In this short dialogue, two speakers discuss ballroom culture, emphasizing its origins as a safe, expressive space for Black and brown queer and trans people. They explain how ballroom categories and the concept of "realness" (e.g., executive, military, bridal) allowed participants to embody identities and roles denied to them by mainstream society. The conversation then shifts to debates about gatekeeping versus honoring the culture, noting that while some view participation as homage, others worry about appropriation and capitalisation of ballroom aesthetics. They cite the US Drag Race platform, highlighting Aja’s criticism of misrepresentations—such as queens superficially voguing without understanding its roots— and argue that respect and accurate representation are essential when ballroom influences mainstream drag.
Chapters
Maureen did say something that I found was interesting though. She said, does it have to be gatekept? Can me doing it be paying homage or honoring? And I think drag and ballroom culture have borrowed a lot, and I think drag has borrowed especially a lot from ballroom because of the current ways that Drag Race around the world has—
She has— Maureen has a point. If anything, I think the purpose— this is my own analysis— is that if anything, ballroom wants to be inclusive of those who don't feel accepted outside of Our community. It's a safe space for queer and trans— well, in the days, Black and brown were able to safely express themselves through ballroom.
So it was a way for them to live out their true selves in society when society did not have space for them.
They honored themselves. They played these roles and fantasies that they could not outside of that space. Exactly.
And the idea of categories and the terms realness was to allow these queer people spaces. So when they say executive realness, that is because at that time it would have been impossible for queer trans person to become an executive. That extends to all categories. When it's like military or like, I know some other categories would be like bridal, wedding. Those are because gay marriage was not allowed. Like trans people were not allowed to get married at that time. So it was ways so they could live out their fantasies. And that's where realness, that's where all of those terms come from. It was about portraying that aspect of life that they did not have access to.
I guess where Mark's coming from is that our culture quickly becomes capitalized outside of our communities.
It's like, this is hers. It goes back to why would you want your community to be not represented in the very best way? The US Drag Race seasons, Aja is a person who calls out when she sees aspects of ballroom culture being misrepresented or not represented to a— there's ways to do a duck walk. When queens on Drag Race just do it and say, oh, I'm giving— I'm— girl, I'm voguing. And then she's like, no, that's not what it is. So yes, there's some respect that needs to be given, I believe, to— Exactly.
People forget that a lot of lingos, pop culture, style come from queer and trans people. And absolutely, it is easily co-opted by the greater society without even recognizing that fashion and style and whatnot, a lot of it comes from the queer and trans community.
