This Spring, I took a feminist theory course. It was hard. It was hard because I am a scientist by training and trade, and the language and concepts of the course worked new and unfamiliar brain synapses. But I loved the material and stretching outside my positivist, empiricist self. And I love the teacher, but that's a different story.
Throughout the quarter we traveled the long roads of postcolonialsm, poststructuralism, orientalism, standpoint epistemology, etc., concluding our term with an exploration of queer theory. The discussion was anchored around a number of articles[1] and the film, Paris is Burning[2], a story about the ball scene in New York City in the late 1980s.Part 1 - It's My Party
"A few swim in riches and the majority drown in poverty, pollution, and violence."
---John Perkins, Confessions of a Hit Man[3]
Reclaiming Privilege. Queer theory, the pop culture wannabe of firmly landed theoretical models, is as intellectually substantive as a box of Frosted Flakes is nutritious. It’s genre of performative coolness arbitrates a collective suturing of hipness across otherwise disparate populations. Paris is Burning painfully illustrates the great distance between the queer theory haves and have nots, and quite-by-accident betrays the reality that the have nots aren’t going anywhere. The theoretical home base of (mostly) educated, white middle- and upper class people, queer theory shrewdly markets itself as the latest and greatest. Under exciting and trendy Fifth Avenue packaging, queer theory works to re-establish the (white) patriarchal stranglehold, covertly uninviting the disenfranchised from the party. You can almost hear the whiny power-elites reclaiming entitlement to power vis-à-vis their glamor theory.
The intersections of race, class, and gender in America construct a clear hierarchy of social power. For the poor, non-White, gay, and transgendered men of Paris is Burning, a particularly unique form of social vulnerability is constructed. While fully aware of their low social location, the men of the New York City ball scene briefly escape it by simulating the privilege of others living far outside their local reality.
The Filmmaker: An examination of class. Jennie Livingston was born into power. Her upper crust family endowed privilege. She had resources that allowed her to enter an exotic world of people far outside her material class, to objectify its subjects, to appropriate their culture for profit, then to exit, leaving her world intact but enriched, leaving their world infiltrated and exploited. The advantaged have never been slow to use others for their own profit. Paris is Burning has grossed nearly four million dollars. The Paris performers had to bring suit before Livingston honored her promise to share in the revenues. Fifty-five thousand dollars was ultimately distributed to the performers.
Reclaiming Privilege. Queer theory, the pop culture wannabe of firmly landed theoretical models, is as intellectually substantive as a box of Frosted Flakes is nutritious. It’s genre of performative coolness arbitrates a collective suturing of hipness across otherwise disparate populations. Paris is Burning painfully illustrates the great distance between the queer theory haves and have nots, and quite-by-accident betrays the reality that the have nots aren’t going anywhere. The theoretical home base of (mostly) educated, white middle- and upper class people, queer theory shrewdly markets itself as the latest and greatest. Under exciting and trendy Fifth Avenue packaging, queer theory works to re-establish the (white) patriarchal stranglehold, covertly uninviting the disenfranchised from the party. You can almost hear the whiny power-elites reclaiming entitlement to power vis-à-vis their glamor theory.
The intersections of race, class, and gender in America construct a clear hierarchy of social power. For the poor, non-White, gay, and transgendered men of Paris is Burning, a particularly unique form of social vulnerability is constructed. While fully aware of their low social location, the men of the New York City ball scene briefly escape it by simulating the privilege of others living far outside their local reality.
The Filmmaker: An examination of class. Jennie Livingston was born into power. Her upper crust family endowed privilege. She had resources that allowed her to enter an exotic world of people far outside her material class, to objectify its subjects, to appropriate their culture for profit, then to exit, leaving her world intact but enriched, leaving their world infiltrated and exploited. The advantaged have never been slow to use others for their own profit. Paris is Burning has grossed nearly four million dollars. The Paris performers had to bring suit before Livingston honored her promise to share in the revenues. Fifty-five thousand dollars was ultimately distributed to the performers.
Material life is a reflection of power. Power is a reflection of material wealth: housing, health care, safe neighborhoods, consistent and good nutrition, and access to of goods and services. Living in a precarious social position—hungry, homeless, under- and unemployed—the men of Paris fantasized wealth, beauty, and leisure that imitated the materiality of those in power. “I want to be a spoiled white girl,” said one performer, “They don’t need anything.” Another performer wished, “I want to be a woman. White. Rich. Successful. Happy.” (When one is not crushed by oppressive hegemonic structures or hunting down the next meal, “happy” seems like such a simple thing.) Because the performers weren’t invited to the real ball, they made up their own, an excursion into class and power, followed all too quickly by a return ticket back to their daily reality. “The ballroom tells them ‘I’m somebody.’ But when they go home, they have to tell themselves they’re somebody. And that’s where people get lost.”
Later ... Part 2: Race, Gender, Death
[1] Walters , Suzanna Danuta. 1996. “From Here to Queer: Radical Feminism, Postmodernism, and the Lesbian Menace (Or, Why Can't a Woman Be More like a Fag?).” Signs 21(4): 830-869.
[2] Paris is Burning. 2005. DVD. Directed by Livingston, Jennie, Paul Gibson, and Jonathan Oppenheim. 1991; Burbank, CA: Miramax Home Entertainment.
[3] Perkins, John. 2004. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. New York: Plume Publishers.
[3] Perkins, John. 2004. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. New York: Plume Publishers.
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