Ball culture, the house system, the ballroom community and similar terms describe the underground subculture in the United States in which people "walk" (i.e. compete) for trophies and prizes at events known as balls. Most people involved with ball culture belong to "houses" lead by a single leader.^[1][2][3] Look up Underground in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a set of people with distinct sets of behavior and beliefs that differentiate them from a larger culture of which they are a part. ... Competition is the act of striving against another force for the purpose of achieving dominance or attaining a reward or goal, or out of a biological imperative such as survival. ... Some trophies seen in the London Irish clubhouse at Sunbury in 2002. ... A ball is a formal dance. ...

Houses

"Houses", also called "drag houses" or "drag families", are groups comprised primarily of gay males and transgendered people, most of whom are African American or Latino, banded together under a respected "house mother" (usually a drag queen or a transgendered person) or "house father".^[1][4] Drag in its broadest sense means a costume or outfit that carries symbolic significance, but usually refers to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of the other gender. ... For other articles with similar names, see Gay (disambiguation). ... Transgender (IPA: , from trans (Latin) and gender (English) ) is an overarching term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies that diverge from the normative gender role (woman or man) commonly, but not always, assigned at birth, as well as the role traditionally held by society. ... An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... Latino (and the form Latina for females), as used in American English, generally refers to a United States national of Latin American descent, especially Hispanic American heritage. ... Drag queens Luc DArcy and Jerry Cyr and friend at Montreals 2003 Divers/Cité pride parade. ... Transgender (IPA: , from trans (Latin) and gender (English) ) is an overarching term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies that diverge from the normative gender role (woman or man) commonly, but not always, assigned at birth, as well as the role traditionally held by society. ...

By far, the best known houses are New York City groups, especially those such as the House of Corey, the House of LaBeija, the House of Ninja, the House of Pendavis and House of Xtravaganza that were shown in the 1990 documentary film Paris is Burning. Other houses function the same way in several other cites.^[2][5][6][7] Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1613  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Paris Is Burning is a 1990 documentary film directed by Jennie Livingston. ...

According to the Village Voice: The Village Voice is a New York City-based weekly newspaper featuring investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts reviews and events listings for New York City. ...

...houses are loose-knit, typically same sex, confederacies of "children" who adopt a family name, usually swiped from a fashion designer, and adhere to rules set up by a presiding "mother" and "father." ^[8]

This means that, for example, members of the house lead by Willi Ninja adopted "Ninja" as their surname within ball culture, members of the house led by Venus Xtravaganza used the surname "Xtravaganza" and so on.^[5][9][10] Willi Ninja (born William Leake in 1961) was a gay African-American dancer and choreographer best known for his appearance in the documentary film Paris is Burning. ... A family name, or surname, is that part of a persons name that indicates to what family he or she belongs. ... Venus Xtravaganza (date of birth unknown, date of death 1989) was a transgendered Latina saving up money for sex reassignment surgery while earning a living as a prostitute in New York City. ...

One theme discussed in Paris is Burning is that racial minorities, non-heterosexuals, and poor people face certain disadvantages and are each a marginalized group; to qualify as all three makes one a pariah. In response, drag houses are: Race, as defined by the United States Census Bureau and the Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is a self-identification data item in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify. ... A minority or subordinate group is a sociological group that does not constitute a politically dominant plurality of the total population of a given society. ... Heterosexuality is a sexual orientation characterized by esthetic attraction, romantic love or sexual desire exclusively for members of the opposite sex or gender, contrasted with homosexuality and distinguished from bisexuality and asexuality. ... A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows his find. ... Marginalized group in sociology refers to various groups that are outside of mainstream - like the homeless, geeks, punks, skinheads, as well as minorities (sexual, national, etc. ... Look up Pariah in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

...a whole new way of living, one that's highly structured and self-protective. The structure consists of system of houses where the young men function as apprentices. Reflecting a minority coping with hatred, the houses are associations of friends, presided over by a "mother," [...] that provide a substitute for biological families.^[4] A minority or subordinate group is a sociological group that does not constitute a politically dominant plurality of the total population of a given society. ... Scientific classification or biological classification refers to how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ...

Under the house parents are:

...a big raucous band of "children": drag queens, butch queens (gay men who dress like men), transsexuals, a few real girls and one or two straight guys. The smattering of girls and straight guys notwithstanding, the houses are, essentially, cabals of young gay black and Hispanic men obsessed with being fashionable and fabulous.^[11] A transsexual (sometimes transexual) person establishes a permanent identity with the opposite gender to their assigned (usually at birth) sex. ...

House parents can provide wisdom, guidance and care for young people who otherwise might be homeless and without a parental figure. An exploratory study of two houses in Newark, New Jersey employed qualitative research methods including participant observation and in-depth interviewing to discern that: A homeless person in Paris. ... Nickname: The Brick City Map of Newark in Essex County Coordinates: County Essex Founded/Incorporated 1666/1836  - Mayor Cory Booker, term of office 2006–2010 Area [1]    - City 67. ...

Strategies employed by "house parents" have had an impact on the choices made by children of the houses regarding HIV risk behaviors. These strategies can be adapted for use by well-established community-based HIV prevention programs when they are comprised of staff who mirror the characteristics of "house parents" and engage in relationships that parallel this alternative family structure.^[1] Human immunodeficiency virus or HIV is a retrovirus that causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections. ...

Competition

Besides providing a support system for its members, the main function of these houses is to compete against one another in "walks" or "drag walks" in which they are judged on dance skills, costume, general appearance, and attitude. Participants dress according to category in which they are competing and are expected to display appropriate "realness".^[4] For other uses, see Dance (disambiguation). ... A skill is an ability, usually learned, to perform actions. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Variation in the physical appearance of humans is believed by anthropologists to be an important factor in the development of personality and social relations in particular physical attractiveness. ... Attitude may refer to: Aircraft attitude Attitude (magazine) Attitude, a song by American pop and jazz singer Suede Attitudes (band) Attitude Adjustment (Hardcore/Crossover/Thrash metal band) Attitude, song from Metallica on their album Reload. ...

Dominated today by contemporary hip hop fashion and featuring much hip hop music, these events are actually part of a vivacious and ever-changing culture and are: Hip hop fashion is, according to KRS-One, one of the nine extended elements of hip hop culture. ... Hip hop music is a style of music which came into existence in the United States during the mid-1970s, and became a large part of modern pop culture during the 1980s. ...

...a tradition dating back to the 19th century and going strong into the 21st. Balls continue to be held at bars or Masonic halls or other improbable venues. Across the country and throughout the five boroughs legends are still being born.^[8] Tourists sit outside a bar in Chiang Mai, Thailand A Depression-era bar in Louisiana. ... The Masonic Square and Compasses. ... The Five Boroughs of New York City The Five Boroughs may also mean The Five Burghs of the Danelaw. ...

While these competitive walks may involve crossdressing, in other cases the goal is to accentuate a male participant's masculinity or a female participant's femininity so as to give the (almost always false) impression that the walker is hetero.^[4] This articles is about cross-dressing in general, that is the act of wearing the clothing of another gender for any reason. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Femininity comprises the physical and mental attributes associated with the female sex and is partly culturally determined. ...

Categories vary according to the event but categories might include banjee realness, butch queen (emphasizes masculinity), executive realness (also known as Wall Street), drag queen (emphasizes extravagance), face (showcasing attitude and facial attractiveness), fag out (displaying androgyny and stereotypical gayness), fem queen (emphasizes femininity), hand performance (showcasing upper-body dance moves), military realness (typically featuring dress uniform), old way (showcasing dance styles from circa mid-1990s and before), preppie realness (also known as Town & Country), schoolboy/schoolgirl and so on.^[4][12] Attitude, clothing, ethnicity, masculinity, physique and youth are all elements of what has been called banjee realness. Banjee or banjee boy is a gay slang term from the 1980s or earlier that describes a certain type of young Latino or Black man who has sex with men and who dresses... Elaborate marble facade of NYSE as seen from Broad and Wall Streets For other uses, see Wall Street (disambiguation). ... Dress uniform is the most formal military uniform, typically worn at ceremonies, official receptions, and other special occasions; with full size medals. ... Town and Country (or variations) has several possible meanings: It is the name of several places in the United States: Town n Country, Florida Town and Country, Missouri Town and Country, Washington Town & Country Village, Palo Alto, California Town and Country is also the name of a minivan manufactured by...

Regarding these competitions and their importance to ball culture and the people involved with it, one participant wrote:

There is more to the ballroom scene than chopping, mopping, "fierceness" and shade; and there is more to vogueing than striking a pose. [...] Drag is a form of control. By looking good one can feel good. By looking powerful, one can feel powerful. One can be powerful. Therefore, beauty begets control. Artifice equals power. [...] Then again, it may just be a bunch of bitches competing for trophies. Either way, its fun. There is of course a distinction between the casual runway that would erupt at a "normal" club, and the formal runway of a ball, where there are judges and prizes and actual vogueing.^[13] Vogue is a form of modern dance characterized by photo model-like poses integrated with angular, linear and rigid arm, leg, and body movements. ... Model walking down catwalk This article refers to catwalks used by fashion models. ...

Having evolved over the years, the largest balls are competitions that can go on as long as twelve hours. There can be dozens of categories in a single evening and the categories. No longer attracting the same number of spectators, almost everyone comes to compete. Some of the trophies are twelve feet feet tall and a grand-prize winner can take home $1000 or more.^[11]

History

As a phenomenon of a counterculture (or of several countercultures), the origin of ball culture is a story of both of necessity and defiance. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

New York City

As told by Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Cunningham. the ball culture of New York City is the product of: The gold medal awarded for Public Service in Journalism The Pulitzer Prize is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical compositions. ... Michael Cunningham (born November 6, 1952) is an award-winning American writer/novelist, best known for his 1998 Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Hours. ...

...the underground drag balls that had been going on in and around New York City since the thirties. Those balls were merely drag fashion shows staged by white men two or three times a year in gay bars, with prizes given for the most outrageous costumes. Black queens sometimes showed up but they were expected to whiten their faces and they rarely won a prize.^[11] Fashion design is the applied art dedicated to the design of clothing and lifestyle accessories created within the cultural and social influences of a specific time. ... A gay bar is a drinking establishment which can vary in character as much as any other type of bar, but which caters exclusively or primarily to a gay and / or lesbian clientele. ...

In the 1960s, black drag queens started holding their own events in Harlem where they took the concept to: For other uses, see Harlem (disambiguation). ...

...heights undreamed of by the little gangs of white men parading around in frocks in basement taverns. In a burst of liberated zeal they rented big places like the Elks Lodge on 139th Street, and they turned up in dresses Madame Pompadour herself might have thought twice about. Word spread around Harlem that a retinue of drag queens was putting together outfits bigger and grander than Rose Parade floats, and the balls began to attract spectators, first by the dozens and then by the hundreds, gay and straight alike. People brought liquor with them, sandwiches, buckets of chicken. As the audiences grew, the queens gave them more and more for their money. Cleopatra on her barge, all in gold lamé, with a half dozen attendants waving white, glittering palm fronds. Faux fashion models in feathered coats lined with mylar, so that when the coat was thrown open and a two-thousand-watt incandescent lamp suddenly lit, the people in the first few rows were blinded for minutes afterward.^[11] A tavern is, loosely, a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and, more than likely, also be served food, though not licenced to put up guests. ... Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks had modest beginnings in 1868 as a drinking club (then called the Jolly Corks) established as a private club to elude New York City laws governing the opening hours of public taverns. ... Madame de Pompadour, portrait by François Boucher circa 1750 Madame de Pompadour (December 29, 1721 – April 15, 1764) was a well known courtesan and the famous mistress of King Louis XV of France. ... There is also the Roses Tournament in England Perhaps one of the United States of Americas most important annual festivities, The Tournament of Roses Parade is the 114-year-old traditional parade generally held on New Years Day in Pasadena, California. ... Genghis Khan by Wick CC on the West Country Carnival curcuit, Somerset, England Carnival float in the Blacks and Whites Carnival in Pasto, Colombia A float is a decorated platform, either built on a vehicle or towed behind one, which is a component of many festive parades, such as the... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Cleopatra is a 1934 film retelling the story of Cleopatra VII of Egypt. ... A Lamé is the name of the electronically conductive jacket worn by Foil and Sabre fencers. ... A fern with simple (lobed or pinnatifid) blades, the dissection of each blade not quite reaching to the rachis. ... A model is a person who acts as a human prop for purposes of art, pornography, fashion, advertising, etc. ... Mylar is a trade name of DuPont Teijin Films of Hopewell, VA, United States, for biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) polyester film used for its high tensile strength, chemical and dimensional stability, transparency, and electrical insulation. ... The incandescent light bulb uses a glowing wire filament heated to white-hot by electrical resistance, to generate light (a process known as thermal radiation). ...

Eventually the participants in these balls split into factions centered around influential and charismatic leaders:

In 1977 an imperious, elegant queen named Crystal LaBeija announced that a ball she’d helped put together was being given by the House of LaBeija, as in House of Chanel or House of Dior. It was a p.r. gimmick, something to add a little more panache and, not incidentally, to increase the luster of Crystal LaBeija. The concept caught on, and suddenly every ball was being given by a house. Some queens named their house after themselves, like Avis Pendavis’ House of Pendavis or Dorian Corey’s House of Corey. Others took the names of established designers like Chanel or St. Laurent. [...] By the early eighties younger, less experienced drag queens were declaring themselves members of this house or that house, and competing in balls under the house name. Some went to court and had their last names legally changed, to Pendavis or Corey or Chanel or St. Laurent. [...] Houses came to be ruled by their biggest stars, who were known as mothers and who exhorted their members—their children—to accumulate as many prizes as possible for the greater glory of the house.^[11] The symbol of the House of Chanel The House of Chanel, more commonly known as Chanel, is a Parisian fashion house in France. ... Christian Dior (January 21, 1905 – October 24, 1957), was an influential French fashion designer. ... Wikibooks has more about this subject: Marketing Public relations (PR) is the art of managing communication between an organization and its key publics to build, manage and sustain a positive image. ... The Chanel logo. ... The Yves Saint Laurent boutique on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California. ...

Washington, DC

This account from the metropolitan Washington, DC area describes how ball culture and drag houses developed there around 1960: The official U.S. Census Bureau-designated Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, DC-MD-VA-WV Combined Statistical Area, based on the 2000 Census. ...

Some regular house parties became institutionalized as drag ‘houses’ and ‘families’. The leader, or ‘mother’, often provided not only the opportunity for parties but also instruction and mentoring in the arts of make-up, selecting clothes, lip-synching, portraying a personality, walking, and related skills. Those taught became ‘drag daughters’, who in turn mentored others, creating entire ‘drag families’. Drag houses became the first social support groups in the city’s gay and lesbian community. House names often came from addresses of the house ‘mother’, such as Mother Billy Bonhill’s Belmont House at 15th and Belmont NW, or associations with the ‘mother’s’ chosen personality, as Mame Dennis’s Beekman Place.^[2] Cosmetics or makeup are substances to enhance the beauty of the human body, apart from simple cleaning. ... Lip synchronization is the synchronization of audio signals (sometimes with corresponding video signals) so that there is no noticeable lack of simultaneity between them. ...

At this early date the styles of dance which came to characterize drag houses had not been developed and competitions between drag houses involved more usual drag performance in which entertainers lip synced or, more rarely, sang.

It contrast to the NYC houses shown in Paris is Burning, some of the Washington, DC house mothers were white. Still, African-American drag queens were a prominent part of this community: American white woman with red hair and blue eyes French white man Austrian white woman with blond hair In the context of basic English usage, the term White people (also white race or whites) is used to denote ... a human group having light-coloured skin, especially of European ancestry. ...

Venues for drag shows and competitions were a constant challenge in the 1960s. The Uptown Lounge sponsored monthly drag contests, an event later duplicated at Johnnie’s on Capitol Hill. Chunga’s drag shows at the Golden Key Club in North Beach, MD were a popular Sunday event. The major hotels’ resistance to drag events was not broken until February 1968 when African-American drag impresario Black Pearl staged the gala Black Pearl International Awards at the Washington Hilton. It was the drag event of the year.^[2] Capitol Hill is the name of a district in the following cities: Capitol Hill, Denver, Colorado Capitol Hill, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Capitol Hill, Seattle, Washington Capitol Hill, Washington, DC It is also a common nickname for the United States Congress and the politicians who serve it (e. ... North Beach is a town located in Calvert County, Maryland. ... Hilton is the flagship brand of Hilton Hotels Corporation and is based in Beverly Hills, California. ...

Influence

While still an underground phenomenon unknown to the world at large, ball culture has had a wide influence on notable individuals and on society in general that is not limited to the following:

• Dance: The most recognized influence that drag house culture has had on mainstream society was in the creation of "vogueing", the above-mentioned dance style originating in Harlem ballrooms in the first half of the 20th century and popularized worldwide by the video for "Vogue", a song released by Madonna the same year as Paris Is Burning. One source attests that "Many people only know of underground ballroom culture from Blah-donna's 'Vogue' or the film 'Paris Is Burning'.^[9][13]
• Language: Terms like "fierce" and "fierceness", "work it" and "working it", "fabulous" and "fabulousness" and so forth are all part of the argot heard in Paris Is Burning and were central to the lyrics of "Supermodel (You Better Work)", a hit released in 1992 by Black drag queen Ru Paul. These terms quickly entered gay slang, fashion industry jargon and the mainstream colloquial vernacular.^[14]
• Music: Ball culture has long been a fertile ground for new forms of house music and electronic dance music which has then, through famous DJs like Junior Vasquez, Danny Tenaglia and their successors, been introduced to the world.^[13][15]
• Fashion: Argueably, the fashions and manner of depicting masculinity in ball culture has influenced "the "über-puffed-up peacock sexuality" of contemporary, mainstream hip hop." Regarding this interchange been gay black culture and the mainstream, a professor at New York University said "Today’s queer mania for ghetto fabulousness and bling masks its elemental but silent relationship to even more queer impulses toward fabulousness in the 1960s and 1970s.^[16][17]
• Personality: Kevin Aviance, whose appearances include Flawless, The Tyra Banks Show and America's Next Top Model, is a member of the House of Aviance founded 1989 in Washington, DC.^[18][19]
• Inspiration: In 2006, Beyoncé Knowles told a reporter from The Independent "how inspired she's been by the whole drag-house circuit in the States, an unsung part of black American culture where working-class gay men channel ultra-glamour in mocked-up catwalk shows. 'I still have that in me," she says of the confidence and the fire you see on stage...'"^[20]

For the song by KMFDM, see Vogue (single). ... Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16, 1958), better known as Madonna, is a five-time Grammy award winning American pop singer, songwriter, record and film producer, dancer, actress, author and fashion icon. ... Supermodel (You Better Work) was the third single (but first major label single) for dance music singer and drag queen RuPaul. ... Drag Entertainer RuPaul (as both genders) RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960) is best known as an African-American drag performer, but he is also an accomplished singer, actor and writer. ... Gay slang (sometimes gayspeak[]) in linguistics refers to a form of English slang used predominantly among LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A colloquialism is an expression not used in formal speech or writing. ... Look up Vernacular in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Electronic dance music (EDM) is a broad set of percussive music genres that largely inherit from 1970s disco music and, to some extent, the experimental pop music of Kraftwerk. ... For other meanings of DJ, see DJ (disambiguation). ... A professor giving a lecture The meaning of the word professor (Latin: one who claims publicly to be an expert) varies. ... New York University (NYU) is a major research university in New York City. ... The word queer has traditionally meant strange or unusual, but it is also currently often used in reference to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex communities. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Bling Bling is a 1999 hit hip-hop song by The B.G., featuring his Cash Money labelmates Juvenile, Lil Wayne, Turk, Baby, and Mannie Fresh. ... Kevin Aviance Kevin Aviance (born Eric Snead on June 22, 1968 in Richmond, Virginia) is an American female impressionist, dance musician, and fashion designer. ... Flawless is an American film that stars Robert De Niro and Philip Seymour Hoffman. ... // The Tyra Banks Show is an American daytime talk show hosted by former supermodel Tyra Banks. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Beyoncé Giselle Knowles (born September 4, 1981) is a Grammy Award-winning American R&B singer, songwriter, record producer, Golden Globe Award-nominated actress, dancer, and fashion designer and model for House of Deréon. ... The Independent is a British compact newspaper published by Tony OReillys Independent News & Media. ...

Reference notes

The House System is a traditional feature of British schools, similar to the collegiate system of a university. ... The International Imperial Court System is one of the oldest and largest predominantly gay organizations in the world. ... Michael Cunningham (born November 6, 1952) is an award-winning American writer/novelist, best known for his 1998 Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Hours. ... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) [1] is an online database of information about actors, movies, television shows, television stars and video games. ... Kevin Aviance Kevin Aviance (born Eric Snead on June 22, 1968 in Richmond, Virginia) is an American female impressionist, dance musician, and fashion designer. ...

External links

• House of Aviance
• House of Beigen
• House of Diabolique
• House of Enigma