The documentary Paris is Burning (1990) is known as the first instance of mainstream representation of Black and Latinx trans and queer culture. The documentary follows Harlem’s 1980s’ drag-ball circuit: a community composed of self-chosen families. Families, or “houses,” compete against one another in fashion and performance-based competitions. “Realness”—successful emulation—is at the core of drag-ball competitions; queens create categories that measure their ability to mirror cis, straight, and white cultural images.
Paris is Burning was directed and produced by Jennie Livingston: a queer, white, ciswoman. Although Livingston was able to offer the drag-ball community mainstream representation through the widespread dissemination and critical success of Paris is Burning, Livingston also assumed an “imperial overseeing” position, privileging her own perspective and diminishing the participants’ subjectivity. Moreover, while Livingston’s Paris is Burning exceeded projected revenue earnings, she did not pay the documentary’s subjects a penny more than the amount originally contractually outlined. Paris is Burning has and continues to offer trans and queer people of colour a source of represenation, however, it is imperative to be critical of the nature of this documentary’s production and to acknowledge the mechanisms which ultimately maintained the disenfranchisement of trans and queer Black and Latinx individuals.
Ryan Murphy’s 2018 scripted television show Pose similarly encapsulates Harlem’s 1980s’ drag-ball circuit. The show not only speaks to the distinct histories of the HIV/AIDS epidemic for Black and Latinx communities, but it conveys these stories with transwomen as the actresses and producers. Whether by design or otherwise, Pose adresses Livingston’s shortcomings by hiring a production team, writers, and actors who are queer or trans people of colour, some of whom originate from Harlem’s drag-ball circuit. It should also be mentioned that although Pose does speak to the representational progress being made, Murphy, being a cis white male producer, has the power and money to make the ultimate decisions. Still, representation for queer and trans people of colour has improved overtime, though garnering complete representation continues to be a work in progress.
Reflecting, writing, and learning about Paris is Burning and Pose is important to me as a white, ciswoman because it is integral to understand and be mindful of how one represents and discusses those with diverging backgrounds and identities. Pose and Paris is Burning exemplify diverging modes of representation, and have thus had diverging impacts on Harlem’s drag-ball community and viewers alike.
Despite being produced by cis, white people, both Paris is Burning and FX’s Pose reach a wide audience and thereby give varying types of people exposure to the experiences of queer and trans people of colour. In the Netflix documentary Disclosure, numerous trans actresses noted the positive impact Paris is Burning had as a representational force while they were coming of age and beginning to understand their identities. For instance, Pose actress, MJ Rodriguez noted that she was eleven when she first watched Paris is Burning, and while she did not really understand what she was watching, she was mesmerized by the beautiful people she saw on the screen. Moreover, Trace Lysette stated that “there [were] so many iconic moments [in Paris is Burning] that allowed [her] to see [herself] as a working-class transwoman in New York City.” Laverne Cox was similarly both critical of Paris is Burning, and simultaneously happy that it exists. Although Paris is Burning helped garner representation for trans and queer people of colour, it is now our duty to analyze these productions critically and prioritize the subjects’ emic representation.
Paris is Burning was Sundance’s 1991 grand prize winner and was subsequently distributed by Miramax Films. As a result, Harlem’s drag-ball culture was mainstreamed and the lives of its participants were immortalized. However, Livingston retained the monetary success and fame for herself, leaving the subjects “exactly where they were when filmed.” According to Philip Harper’s investigation of the aftermath, the films’ participants felt they were due a portion of the profits garnered from the $3,779,620 domestic gross revenue based on a budget of $500,000. In her New York Times article, journalist Jesse Green observed that all but two queens featured in the film filed legal claims against Livingston. Claims were dropped as the subjects had signed releases permitting Livingston’s documentation. In a 2013 interview, Paris is Burning participant Carmen Xtravaganza said, about Livingston: “I felt that she took advantage of all of us… I didn’t benefit nothing from it.” Octavia Saint Laurent, a main subject in Paris is Burning, stated, years after the film’s dissemination, “they are looking outside in and Paris is Burning is their memento or something.” Livingston was the first to document Harlem’s ball-scene and reveal it to a mainstream audience. Watching the documentary, it is clear that the participants hoped their lives would change in a material way. Harper suggests that Livingston, therefore, facilitated the continued disenfranchisement of queer and trans people of colour as she exploited their representation for her own benefit.
Another shortcoming of Livingston’s representation was her failure to interrogate the documentary participants’ relationship to whiteness. The desire to be a “spoiled rich white girl,” or to “capture the great white way of living,” appear throughout the film. These quotes are voiced alongside videos of ball participants dressed in historically “white” outfits; categories such as “schoolboy/schoolgirl,” “town and country,” or “executive realness,” were popularly mirrored. Additionally, voiceovers expressing desires to be rich and affluent were paired with photos of designer-clad white people, captured as they walked briskly down New York avenues, shopped in department stores, or rode horses.
In her book “Black Looks: Race and Representation,” Scholar bell hooks noted that the film does not uplift those who it claims to shine a light on. Rather, Hooks says, the documentary presents an “obsession with an idealized fetishized vision of femininity that is white.” The white gaze, being “unmarked,” and regarded as “neutral,” coupled with Livingston’s bodily absence in the film, allows one to view Paris is Burning as an ethnographic film. This permits viewers to forget that the film was shaped by Livingston, a white producer. Hooks argues that the subjects’ conception of “whiteness” is akin to success and material riches are displayed uncritically. Thus, to a viewer watching Paris is Burning from an ethnographic standpoint, the uncritical rhetoric and associations in this film may affirm racial hierarchies and white supremacy.
Pose, although largely inspired by Paris is Burning, does the unprecedented work of countering Livingston’s colonial framing of Black trans and queer people. The five main characters on Pose are all trans women of colour. Further, over one hundred and fifty members of the staff come from Harlem’s contemporary ball scene, many of them being trans. Indya Moore, the actress that plays a transwoman, ‘Angel’ on Pose, currently competes in Harlem’s ball-circuit and is a member of the “House of Xtravaganza.” During an interview, Moore explains that she has the support of her House family members, “[t]hey know I’m going to come up here and represent the way we are,” she says. In an interview with Pose’s series writer/co-executive, producer/director, Janet Mock confided that her identity as a transwoman of colour helped form storylines and characters that would otherwise be stereotypical or offensive. Mock noted that by utilizing extras and crew members that come from the ball scene, this not only gives Pose an authentic edge but provides credit and experience to people who have never worked in the television industry. Pose is ground-breaking as it plays a role in shifting the publics’ ideas about trans and queer people of colour as well as by giving back to the community through jobs and experience.
Pose uses the aspirations voiced in Paris is Burning to ground the desires of the fictive characters, many influenced by naturalized notions of white success. Pose, however, develops upon these dreams and uses them to build storylines that refute desires for white acceptance, instead displaying the power of strong relationships within their own community. For instance, in season two, Angel, a Black trans woman, is repeatedly courted by ‘Stan,’ her on-again-off-again-white-executive-suburban boyfriend, as he frequently entices her with offers to move in with him. Stan symbolizes her opportunity to be “kept,” and protected from the burdens that come with her identity. After joining a new house and experiencing the support of her community, Angel rejects Stan’s final offer, despite it being a dream that she voiced on previous episodes. With the support of her house, Angel realizes that she does not need a white man to achieve her dreams and shape her world. Pose encapsulates the world parallel to the community documented in Paris is Burning, yet it does so by rejecting the appeal of the “white saviour” and realigning Black ideas of success to favour family and self-love.
Though representations of Harlem’s 1980s’ drag-ball circuit are now largely utilized by the Black community, many artists who use Paris is Burning’s iconography and rhetoric are not LGBTQ+. Music videos produced by celebrities such as Beyonce, Ciara, and Azealia Banks reference the culture documented by Paris is Burning, but do not speak to their appropriation and subsequent popularization of a culture that is not their own. Thus, the drag-ball community is still exploited and used for monetary gain. Moreover, the popular reality series RuPaul’s Drag Race, a TV show hosted by a Black gay man, is heavily modelled on Paris is Burning. RuPaul Charles, the host of Drag Race, however, has made comments that disqualify trans women from his show, thereby undermining the progress Drag Race has made as a popular LGBQT+ TV show.
Pose, although taking leaps and bounds in progress through its advocation for emic Black and Latinx trans and queer representation, is still ultimately produced by Murphy, a white, cisman. Therefore, there is still moves to be made in garnering complete representation for trans and queer people of colour. Wider visibility, however, also heightens the opportunity for audiences to understand that colonialism, racism, and transphobia are forever entwined, enforcing the development of emic representation for trans and queer people of colour.
Bella Silverman is a double major in history and art history at McGill University. Bella’s academic goal is to uncover histories that are normally concealed due to patriarchal structures and the systematic canonization of history.
