Freak Show, Reimagined

Ballroom Culture and the Figure of the Queer Freak

Abstract

This paper analyzes the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning through a blended lens of feminist, disability, and queer theory to explore how the queer ballroom culture depicted in the film demonstrates both a subversion and embracement of queer and trans enfreakment through ballroom culture, removing the voyeuristic, othering gaze of dominant society. I employ the disability studies term “enfreakment,” coined by David Hevey to refer to the process by which difference becomes fashioned as otherness. Through an exploration of the joint history of queerness and disability and of freak show history, I ultimately use Paris is Burning to argue that ballroom culture constitutes a refashioning of the freak show, inverts the “freaky” spectacle and instead putting normality on display.