The roots of ballroom culture trace as far back as the late 1800s. In its beginning stages, competitions were driven underground due to the outside world’s illegal and taboo stigmatization of drag culture. 

 

Judges were known to generally favor white, Eurocentric features; the first Black contestant did not take home the top prize until 1936 — 69 years after the first ball. Crystal LaBeija called attention to the judge’s discrimination against Black and Latinx contestants, stating the camp beauty pageant was rigged after being told she was “showing her color” in 1967. LaBeija refused to participate in other drag pageants, instead creating her own ball with inspiration from drag queen Lottie LaBeija designed exclusively for Black and Latinx trans, gay and queer people. 

 

The ballroom scene consists of an entire language of concepts, categories, dances and slang that are unique to the community; the kiki scene is more welcoming and targeted toward younger people. Participants strut, dance and sometimes recite spoken word on a stage or runway for prizes, displaying their outfit along with their persona for different categories. Performances are judged by one’s fashion, appearance and movement. Popular categories include aesthetics like business executive, best dressed, butch queen in pumps and realness. In the 1980s, LGBTQIA+ people were stigmatized by the AIDS crisis, making their visibility in the workplace virtually nonexistent. At that time, realness offered a way for many to celebrate themselves, their beauty and self-worth in defiance of a society that said they were unworthy of love or acceptance because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. 

 

Phrases like “slay,” “muva,” “hunty,” “yas, queen!” and “child, please don’t come for me,” stem from Black and Latinx LGBTQIA+ communities and were brought to life by pioneers like Dorian Corey, Paris Dupree, Kim Pendavis and Junior LaBeija. Ballroom lexicon, expressions and tonalites are created to articulate the unique experience of this culture, the language is also needed for survival, protection and affirmation. When words are used in exaggeration and/or incorrectly, the ballroom community loses ownership of their language. 

 

One prevalent example of this is the conception of Madonna’s song “Vogue” starting a new international craze in popular culture. The actual culture from which this creativity and greatness were being stripped continues to be suppressed and marginalized — those in the voguing community Madonna borrowed from don’t get to take off their Blackness and queerness and move onto the next thing. It is also rumored that many fashion houses have workers that attend balls for ideas on their newest fashion lines, as ballrooms have often inspired some of the most avant-garde looks on the runway each season.As the lines between mainstream and ballroom culture continue to blur, the community and its history is deprived of its power and silence. Cultural appropriation erases heritage and creates false historic interpretations which is an erasure of Black and Latinx queer culture, even when it’s unintentional. 

 

Although authentic media representations like “Pose” exist, ballroom culture should not be considered post-subcultural because it still primarily consists of disadvantaged groups and represents non-mainstream values.