Paris Is Burning Sociology

Paris is Burning is an iconic film that gives the heterosexual world a look into the underground scene of queer culture that is the ballroom. The film presented new slang and phrases that people in the present still use, but the stories and the issues of the oppressed are often overlooked and forgotten. At the time of release in the 1990s, gay culture was still somewhat misunderstood, but Paris is Burning portrayed the struggles that gay individuals experience every day. The movie showed that those of the LGBTQ community are just like anyone else with dreams and ambitions yet have a harder time achieving them because of who they are. In the film Paris is Burning, class, sexuality, and race all intersect for queer individuals in a way that oppresses them, yet the struggle is what brings the community together and allows them to create an environment where they are all accepted. Around the 1980s in New York City, …show more content…
Venus Xtravaganza, mother of the House of Xtravaganza, claims that ninety percent of people in the ballroom scene are, for a lack of better terms, “hustlers.” Without straightforwardly admitting it, Venus was insinuating that they are escorts, yet some could be dealing with drugs, and may even perform sexual favors for many other basic life necessitates. Angie Xtravaganza, although being white, talks about being involved in such a lifestyle but also speaks about being vulnerable to violence from her clients who discovers that she still has male private parts. With all the risks being high for transgender individuals like Angie, she still continues to escort these men in order to get materials for balls and just to continue living as this is a matter of survival of the fittest. However, Angie is revealed to have been strangled to death by one of her clients which exposes the harsh realities that these people have no choice but to live