REASERCH
- BALL CULTURE – CROSSDRESSERS IN THE NIGHT
The TV series POSE is an American drama television series about New York City’s African-American and Latino LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming ballroom culture scene in the 1980s and, in the second season, early 1990s.
Ball culture, drag ball culture, the house-ballroom community, and similar terms describe an underground LGBT subculture that originated in 1920s New York City in which people “walk” (i.e., compete) for trophies, prizes, and glory at events known as balls. Ball culture consists of events that mix performance, dance, lip-syncing, and modeling. Events are divided into various categories, and participants “walk” and compete for prizes and trophies. As a countercultural phenomenon, ball culture is rooted in necessity and defiance. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, members of the underground LGBTQ+ community in large cities began to organize masquerade balls known as “drags” in defiance of laws which banned individuals from wearing clothes associated with the opposite gender. [
Participants are mainly young African-American and Latin American members of the LGBTQ community. Although some balls were integrated, the judges were always white, and African American participants were often excluded from prizes or judged unfairly.[ In the early 20th century, African Americans and Latinos started their own balls. Ball culture then grew to include primarily gay, lesbian, and trans blacks and latinos.
Attendees dance, vogue , walk, pose, and support one another in one or more of the numerous drag and performance competition categories. Categories are designed to simultaneously epitomize and satirize various genders and social classes, while also offering an escape from reality. The culture extends beyond the extravagant events as many participants in ball culture also belong to groups known as “houses”, a longstanding tradition in LGBT communities, and racial minorities where chosen families of friends live in households together, forming relationships and community to replace families of origin from which they may be estranged.
In 1991, the documentary Paris is Burning follows a group of predominantly Black and Latinx people who perform and compete at balls across Harlem, where a gritty, glittery ’80s and ’90s nightlife scene welcomed marginalized queer folk (and notably, at-risk transgender women). Held at various locations, people would freely organize by their “house”—a figurative term used to describe the chosen families of those exiled from their own—and then pirouette down runways and celebrate each other. It was then, during a time in history remembered for the AIDS crisis, rampant racism, and transphobia, that much of the “queer slang” we know and love today first came to be; the same queer slang that can spark contentious conversations about cultural appropriation.
During 1980s to 1990s, African American and Latin American LGBT community chased their dreams by this special approaches. They looked just like every normal individuals on the streets in the day time. But when darkness fell, they took off their uniforms and suits and dressed up themselves to become a member in the house and to win their glory.
2. HOSTEL – A WOLVE IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING
Hostel II follows three American female art students in Rome who are directed to a Slovak village where they are kidnapped and taken to a facility in which rich clients pay to torture and kill people.
Hostel movies: where is the truth?
As soon as the movie came out, the main question on the viewers’ mind was “is Hostel based on a true story?”. Sure enough, it’s a very common reaction after seeing movies like Hostel: the fear that what you just saw at the cinema could actually happen to you in real life it’s what hunts our worst nightmares. However, in this case the fictional story has a lot of things in common with the real world!
The truth behind ‘Hostel’ has indeed its roots in the side-open spaces of Thai villages. Here, society is ruled by powerful, organized crime syndicates that, taking advantage of people’s poverty, lure the youngest away from their family with the promise of well-paid jobs. But what awaits them is a life of crime and abuse. They are usually thrown in arenas and forced to endure physical and mental abuse to please the psychotic gambles of rich people, who are willing to pay exorbitant amounts of money to see people kill each other.
The movie Hostel is above creepy and scary because it reveals a truth – The devils are hiding under sheep’s skin and may watching us in the darkness. And we may still think they are such good and believable friends. Even they may act like a really nice and sympathetic person like Stuart, it doesn’t mean he is harmless. On the contrary, a bad guy like Todd, he might finally comes to sense and starts to feel guilty. Blind first Impressions, in some way, could be a bid threat to your safety and life.