In the 1980's an urban social phenomenon emerged in the New York City gay underclass. The young gay community gathered together to perform drag balls in large ramshackle halls. Successful performers became important enough to form their own 'House' of which they were The Mother. Such 'houses' took in young gay men off the street, supported them, helping them find their feet. They often walked the catwalk in self made or frequently stolen cloths. The balls were extremely competitive and had increasingly outlandish themes. These often mimicked or parodied cultural dress codes of sections of higher elite society. Ones that they might aspire to being only in their dreams. Overtime their own language developed. The concept of 'casting shade' visually or verbally has its sources in this time.
If this all sounds vaguely familiar then maybe you've watched the Ryan Murphy TV series Pose which is based on this period. Though this shows it as being much more ostentatious and glamorous than it actually was. It does nonetheless portray well what was happening then. The BBC Arena documentary from 1990 - Paris Is Burning shows you just how rough and improvised out of thin air it really was. These were not gay men, transvestites or trans people with much money What money they earned, often through prostitution or drugs, went into their next fabulous creation or gender surgery.
If you were trans at this time you lived a quite precarious life. Where the danger of abusive attacks, rape and murder was extremely common. A fate which Venus Evangelista, who they follow through out the documentary, becomes the victim of by the end of it. This is a brilliant thought provoking, yet life enhancing documentary, which shows you how an impoverished and embattled sub culture can thrive, going from strength to strength, in spite of inhospitable circumstances
CARROT REVIEW 7/8
Currently available to stream on I Player.
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