How do drag balls have destabilizing effects upon the normative culture in Paris is Burning while they parody the norms of the dominant culture?
How does the camera function in Paris is Burning? Do you agree with Judith Butler that it functions to project the director's lesbian desire upon the gay men?
Who frames the subject of the film - the protagonists or the director?
I thought the balls in Paris is Burning were interesting because of the complete reversal of a real-life situation in them, or in other terms the role of the actor. An actor, for example, might act an unconventional role in a movie but leans toward the more conventional spectrum in real-life. I'm not generalising, I'm just giving an example. What I saw through these balls were unconventional people acting conventional roles of life and being judged on how "real" they seemed. I think this reversal of the "expected" sheds a light on a culture that would accept a borader range of sexuality and idenitification with the self as long as it's theatrical, "only acting" but shuns it in real life. Futhermore if actors were to all perform normative roles such as the ones performed at the balls they'd be called "boring". This reflects a bit of cultural hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteAs for Butler's idea that the camera functions to "project the director's lesbian desire upon gay men", I couldn't take it seriously. The idea in itself sounds to me like Freud's psycho-analytical theories about sexuality which never convinced me and which I also found hypothetical. I think Butler sees the director action as similar to some line in a larger criteria but has she looked at the director, in specific, as a unique person uncategorized under a label or a term? I don't think so. I believe Butler horribly generalizes.
I think both the protagonists and director frame the subject of the film. In "Paris is Burning" is specific, I'd say the director generated the idea but the protagonists are the ones who vitalized it and kept it moving. Without LaBeija, Xtravaganza, Ninja and the rest of the characters/narrators...Paris is Burning would've went nowhere. However on a more basic level, a film is framed by the director as long as it's not a documentary film.
I believe that the drag balls have destabilizing effects on the "Black (or hispanic) Gay culture" because they create an illusion or another reality that all the members believe. For one night they can be whoever they want to be, they can become lawyers, models, singers, dancers, as long as they can pull off the look. And that is what it is all about.
ReplyDeleteIt is also destabilizing because they completely delete the depth and complexity of identity, but rather emphasize on the superficiality of it.
Also, the drag balls parody the norms of the dominant culture because all of the characters that they dress up as are usually taken from the dominant culture, for example Xtravaganza claims that she wants to be a beautiful white girl, and she was, for one night at least.
I did not notice that the director was sending out "lesbian vibes" to the audience, and therefore I cannot agree that the camera movement projects her lesbian desire to the gay men. I thought that the camera movement was rather amusing, and gave the film a sense of reality, it was not a fixed camera filming a conventional movie. The camera was more lose, it had more freedom, it was almost underground.
In my opinion, both the director and the protagonists frame the subject. The director is of course in charge, since she was able to delete or add whichever scenes she desired..She is above the protagonists in a way, but the protagonists also framed the subject since it was their story that they were telling. It was the protagonists face that we saw, and their voice that we heard, therefore they are directly linked to the viewer through speech and image (which relate to our primary senses). The director on the other hand is linked more subtly to the viewer, for the viewer might and might not understand the movement of the camera, or comprehend the selection or the order of the scenes.