Paris is Burning

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Paris is Burning

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.

By dissecting the film, the director, Jennie Livingston's methodology and the audience's perceived response I believe we can easily ignore a different and more positive way of understanding the film despite the many flaws easy for feminist minds to criticize. This is in no way saying that these critiques are not valid, or that it is not beneficial to look at works of any form through the many and various feminist lenses.

However, one cannot lose sight of the humanity within the film. The spectacles of the balls themselves intimately show a mirage of human emotions including passion, desire, joy, humor, grace, and delight. The featured men willingly share the pleasure they feel through participation in the balls with us, the watching audience. They attempt to describe the exhilaration of being able to "become anything and do anything." (1.)

We, the audience, are entertained and interested by the interviews, the balls and the featured persons. bell hooks sees audience enjoyment as exploitative and says, "...It is this current trend in producing colorful ethnicity for the white consumer appet...

... middle of paper ...

...f nobody could say or write or film or paint anything about anybody else but themselves and their exact demographic group. What a dull fucking world that would be." (8.)

Citations

1. Dorian Carey. "Paris is Burning"

2. bell hooks. "Black Looks". Pg 153 & 154.

3. bell hooks. "Black Looks". Pg 153

4. Judith Butler. "Bodies That Matter". Pg 136

5. Judith Butler. "Bodies That Matter". Pg 135 & 136

6. bell hooks. "Black Looks". Chapter 9

7. Dorian Carey. "Paris is Burning".

8. Ed Sikov. Email commentary in regards to "Paris is Burning".

Bibliography

Butler, Judith. "Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of 'Sex'". New York. Routledge. 1993

hooks, bell. "Black Looks: Race and Representation". Boston, MA. South End Press. 1992

Livingston, Jennie. "Paris is Burning". Los Angeles. Off White Productions. Distributed by Orion Home Video. 1992

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