#paris is burning

[wh11skeyandlace]

”Dear diary”-love A.

“When am i finally gonna meet my Prince Charming? I’m tired of being humiliated I deserve more I’m worthy of better.”

[colombinna]

Paris burning, and the war over bell hooks

So in the midst of doing my thesis research on black representation in pop culture I wound up reading the infamous "is paris burning?" essay by bell hooks and in the middle of the my reading I watched the documentary for the first time. At first I thought hooks was reaching in many of her criticisms, and throughout the movie I kept thinking that had she studied under a BLACK Brazilian as much as she studied under Freire that that article would not exist, because she would understand where the culture she critiqued was coming from. I still think that, but after finishing both movie and article I cannot say she wrote that review in good faith. From intentionally misgendering transfems, to the simply cruel way she refers to Pepper LaBeija, what hooks lacks is something she so often preaches in her other books: empathy. She herself is an academic professor with an academic degree that studied under other, white academics, but when SHE assimilates to white institutions it suddenly isn't the same exact problem she describes that she has with ballroom culture.

I say she should've studied under a black brazilian as well because then she would've known that a crucial part of diasporic black culture is the struggle between assimilation and subversion, and it has been ever since we've been kidnapped to the Americas. Cultural syncretism is the very core of black and latine culture and religion, and ballroom is merely another, contemporary expression of black and latine culture. I see no difference between the real issues with ballroom that she and the documentary bring up and the issues in christian syncretic afro rooted religions in Brasil, namely Umbanda. I see no difference between ballroom's competitive and "violent" origins of some aspects of it and capoeira, which is martial arts that has been used to violently resist colonial power, and is now a staple of black brazilian culture. Alas, a cishet gringa is still a cishet gringa.

I've been seeing a lot of criticism of hooks in general on social media these days, much of it very concerning, but I still cannot agree with the nonblack people claiming she says "queerness is whiteness" - because as queerphobic and transphobic as her review is, she does not do that. And that leads me to my other point: must we treat bell hooks in such extremes? She is either a saint and genius who solved every problem in the world, or a flat earther whose every thought should be discarded. And my issue is that we do not do that with any white male theorist and thinker. Paulo Freire had issues with sexism, and those were and are debated, but we do not discard his work in pedagogy, because doing so would be stupid. Focault had amazing insights on sociology, but stayed within a white colonial lens, and we know how to criticize him while still using the parts of his work that fit what we want to construct. Why is doing the same so impossible when it comes to bell hooks? The very first thing one has to learn when it comes to building theory is to not discard someone's whole body of work because of passages that have been proven wrong, or to hail someone as the inventor of the new wheel who's above any and all criticisms. Of course all this still happens inside academia, I've seen it with my own eyes when it comes to my own professors. But this debate over hooks specifically always sticks with me, because she's the only theorist who gets wars fought over her by people who are the farthest thing away from theorists or academics. People who haven't read a word she wrote have opinions on her on both sides of the war. I once again wish we could stop and be normal about black women.

[wailingwallwall]

[scorecrushed]

If you don’t cry about Venus Xtravaganza’s death every time you watch Paris is Burning, then I frankly do not trust you.

[monsieurenjlolras]

Slowly making the world a gayer place by explaining drag houses to my straight catholic friend and convincing him to watch Paris is Burning

[azreliaazrita]

I'm Watching Paris is Burning. Begging everyone to learn queer history from firsthand sources. You can't begin to understand lgbt history without hearing it from the people that lived it.

[op1umtr33]

Paris is burning, and " the queen" are currently in my top 3 documentary films, I adore these snapshots into the world of before, the people before me..

To know people like me have always been here, we always will be here.

Every month, every day. Is pride. Pride was a riot, and we should never let capitalism adopt our movement again.

Imma get this tattooed, tramp stamp maybe 🤔

[scholarofgloom]