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Encyclopedia > Banjee
Attitude, clothing, ethnicity, masculinity, physique and youth are all elements of what has been called "banjee realness".

Banjee or banjee boy is a term from the 1980s or earlier that describes a certain type of young Man who is thugged out and has a sexy body and they have sex with men and who dresses in urban fashion for reasons which may include expressing masculinity, hiding his sexual orientation and attracting male partners. The term is mostly associated with New York City and may be Nuyorican in origin.[1][2][3] Image File history File links Banjee. ... Image File history File links Banjee. ... Attitude is a hypothetical construct that represents an individuals like or dislike for an item. ... Clothing protects the vulnerable nude human body from the extremes of weather, other features of our environment, and for safety reasons. ... This article or section should be merged with ethnic group Ethnicity is the cultural characteristics that connect a particular group or groups of people to each other. ... “Manliness” redirects here. ... It has been suggested that Sexual attraction be merged into this article or section. ... For other uses, see Youth (disambiguation) Youth is defined by Websters New World Dictionary as, The time of life when one is young; especially: a: the period between childhood and maturity b: the early period of existence, growth, or development. ... Hip hop fashion is, according to KRS One, one of the nine extended elements of hip-hop culture. ... “Manliness” redirects here. ... Sexual orientation refers to the direction of an individuals sexuality, usually conceived of as classifiable according to the sex or gender of the persons whom the individual finds sexually attractive. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Nuyorican Poets Cafe. ...


An African-American man writes:

Banjee. That was the identity I was given back in the summer of 1991, when I, half out/half in approached the colored museum of the Christopher Street piers. I was new to the life, so I had no reference for what people were talking about, but I soon gathered that "banjee" meant that I wasn't a "queen." Whatever the terms of identification, all I knew was that there was one thing that brought both the banjees and the queens (and whatever lies between) to the pier: we were men who loved men. An anxious 19 year old, I wore my banjee realness designation like a badge of honor. [...] a queen schooled me on how my masculinity was something that carried great weight, not only in the gay world, but the straight world as well."[2] Christopher Street is a street in New Yorks West Village that was at the center of the gay rights movement in the late 1970s. ...

The 1990 documentary film Paris is Burning featured "banjee realness" as one of the categories in which contestants competed for trophies. According to the Village Voice "banjee boy categories have been a part of vogue balls since at least the early '80s."[4] Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to document reality. ... Paris Is Burning is a 1990 documentary film directed by Jennie Livingston. ... Some loving-cup trophies seen in the London Irish clubhouse at Sunbury in 2002. ... 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. ... Ball culture, the house system, the ballroom community and similar terms describe the underground subculture in the United States in which people walk (i. ...


The word "banjee" never entered mainstream pop culture, but it had currency as gay slang throughout the 1990s. In 1998, a report in the medical journal AIDS patient care and STDs regarding safer sex practices among young Black and Latino men was entitled "Banjee Boys Are Down" ("down", in this vernacular, meaning "supportive of it").[5] Popular culture, or pop culture, is the vernacular (peoples) culture that prevails in a modern society. ... A medical journal is a scientific journal devoted to the field of medicine. ... For other uses, see AIDS (disambiguation). ... A sexually transmitted disease (STD) is an illness caused by an infectious pathogen that has a significant probability of transmission between humans or animals by means of sexual contact, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex. ... Safe sex (also called safer sex) is a term describing practices designed to reduce the risk of sustaining or imparting sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) (also known as sexually-transmitted diseases or STDs in the US). ... Look up Vernacular in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...


The 1999 play Banjee, presented at New York's Lesbian and Gay Arts Festival (and in another NYC venue in 2004), is "the story of Angel (Indio Melendez), a straight homeboy, and Tony (Will Sierra), an admittedly bi banjee, who've known each other since childhood."[6][7][8][9] One version of a Heterosexuality symbol Heterosexuality is sexual or romantic attraction between opposite sexes, and is the most common sexual orientation among humans. ... Look up homeboy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... “Bisexual” redirects here. ...

This banjee boy wears the same type of muscle shirt and bling now associated with hip hop culture.

The term banjee is also been used by several producers of gay pornography in presenting the type of young Black or Latino man described herein. For example, in 1995 a company called Pleasure Productions produced a DVD called Banjee Black Boys (and five similarly named sequels) and circa 1999-2003 a company called Banjee Boy, Inc. produced films with taglines such as "Wanna see some of the sexiest, thugged out gangstas that NY has to offer?" There are other examples from adult films, as well as several pornographic websites (such as "Banjee Boy Group Slam") that still use the term.[10][11][12] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... A muscle shirt or t-shirt is a type of t-shirt or shirt for men; It is a t-shirt,usually without sleeves, so that good toned muscled arms are shown. ... A bling bling-heavy album cover from The B.G. For the Marvel Comics character, see Bling (comics). ... Hip hop is a cultural movement that began amongst urban African American youth in New York and has since spread around the world. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... DVD (also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is a popular optical disc storage media format. ... For other uses, see Sequel (disambiguation). ... Gangsta can refer to: Eye dialect/Slang for a member of a gang, a gangster. ... A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML...


While seeming to have peaked in popularity during the 1990s, the term banjee is still in use. For example, a 2003 web page for a restaurant in East Harlem describes its clientele as an "eclectic mix of patrons that range from pretty neighborhood Banjee boys to some of the wise guys that once populated the space formerly."[13] For other uses, see Restaurant (disambiguation). ... Spanish Harlem, also known as East Harlem or El Barrio, is a neighborhood in northeastern part of the borough of Manhattan, one of the largest predominantly Hispanic communities in New York City. ...


Related terms

Homo thug is a more recent and more popular term which is nearly-synonymous with "banjee". However, homo thug does imply that the man in question is primarily homosexual. In contrast, a banjee might be homosexual but might also be bisexual or only have opportunistic homosexual sex with men when women are unavailable. The latter situation is a theme in many of the pornographic films mentioned above.[14][15] Homosexuality refers to sexual interaction and / or romantic attraction between individuals of the same sex. ... François Elluin, Sodomites provoking the wrath of God, from Le pot pourri de Loth (1781). ...


Gayngsta, a portmanteau derived from "gay" and "gangsta", is another recent coinage. It has mostly been used in relation to the underground LGBT hip hop scene as shown in the documentary Pick Up the Mic and featured in the upcoming "Homorevolution Tour 2007" which will feature these artists. While easily discernable in writing, pronunciation is barely discernable from "gangsta".[16][17][18] A portmanteau (IPA: ) is a word or morpheme that fuses two or more words or word parts to give a combined or loaded meaning. ... GAY can mean: Gay, a term referring to homosexual men or women The IATA code for Gaya Airport Category: ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The initialism LGBT also GLBT is in use (since the 1990s) to refer collectively to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people. ... 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. ... Pick Up the Mic is a documentary film, released in 2005, which profiles the underground LGBT hip hop scene. ...


Banjee girl is heard so rarely that it is difficult to define. It probably just means a young Black or Latino woman who dresses in thuggish urban fashion but has no connotations regarding her sexuality. For example, in discussing a fashion show in Paris, one reviewer wrote in 2005: This article is about the capital of France. ...

The low-rise skirt in denim is the first of its kind seen on the Paris runways. What is now clear to me is that no self-respecting Banjee Latina, or ghetto-fabulous “Shamecka-girl” or high rolling white chick will be ever able to resist its urban appeal.[19] Model on the catwalk during Spring 2007 Fashion Week, New York City. ... Latina may refer to one of the following: The female gender of the noun Latino in reference to Latin-American immigrants and their descendants. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...

Several examples of the use of the term "Banjee girl" exist in the blogosphere but it has rarely, if ever, made it into print of mass media.[20] Blogosphere is a collective term encompassing all blogs and their interconnections. ... Popular press redirects here; note that the University of Wisconsin Press publishes under the imprint The Popular Press. Mass media is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. ...


See also

Down-low (DL) is an African-American slang phrase implying secret information, as in Whats the down-low? or Keep it on the down-low, meaning Do not make it known. Down-low, in part because of its slang meaning, is also the name of an American black subculture...

Notes and references

  1. ^ "Bangee" and "Banjy" should probably be regarded as a misspellings rather than variant spellings based on the well-established use of "banjee" in print since at least the 1990 release of Paris is Burning.
  2. ^ a b [1] Deconstructing Banjee Realness
  3. ^ Tank tops, "wifebeaters" and other muscle shirts that show off the wearer's physique are a major part of banjee fashion (as evidenced by the promotional shots for the play Banjee discussed herein, as well as the costumes worn between sex scenes in the porn movies mentioned). Considering that these shirts are a ubiquitous trapping of hip hop culture and are arguably more popular among young gay men than they are in general, the banjee predilection for them makes sense.
  4. ^ [2] Village Voice 2000
  5. ^ [3] Medscape:AIDS patient care and STDs
  6. ^ [4] Theatre Reviews Limited
  7. ^ [5] Midtown International Theatre Festival 2004
  8. ^ [6] Village Voice 2004
  9. ^ [7] New York Blade 2004
  10. ^ [8] Banjee Black Boys (adults only)
  11. ^ [9] Banjee Boy, Inc. (adults only)
  12. ^ [10] Banjee Boy Group Slam (adults only)
  13. ^ [11] Orbit East Harlem
  14. ^ [12] Homie-Sexuals, Homo-Thugs & Banjee Queens Galore
  15. ^ [13] Urban Dictionary, started in 1999, has a discussion about "homo thug" but as of January 2007 does not have an entry for "banjee" or "banjee boy". While sources used for this article certainly show that the term "banjee" is verifiably notable, the term is also esoteric, localized, and out-dated.
  16. ^ [14] Pick Up the Mic: The Movie
  17. ^ [15] Rolling Stone
  18. ^ To pronounce "gayngsta" differently from "gangsta", one has to either draw out the first syllable, accent it, create a stop after it, or take care to pronounce it as "gay" and the rest of the word as "ngster". As all of these options run contrary to the flow of conversational English, it seems unlikely this term will see much use outside of writing.
  19. ^ [16] Xuly Bët at Paris Prêt-á-Porter Spring 2005. While the reviewer does seem to understand that "banjee" has some relation to urban fashion and may be deliberately mixing cultural associations for humorous effect, they seem to have confused Shamecka (a female first name in Arabic) with schmatte (from Yiddish שמאַטע, from Polish szmata) meaning "rag". This reviewer may be similarly confused about the meaning of "banjee".
  20. ^ [17] An example from the blogosphere.

 

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