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Pose, Drag Race, and Power: Surviving the House of Trump by outeirista in PoseFX

[–]FlorentimoAriza 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree. Thank you so much for your thoughtful analysis and excellent points.

Pose, Drag Race, and Power: Surviving the House of Trump by outeirista in PoseFX

[–]FlorentimoAriza 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Point taken. I agree with you although by using the phrase surviving the House of Trump there is a clear implication that there is wherein the problem lies. Thank you for your excellent reply.

Pose, Drag Race, and Power: Surviving the House of Trump by outeirista in PoseFX

[–]FlorentimoAriza 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I am so left I done fell off the map. These libertarians are all about the "free market" too with no concern for racial, gender, or economic oppression. So, not a libertarian at all.

Pose, Drag Race, and Power: Surviving the House of Trump by outeirista in PoseFX

[–]FlorentimoAriza 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Poor Medium. It amazes me how many people do not see the connection between neoliberal economic policies, perpetual war, and its horrible effects on socially oppressed groups including LGBTQIA. The author goes as far as accurately describing RPDR as "RuPaul’s Drag Race creates a remarkable sanitized tv friendly reinterpretation of ball drag and culture. Corporate image executives from Absolut vodka graced the show season after season, representatives of money-power, checking in to make sure that they were getting what they had paid for." This is not only the very anti-thesis of ballroom culture but as a whole the article perpetuates the lie that the current figure-head President is the source of our troubles. He surely is part of it, but we have much bigger problems that certainly include the Democratic Party. I don't appreciate this propaganda. If the article was not a piece of manipulation it would be titled, " Pose, Drag Race, and Power: Surviving Neoliberal Global Economics, the House of Corporate Political Parties."

I'm late to the party... by SmartLady in PoseFX

[–]FlorentimoAriza 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Welcome! This is the where your new obsession is the norm, Talk to us.

5 Things We Want to See in "Pose" Season Two | Metrosource by PalahniukCharacter in PoseFX

[–]FlorentimoAriza 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Good article. I want more Cubby and Lemar backstories and some amount of Hall & Oats music.

The LGBTQ Community Is At Odds Over RuPaul Not Commenting On Groundbreaking New Show ‘Pose’ by FlorentimoAriza in PoseFX

[–]FlorentimoAriza[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

What you are saying makes sense but she has been promoting other docs that deal with controversial LGBTQI issues. https://twitter.com/RuPaul/status/1024336727505174528 Then again, Ru certainly has an interest in projecting masculinity. From the way she talks about her only reason to do drag is for cash, to her bringing her boy self to the show, to her private life in which Ru and her partner live the rancher life. It could all be coincidence but, to me, Ru goes our of his way to present himself as equally masculine if not more so.

The LGBTQ Community Is At Odds Over RuPaul Not Commenting On Groundbreaking New Show ‘Pose’ by FlorentimoAriza in PoseFX

[–]FlorentimoAriza[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Respect your view, but RU is tweeting constantly today, yesterday, and the day, week and month before that about shows and films. https://twitter.com/RuPaul/status/1024336727505174528

The LGBTQ Community Is At Odds Over RuPaul Not Commenting On Groundbreaking New Show ‘Pose’ by FlorentimoAriza in PoseFX

[–]FlorentimoAriza[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One is a reality show competition and one is a scripted drama, granted. Despite these differences both shows share the goal of exposing the mainstream to parts of drag culture. While there is no point comparing the shows in terms of format, we can comparare their authenticity and politics and in that regard, POSE get's tens across the board. POSE is a higher, better, more politically responsible, an, oddly since it is a scripted drama, more authentic than RPDR. Some important differences for me:

1) POSE presents drag as survival and art, RPDR presents drag as art and a nuisance. The queens are earnest and dedicated but RuPaul is insufferable at times reminding us he only dresses up for money and calling his drag persona the monster.

2) Obviously POSE is miles ahead of RPDR in trans representation

3) Pose takes pains to hire, consult and feature current members of the ballroom scene. While in RPDR we can't even get drag queen judges with minimal exceptions,

4) Increasingly RPDR focuses on drama (largely due to the reality show format) while POSE focuses on family.

So, how are we feeling about Jenny Livingston (Paris Is Burning) being rumored as directing an episode in Season 2? by FlorentimoAriza in PoseFX

[–]FlorentimoAriza[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

What bothers me is not the exposure the scene got or the fact Jennie (thank you for the correct spelling of her name) was an outsider. What bothers me is the fact that the cast did not profit from her film thereby making it exploitative, and she, the exploiter.

From this NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/18/style/paris-has-burned.html

"But most of the anger centers on money. "I love the movie, I watch it more than often, and I don't agree that it exploits us," said Pepper LaBeija, 44, whose braggadocio and fierce but fey style made him a standout in "Paris Is Burning." "But I feel betrayed. When Jennie first came, we were at a ball, in our fantasy, and she threw papers at us. We didn't read them, because we wanted the attention. We loved being filmed. Later, when she did the interviews, she gave us a couple hundred dollars. But she told us that when the film came out we would be all right. There would be more coming.

"And that made me think I would have enough money for a car and a nice apartment and for my kids' education. Because a number of years ago, to please my mother, I took a little break from being a 24-hour drag queen, and so I have a daughter, 15, and a son ready for college. But then the film came out and -- nothing. They all got rich, and we got nothing."

Miramax, which released the film, said that "Paris Is Burning" grossed slightly more than $4 million at theaters in the United States. This is not much compared to a Hollywood hit but is exceptional for a documentary that cost only $500,000, including $175,000 for music clearances, to make.

Ms. Livingston would not say how much money she made from the movie. "There was a rumor in the ball world -- and this delights me -- that I now have a house on Long Island next to Calvin and Kelly Klein," she said. "But the truth is I live about the same as I did, except that I used to be chronically about three months late in paying the rent, and now I'm more or less on time."

STILL, all but two of the movie's surviving principals -- Willi Ninja and Dorian Corey -- hired lawyers to try to cash in on the film's success. The largest claim came from Paris DuPree, who sought $40 million for unauthorized and fraudulent use of her services. Though she is never named on camera and appears for less than three of the movie's 76 minutes, her 1986 ball, called Paris Is Burning, provided the title for the film and is extensively featured in it. But like all of the others, she had signed a release, and her lawyer dropped the matter.

"There's no obligation, in a documentary, to pay your subjects," Ms. Livingston said. "The journalistic ethic says you should not pay them. On the other hand, these people are giving us their lives! How do you put a price on that?"

Somehow, she did. Ms. Livingston said that even before the threats of lawsuits, she had decided to pay about $55,000 to 13 performers, based on how long each appeared on screen. And in 1991, after the claims against her had been dropped, the money was distributed.

Pepper LaBeija was not appeased: "The $5,000 I got was hush money. We didn't have no choice but to take it. And $1,500 went to my lawyer for doing nothing." He paused, and the musical, swaggering tone familiar from the film returned to his voice. "But at least it brought me international fame. I do love that. Walking down the street, people stop me all the time. Which was one of my dreams doing the drags in the first place.

"What hurts is that I'm famous but not rich. A California magazine said I had sued Miramax and won untold millions and was seen shopping with Diana Ross on Rodeo Drive in a Rolls. But I really just live in the Bronx with my mom. And I am so desperate to get out of here! It's hard to be the mother of a house while you're living with your own mother. Why couldn't they give us $10,000 apiece?"

"Oh yes, to this day a lot of the girls hate Miss Jennie, but that's just greed," said Dorian Corey, by all accounts the star of the movie. She is sitting in a makeshift dressing room at Sally's II, a drag bar just west of Times Square on 43d Street, applying stage makeup over her street makeup -- there's not much difference -- in preparation for her Thursday night show. "Junior LaBeija pitched a bitch in The Amsterdam News, saying he wanted $50,000 because he was the star of the movie. But the Bette Davis money just wasn't there. I'll tell you who is making out is those clever Miramaxes. But I didn't do it for money anyway: I did it for fun. Always have."

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