Argue whether Jennie Livingston's Paris is Burning is primarily a film Essay

Argue whether Jennie Livingston's Paris is Burning is primarily a film about class, race or gender and why. Argue from two different perspectives - Essay Example The film extensively features the groupings and team formations of the members of the ball culture, with such social formations being the basis of the contestants’ protection strength. Thus, the film features a shift from the ballrooms contesting activities to interviews with the major participants in the contests, to clearly paint the picture of the LGBT community in New York, and summarize the theme of gender, sexuality and social classes as informing the ball culture (Leila and Verta, 44). Further, the themes of racism, homophobia and poverty also features in the film, to complement the experiences of the LGBT community encountered from interacting with the larger heterosexual community. Therefore, this discussion seeks to analyze the major themes exploited in Jennie Livingstons ‘Paris is Burning’, with a view to argue from two different perspectives. The first perspective of the discussion will hold that ‘Paris is Burning’ is primarily a film abou t gender; while the second perspective will argue that ‘Paris is Burning’ is primarily a film about race. Jennie Livingstons ‘Paris is Burning’ is primarily a film about gender, considering that it features the male gender that consistently tries to embrace the female gender’s culture, behavior and mannerisms, predominantly with the black and Latino men being featured in their gay context in New York (Rafferty, n.p.). In the film, the Black and the Latino gay men are involved in a series of competitions, and in them, they have devised cross-gender dressing and fashion style, which they then complement with the founding of the voguing dance style (Dean, 22). The film is primarily a portrayal of the Black and Latino gay men imitating the female poses, dance style, fashion dressing and walking style, which forms part of the gay mannerisms. In this respect, the film is a representation of the