What hegemonic ideas about identity are forwarded in the space of the ballroom?
Consider the ideologies and strcutures of identity suggested in the medial of Paris is Burning or Pose. Ultimately, though, you want to craft a compelling argument about how configurations of identity, be them notions of biological sex, gender, and sexuality and informed by intersections with constructions of race, ethnicity, class, etc., might be understood in these cultural products.
In order to flesh out your argument, you might want to contemplate the following:
▪ What hegemonic ideas about identity are forwarded in the space of the ballroom?
What ideologies undergird these conventions and performances?
▪ What subversive ideas about identity are offered in the space of the ballroom? What ideologies undergird this performances of identity?
▪ How do the organizational structures of the ballroom scene serve the participants?
How does the embodiment on the floor serve the participants? What does it suggest about the enactments of identity rehearsed here?
▪ How does the staging position the audience? How does this influence or complicate the ideas of performance of identity you are exploring?
▪ How does the practice of voguing reinforce or complicate hegemonic ideas about embodiment and identity? How does it offer alternative ideas about embodiment and/or identity?
You need not answer each and every question in your essay, but allow these to further develop initial assessments and press your analysis beyond a surface reading. Your resulting paper should then offer a theorized, sociocultural analysis of the ideas embedded in what you watched.
4 pages – APA formatting.
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