page_title: Drag (clothing)
section_title: Ball culture
hierarchical_section_title: Drag (clothing) / Ball culture
caption_attribution_description: by LGBT folks at National Museum of African Arts
context_page_description: The term "drag" refers to the performance of masculinity, femininity, or other forms of gender expression. A drag queen is someone who performs femininity, and a drag king is someone who performs masculinity. The term may be used as a noun as in the expression in drag, or as an adjective as in drag show.
context_section_description: Ballroom culture (also known as "ball culture", and other names) is an underground LGBT subculture that originated in 1920s New York in which people "walk" (i.e., compete) for trophies, prizes, and glory at events known as balls. Ball participants are mainly young African-American and Latin American members of the LGBTQ community. 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, social classes and archetypes in society, while also offering an escape from reality. The culture extends beyond the extravagant formal 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.
  Ball culture first gained exposure to a mainstream audience in 1990 when its voguing dance style was featured in Madonna's song "Vogue", and in Jennie Livingston's documentary Paris is Burning the same year. Voguing is a highly stylized type of modern house dance that emerged in the 1980s and evolved out of 1960s ball culture in Harlem, New York.  In 2018, the American television series Pose showcased Harlem's ball culture scene of the 1980s and was nominated for numerous awards.
caption: Contestant in a ball at the National Museum of African Art, 2016
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