AAVE and the LGBT

BALLROOM: where AAVE and Queerness dance

It was in the turbulent years that engendered its creation that Ballroom — an unabashed celebration of fashion and performance — had come to represent the community amid both White Supremacy and Black Homophobia (Hart).

This largely Black-Queer community, having been able to settle and grow throughout various parts of the United States, developed its unique slang and terminology that are still in use to this day (Waxman & Aneja; Tremeer). A foremost example of this is "Voguing," since its existence precedes that of Madonna's career, despite her being considered the popularizer of the term.

Owing to their similar backgrounds, the origins of specific slang phrases and whether they should be considered AAVE or LGBT are blurred. Ballroom may have the color and expressiveness of "gay speak" and evoke the unique speech formation observed in AAVE. Still, it is also essential to consider that Ballroom was created because of intolerance from both cultures (Zollner; Brathwaite). Perhaps following the concept of intersectionality, we may understand Ballroom not as either AAVE or LGBT but as both simultaneously. May we be reminded of this dialect of the climate that reinforced different dimensions of inequality and forced the creation of new culture whose origins may be ugly but is beautiful regardless (Center for Intersectional Justice).

The multi-awarded documentary Paris is Burning is a window into the 80's Ballroom scene

Matters of Cultural Appropriation

The rise of Legendary, Pose, and RuPaul's Drag Race has shone a spotlight upon Queer Culture. What was once considered subversive art forms are now widely celebrated across the United States and internationally. There has, however, been a growing animosity between these shows. HBO’s Legendary and Netflix’s Pose both feature the art and culture of Queer Ballroom. Still, their counterpart, the international media giant, Rupaul’s drag race, has garnered flack due to its appropriation of Ballroom — particularly, its repeated use and misuse of Ballroom's rich slang and terminology. Leiomy Maldonado, an institution in the ballroom scene, had recently called out one of the show's contestants for "Noguing" or, in other terms, a failed attempt at voguing correctly. She even went so far as to call it a "mockery" of the Ballroom (Sim).

Beyond RuPaul's Drag Race, however, appropriation extends even to everyday people. Chloe Davis, in an article for the Gay and Lesbian Review Organization, describes the problematic quality presented by those outside of the culture, who use and misuse the vernacular. She mentions the exaggerated and often incorrect use of slang and that this cultural appropriation weakens the potency of the language. The blind regurgitation of phrases removes them from their Black origins since "the ballroom lexicon, words, idioms, expressions, and tonalities are created to articulate the unique experience of this culture (Davis)

a still from Paris is Burning (1991)

Image Credits

Image set 1

An investigation into the history of Voguing - Vogue Australia. (n.d.). Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://www.vogue.com.au/culture/features/an-investigation-into-the-history-of-voguing/image-gallery/838a1a2765bc616979caf34e79dfac74

Image 2

IMDb.com. (n.d.). Paris is burning. IMDb. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100332/mediaviewer/rm113680129?ref_=ttmi_mi_all_sf_31

Sources

Babbel.com, & GmbH, L. N. (n.d.). Is it cultural appropriation to use drag slang and AAVE? Babbel Magazine. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/cultural-appropriation-drag-slang-aave

CIJ. (n.d.). What is Intersectionality? What is intersectionality. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://www.intersectionaljustice.org/what-is-intersectionality

Davis, C. (2021, March 9). The language of ballroom. The Gay & Lesbian Review. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://glreview.org/the-language-of-ballroom/

Hart, B., & Roberson, M. (2021, February 26). Why voguing and the ballroom scene matter now more than ever. Time. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://time.com/5941822/ballroom-voguing-queer-black-culture-renaissance/

The psychological and political power of Ball Culture. Shondaland. (2020, August 12). Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://www.shondaland.com/live/a33575156/psychological-and-political-power-of-ball-culture/

Sim, B. (2023, January 9). Leiomy shares thoughts on 'Drag race' queens using ballroom culture. Out Magazine. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://www.out.com/television/2023/1/09/leiomy-shares-thoughts-drag-race-queens-using-ballroom-culture

Waxman, O. B., & Aneja, V. by A. (2021, October 11). The overlooked LGBTQ+ history of the Harlem Renaissance. Time. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://time.com/6104381/lgbtq-history-harlem-renaissance/

Zollner, J. (2021, May 8). Queer Vernacular and camp aesthetics. Medium. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://medium.com/icm506-at-quinnipiac-uiversity-spring-2021-2/queer-vernacular-and-camp-aesthetics-93a5fcb3456a

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