cheerleader.” The movie is about a girl named Megan who is confused about her sexuality. The beginning of the movie starts off with her family giving her an intervention. They are afraid she is becoming a lesbian. She is forced to attend a school called True Directions. True Directions is supposed to show the students how to live a normal life by being hetrosexual. It is a very interesting movie that involves many socialization examples like personal identity kit, generalized socialization or gender maps, total institution, and degradation ceremony.

Since the 1930s, gay bars and gay nightclubs have been around. The bar called White Horse, in Oakland, California, has been opened since 1933. It is known to be the first gay bar to be opened here in America. Being gay in the 1930s was brutal. Same gender sex was a felony, and being caught in a gay bar could cost someone their job. “In a society that viewed gays as barley human, the White Horse allowed a level of freedom that in the 1940s or 1950s was liberating” (Duffy 2016). With time changes and people being more accepted, gay bars and gay nightclubs started opening all across America. One of the many gay nightclubs here in Denver is known as Tracks. It was opened in 1980. On October 5th, 2017, an experimental observation at the Tracks nightclub was made. During this experience, it was observed that these people that identified as either gay, lesbian, or bisexual were acting as normal human beings in a heterosexual nightclub. Although the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender movement acts have been created to allow this community to be more opened and unafraid, it has had a history of having psychological components such as depression, and social components such as relationships with one another, and of course the history within hate crimes towards the LGBT community.

The Film, Paris is Burning, displays the importance of identity through the categories of gender, sexuality, race, and class. The Balls held in New York City were a place for members of the LGBT community to come together and comfortably be their true selves. Simone de Beauvoir’s concept of the Other can also be applied to this film in regards to all the identities the film features. The Other is anyone who is not straight, not white, and not wealthy. De Beauvoir writes, “No group ever sets itself up as The One without at once setting up The Other over against itself.”

The House Ballroom scene is an intentional, multigenerational and creative community which was founded by the Latino and black LGBTQ people. People from the outside world came to know about this scene through researchers and journalist who were not members of this community. The coverage of this community focused on dance form Vogue and it had strong engagement with the movement against racism, homophobia, transphobia, cultural exploitation and the barrier to healthcare (Valenti, 1989). According to some researcher, the Ballroom Scene started as common occasion dubbed cabaret in where American menfolk in women attires came to entertain the upper and middle-class audiences. This was a clandestine activity and the member of the LGBT community came to participate in the competition for recreation. Members of this community formed a team or house. A house member who offer care and protection to the members when need be. Ideally, members of these houses came from family backgrounds which did not support the activities of the LBGT community. The US ballroom served as a home for escapees from reality and they acted as comfort zone where people could seek acceptance for whoever they wanted to be. Wealth, glamour and status are important factors in Ballroom culture.

Also it ties into how Rodriguez begins telling the audience about himself, “as a middle aged man with a boy’s secret to tell, and how he is sitting alone in his car, in front of his parent’s house” (Rodriguez 221). He is tempted to tell his parents about his lifestyle that he has hid from them, but suddenly he become very concerned about the way his parents may feel about his lifestyle, and should still go follow through on telling his parents. Similarly, Kingsolver is feeling somewhat the same but in different way , when she states, “Even though you are statistically no oddity, it’s probably been suggested to you in a hundred ways that yours isn’t exactly a real family, but an imposter family, a harbinger of cultural ruin, a slapdash substitute something like counterfeit money (Kingsolver 138). She explains how people see divorce, that generally people look at families that have gone through divorced are broken families and just plain insane like its taboo or something, because the mother and father are no longer married and it seems that the family has been ruined. Also as if the family is fake, but trying to maintain to be a “real family”. Both of these quotes reveal how society looks at certain situations that are going on in the midst of families and how some people choose to live as a certain way than society has made it out be. Rodriguez maybe facing rejection because of his lifestyle, along while Kingsolver is facing the same