Gender and Sexuality in Cloud 9 and Paris is Burning Anonymous College

In present-day society, cultural assumptions often dictate that sexuality and gender are mutually dependent categories and that one posits the other. Societal norms imply that gender is divided into men and women, and that appropriate sexual behavior is thus determined through innate biology. This notion suggests right and wrong ways of being male and female, and postulates that their interaction stems in heterosexual attraction. The play Cloud 9 and documentary Paris is Burning call into question this of notion of codependence of gender and sexuality by demonstrating a lack of coherence between identity, sexual expression, and innate biology. In this way, the works demonstrate that sexuality does not pigeonhole associated gender-based on tropes of hypermasculinity or effeminacy, but instead allows both to exist on a spectrum. Furthermore, in these creative pieces, the personas identified utilize gender performance and unique expressions of their perceived identities to demonstrate that gender exists on a spectrum and is independent of both assigned sex at birth and sexuality. The implications of this extend to the ideology conceptions of what constitutes gender and its relation to inherent sexuality, suggesting that societally...