Burningon Queer Visibility in Media Today

the impact of PARIS IS BURNINGon queer visibility in media today

Paris is Burning is and will forever be a largely impactful cultural production. This documentary following the lives of some of the most influential people of the New York ball scene in the 1980s has garnered generations worth of mainstream attention to the drag and drag ball subculture that can still be felt today through its influence over queer visibility in film and television. The work of Paris is Burning paved way for future works centered on drag culture to not just exist in future mainstream culture but rather be emersed into the mainstream viewing. FX’s Pose (2018-) builds off of the success and leg- acy of Paris is Burning to feature ball culture in a fictional narrative based off of the lives of young queer individuals who find themselves in the ball scene during the 1980s. VICELAND’s 2018 series My House and Sara Jordenö’s filmKiki are both contemporary documentary works on the New York City ball culture in recent years. Multiple reviews of Kiki actually refer to it as a sequal to Paris is Burning due to its similarities. Another documentary worth noting is Elegance Bratton’s Pier Kids (2019), which follows homeless transgender and gay youth of color living on the Christopher Street Pier in New York City. While not focused on ball culture, its portrayal of how the relation between age, race, class, and queerness as pertains is similar to this portrayal Paris is Burning, although Pier Kids confronts these challenges much more directly.

CONTEMPORARY WORKS INSPIRED BY PARIS WHERE IT GOES WRONG This film and its influence over the mainstreaming of a queer subculture, however, was never one without controversy. In 1993, only a few years after its release, a New York Times article aptly titled “Paris Has Burned” is published, questioning the lack of profits shared with the film’s stars as well as contrasting the film with the current AIDS epidemic affecting the LGBT population and some of the faces featured in the film. More recently, however, in 2015, MikeQ, a New Jersey ballroom DJ that worked on the soundtrack for Kiki, expressed concerns to The Guardian, regarding the mainstreaming of ballroom to lead to a disconnect from its roots in queer culture. He notes: “I can see in the future if a TV show came out about ballroom and the producers went to some- body who just found out about it, rather than a legend that’s been in the scene … I could see us being erased from that.”

And, unfortunately enough, his fears became a reality in 2020 when HBO Max announced its new competition show based in elements of ball culture titled Legendary. It was met with outrage online from the LGBT community when it was discovered actress Jameela Jamila would be the show’s MC instead of someone more familiar with the ballroom scene. While this show drew controversy for the exact issue he brought up five years prior, MikeQ is actually this show’s official DJ, making him one of the few names associated with the show already associated with ballroom. As queer culture becomes more mainstream and thus more vulnera- ble to capitalist exploitation, there needs to be increased caution to ensure queer voices are still central to these cultural productions. “Jennie’s film ended with a sad undertone, and I think our message is much more powerful than the impression that she left. We are an inspirational, creative and resilient community. This is 24 years later. There have been advancements in [treating] HIV, to which a lot of characters from the scene, and Jennie’s film [including Corey, Willi Ninja, and Jamel’s one- time House mother Octavia Saint-Laurent] succumbed. We’re all over the media. If it wasn’t for ballroom, there would be no Laverne Cox or [transgender activist and dancer] Giselle Xtravangza. It’s time to show that we have prevailed. It’s time to show that it’s not a sad story,” - DJ MikeQ WHY THIS MAT- TERS “Jennie’s film ended with a sad undertone, and I think our message is much more powerful than the impression that she left. We are an inspirational, creative and resilient community. This is 24 years later. There have been advancements in [treating] HIV, to which a lot of characters from the scene, and Jennie’s film [including Corey, Willi Ninja, and Jamel’s one- time House mother Octavia Saint-Laurent] succumbed. We’re all over the media. If it wasn’t for ballroom, there would be no Laverne Cox or [transgender activist and dancer] Giselle Xtravangza. It’s time to show that we have prevailed. It’s time to show that it’s not a sad story,” - DJ MikeQ

The story and history that followsParis is Burning involves both positives and negatives. While it has paved the way for ball culture to be viewed to much wider audiences, there are still concerns regarding the mainstreaming of ball culture that may be at the expense and exploitation of queer people and queer communities, specifically the trans community. None- theless, this film’s lasting impact is still felt today, necessitating that this discussion concerning the line between exploitation and appreciation continue on. SOURCES

Brown, Tracy. “Jameela Jamil, Voguing Competition MC? Not so Fast, Critics Say.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 5 Feb. 2020, www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/ tv/story/2020-02-04/jameela-jamil-legendary-voguing-competition-judge.

Canals, Steven, et. al., creators. POSE. Color Force, Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision, yan Murphy Television, Fox 21 Tele- vision Studios, and FXP, 2019.

Clark, Ashley. “Burning down the House: Why the Debate over Paris Is Burning Rages On.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 June 2015, www.theguardian.com/ film/2015/jun/24/burning-down-the-house-debate-paris-is- burning.

Kiki, directed by Sara Jordenö, 2016.

Paris is Burning, directed by Jennie Livingston, 1990.

Pier Kids: The Life, directed by Elegance Bratton, 2019.