The Stereotypes Of Drag Queens In New York

This documentary features drag queens in New York. These queens faced many hardships concerning their sexuality, personality, race, and class in the 1990s. In sociology, people who face low SES or are part of minority races or orientations will face much more scrutiny than the average person. With the life-style of the people in this documentary, great strength is needed to live a life that they choose since much of the world is against this life-style. A big part of the drag queen life-style, as shown in the documentary, is the ballroom shows. Drag queens get to compete in these shows called balls. There are different categories in these competitions that require the contestants to dress up in different ways. One of the drag contestants dressed

black people have a hard time getting anywhere, and those that do are usually straight.” They use the ballroom to have these competitions to live out their dreams while their loved ones cheer them on. Each ball has different categories within the competition to express different looks. One category is dressing as a school girl/school boy, another is butch queen first time in drags at a ball. These different categories let the queens dress up to express different things. These balls give off a great energy and bring lively fun and drama that is unique to this community. It is fun and fabulous! Some categories meant to get the contestants to dress up as careers, certain names, royalty, or even as their straight counterparts. “When you are a man and a woman, you can do anything. but when you are gay, you monitor everything you do. You monitor how you look, how you dress, how you talk, how you

This documentary shows how most of the drag queens face hate everyday, are beaten up in the streets on the way home, come from a hard background; many come to live with others in their “House” since they were kicked out by their parents at a young age. A House is a group of drag queens. The houses seem similar to Greek life houses for the drag world in New York. They represent the chosen family that the drag members have. It is amazing that a minority community has houses like this to help support each other. A mother of the house is the most powerful, is usually known for winning competitions, is fierce, and takes care or guides the other members of the house. A house named after a drag queen. House of Ninja is named after the mother of the house, Willi Ninja. There are awards in the ballroom too. Angie Extravaganza of the Extravaganza House won Mother of the Year. This ballroom and community show that these drag queens can make their own “Oscars”, their own entertainment, their own family, their own reality. The documentary clearly shows minority struggles in everyday