In his work In A Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives, Jack/Judith Halberstam argues that “mainstream culture within postmodernism should be defined as the process by which subcultures are both recognized and absorbed, mostly for the profit of large media conglomerates” (156, italics in text), and that “most of the interest directed by the mainstream media at subcultures is voyeuristic and predatory” (157). Almost thirty years after this initial impact, though, the ballroom lifestyle and, specifically, vogue’s diffusion in major American urban centers, such as Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, as well as its crossing over to global metropoles, including Paris, Berlin, and Tokyo, raise questions that inevitably lie under every culturally nuanced-here, African American-, Latino-, and gay-inflected-mode that deviates from the margins and attains a broader, more visible, and, importantly, global/ized status.ģWith regard to that, it is important to situate this movement within a postmodern economic and cultural context. Undoubtedly, these two projects shed light on the then-underground subculture of Manhattan. Seeing that both Madonna’s and Livingston’s works are cultural products closely connected to wider audience consumption and largely entailing issues of appropriation and authorship, it becomes quite arduous and complex a task to approach vogue’s seeming radicalism by simply highlighting its gender destabilization politics. Correspondingly, Paris Is Burning spawned debates in the academic world and further invigorated dialogues, especially among gender and queer theorists, who sought to identify what the ballroom’s drag politics was and to what extent it was subversive against the (hetero)dominant culture. When it comes to the epitomical, attention is instantly turned to what is considered to be original both in terms of authenticity as well as longevity, and how this originality is upheld and diffused among the abovementioned groups.ĢTaking the impact of Madonna’s song and video into account, vogue was cemented as a culturally iconic performance for future generations of the LGBT community to emulate. By being popularized, initially with Madonna’s extensively promoted music video of “Vogue” (1990) and even with Livingston’s documentary, voguing and the ballroom lifestyle became epitomical for queer groups not only in America, but also internationally. Progressively, though, this power from the-urban-margins, just like camp per se, has been questioned due to its wide entanglement with consumerist-oriented agencies.
Camp’s politics of excess vitalizes the aesthetic language of voguing by fortifying the performances with parody and gender-bending qualities, two distinctly queer devices renowned for their deconstructive efficacy against hegemonic constructs of gender and race. What is indicative of the scene is its symbiosis with camp dynamism, a relationship sealed with subversive theatrics and discursive potential. Voguers would come to the balls imitating superstars of the showbiz world, as a mockery against, but, simultaneously, a glorification of standardized-typically Western-ideals of beauty, sexuality, and class. The essence of voguing can ironically, sarcastically, even hauntingly be summarized into one word: stylization. Within its contours, the sexual pariahs, initially originating from African American and Latino social groups, developed the practicing of vogue, an intricate dance act inspired by the poses featured on the covers of the eponymous fashion magazine. Born to stand out, the ballroom subculture emerged as the paradigmatic anti-heteronormative indictment against ills and flaws sustained by the dominant American lifestyle.
We’re here and we’re here to stay.ġTo be legendary, as stressed in Jennie Livingston’s esteemed documentary Paris Is Burning (1990), is recapitulative of the ballroom scene. Our story has far surpassed Paris is Burning.