Creative Writing Essay: Thematic Core of Livingston’s “Paris is Burning”

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Thematic Core of Livingston’s “Paris is Burning”
Paris is Burning appears to be thematically relevant to New York’s ball culture of 1991. It also traces back to the mid-to-late eighties concerning racism, sexism, and poverty in America. It depicts the spirit of Black, gender-nonconforming individuals and their talent to stick at self-esteem against both social and cultural pressures, which tend to negate their humanity. In particular, Paris is Burning has core themes of gender, racism, and the black race's socio-cultural history through the self-esteemed participants of the ballroom and projects the absence of this self-esteem for the marginalized group today’s America.
There is no definite plot; it is instead a documentary wrapping in the key fights a marginalized group of people has to go through in the USA. It introduces us to a director who has to interview several of the ball culture's leading characters. One of those stars includes Angie X’travaganza, the maker of the House of X’travaganza. The last name of the singer is self-adopted. She is a transgender performer with a good voice and body moves in the ball scene. She adopted several poor street children and trained them to become singers and dancers. Another glowing light in the ball scene is Pepper Labeija. She also boasts an influential personality being a fashion artist. It was her designs that beautified many participants through stylish costumes. Besides a famous fashion designer, she is also an influential ball scene performer. When she performs, her moves seem to have Egyptian touch (College). Apart from this, LaBeija has won more than two hundred and fifty rewards as a fashion artist and performer at the ball scene. The documentary spotlights many other characters, indicating their misery as being disowned by their parents. In this wake, the documentary emphasizes the concept of ‘houses’ for them (Cuoco). Every house is, in reality, alternate parenthood for those being disowned by the actual parents.
Moreover, the houses also accommodate the people suffering from homophobia with families. Ultimately, with the breakdown of the ball scene, various contestants become conscious about the breakdown of their lives (College). They begin to feel frustrated for the desertion of their support setup.
The insolent happiness visible in the ball scene participants at various instants of the documentary was infectious at the end of the twentieth century despite several social, cultural, and health issues. These chief issues involve AIDS, gender discrimination, homophobia, extreme poverty, violence, harassment, obsession, and many other adversities of that time (Reddy 360). Also, the current state of the traditional and sociocultural aspects of America are connected to the movie released a century ago. The current age of falsehood over social media, anti-trans bill, the resurrection of white dominance philosophy, migration barriers, racial and religious bias, sexism, and violent actions to subdue social and huma...