Gender Inequality In Paris Is Burning

Gender, race, class, and sexuality are accomplished through social interactions. Identities are performed carefully at the risk of social assessment where behaviors are interpreted inherent in the individual. The concepts of “doing gender”, “doing difference”, and the documentary Paris is Burning argue how those identities become a performance, define one’s social position, and how categorical boundaries are policed to perpetuate differences embedded in social hierarchy and inequality.

Gender is a role that we perform in social interactions and embedded in ourselves through societal expectations. The expression of gender differences is not rooted in biology but society. People are socialized to recognize gender behaviors and categorize others

It’s not just simply a single identity but one can have multiple identities that determine their privileges and social experiences. Just thinking gender “neglects race and class; thus, it is an incomplete framework for understanding social inequality” (West and Fenstermarker, pg.9). One who suffers from oppression at the intersection of those three identities is more oppressed, but oppression is not simply ranked. Gender, race, and class are all connected and operate together that determine a person’s social experiences and access to resources. For example, women experience oppression but it discounts the different social experiences of a rich White woman versus a poor Black woman. People have underlying notions of how a racial group looks, acts, or talks based on biological explanations. In addition, it’s natural for a class category to have certain characteristics. People with multiple identities are held accountable of their behaviors at the risk of assessment where it justifies or discredits their categorical nature. Just thinking gender alone, ignores the structural forces in the society that affect people’s thinking and behavior; thus, reinforce social inequality. Discriminating ideologies are manipulated to legitimate differences and

Members are mostly people of color, LGBTQ, and low to no income individuals. Gender and sexuality are accomplished through appearance, performance, and clothing. The trans-woman who had a sex reassignment surgery referred to herself as a “real” woman and believes that gender is purely anatomical. Members of harsh economic conditions achieve class when they steal for the ball and portray a higher status through their enactment. The “executive” category allows them to achieve the opportunities that they can’t pursue in reality. Race, class, gender, and sexuality are accomplished when members capture the perfect way of performing an executive– a heterosexual, white, and rich male. When one of the ballroom members said that everyone wants to be like Marilyn Monroe, it represents how whiteness represents the standard of success and it’s what they aspire to be. Given a category, members are held accountable of their performance under judgments based on their ability to enact the most authentic performance and win a trophy. For example, if given a masculine category, a man wearing a woman’s coat was unacceptable and it led to furious disputes. One’s actual identity is not supposed to be detectable and the performance has to be natural and exactly the idealized interpretation of the