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Ballroom and Drag Culture Through the Decades

Arkee Escalera

June 1, 2018 at 7:00 AM

<p>In the 1920’s, drag queens and other queer people organized covertly in underground ballrooms.</p>

<p>The ‘Roaring Twenties’ was a period of high fashion. Midwestern flapper style was popular during this period. The underground ballroom scene was one of the only places where queer people could enjoy high fashion and appropriate this particular style.</p>

<p>Two drag queens wearing classy pearls, subtle makeup, and marcel waves; they are ready for the ball.</p>

<p>In the 1930's, the underground ballroom scene quickly became a place where one’s queer identity was visible. Mainstream society, however, saw the ballrooms as a place of perversions, accusing the participants of engaging in sexual activities during the balls. Newspapers began covering these stories, with some blaming ballroom goers for the Great Depression.</p>

<p>Outside of these ballrooms and queer-friendly clubs, drag queens were often arrested. Sometimes, police officers would enter the ballrooms impersonating queer men, baiting the ballroom attenders to conversations about sexual intercourse, then arresting them.</p>

<p>This continued into the 1940's. Here, two officers arrest a drag queen on the charges of soliciting homosexual intercourse.</p>

<p>Often, queer people were victims of homophobic hate crimes. Thugs often waited outside of ballrooms and queer-friendly clubs, and violently attacked or harassed the LGBTQ participants. These attacks were typically not reported.</p>

<p>In the 1950's, queer-friendly clubs, balls, and speakeasies were anything but inclusive to black and brown people.</p>

<p>While white queer people faced police brutality because of their queerness, black queer people were targeted for their queerness <em>and</em> their blackness. Cops were excessively violent toward colored queer people.</p>

<p>The Stonewall Riot lasted six days, and then re-emerged (peacefully) for five days after that.</p>

<p>Important ballroom figures like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera stood at the apex of the Stonewall Riots in 1969, protesting the reprehensible treatment of queer people from law enforcement.</p>

<p>The Stonewall Riots became violent. Police officers used excessive violence, once hitting a lesbian demonstrator in the head as he forced her inside of the cop car.</p>

<p>Here underground ballroom participants organize in the streets of Greenwich Village, New York City.</p>

<p>In the 1970's, black and latino ballroom culture emerged as a response to the lack of diversity in previous ballrooms, quickly becoming a home to many black and brown LGBTQ people.</p>

<p>As a result, voguing became popular. Some of most popular drag queens considered this a form of combating oppression and gaining liberation through movement.</p>

<p>Healthcare and HIV medications were seldom available to the communities it affected the worst: black and brown queer people. ACT U –AIDS Activists–conducted a peaceful protest, bringing awareness to this issue.</p>

<p>Documentaries like 1990's <em>Paris is Burning</em> highlighted HIV and AIDS, showing how more than half of the ballroom scene was living with the disease.</p>

<p>HIV and AIDS testing was made available in the underground ballrooms. People who tested at the door were let in the balls for free.</p>

<p>Madonna, inspired by black and brown ballroom performers, began using her public platform to popularize voguing. She helped introduce this culture to the mainstream with her 1990 hit "Vogue."</p>

<p>Ballroom culture evolved, creating a space for black and brown youth to develop and express themselves through voguing, fashion, and stylized-femininity.</p>

<p>Today, voguing continues to thrive as a revolutionary dance style.</p>

<p>It is not uncommon to see a man in drag on television. Shows like <em>RuPaul’s Drag Race</em> showcase ballroom culture. Popular drag queens today all started out in an underground ballroom setting.</p>

<p>Laverne Cox, the first openly transgender woman to be nominated for an acting award, began as a drag queen in the underground ballroom scene.</p>

<p>Today, underground ballroom culture is anything but underground. During peaceful protests, it is not uncommon to see a group of queer organizers voguing in the street as a form of resistance.</p>

It's so much more than vogueing and RuPaul's Drag Race.

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