Sexuality and Performance in Paris is Burning and Moonlight Anonymous College

Sexuality is viewed through a social lense and is judged based on behaviours, aesthetics and assumptions. In this sense, sexuality is performative, meaning that gendered actions and mannerisms reflect an internal identity only because they are given a meaning and are defined through social interaction and discursivity (Butler, 2006, p.185). Acts define sexuality and “constitute it’s reality.” Through studying the films Moonlight by Barry Jenkins and Paris Is Burning by Jennie Livingston, the nuances of sexuality as a performance is revealed - it can emancipate the subject by allowing them to critique and parody normative ways of behaving, but it can also be a source of repression.

Moonlight frames the discussion of sexuality as a performance through the question of authenticity and repression, both internal and external. Chiron and others attempt to control his sexuality through control of his gendered performance and actions. This is incongruent with his authentic self, as he is unable to fulfil the performative role. A liberated space in which Chiron can perform his sexuality undermines the limits of strict identity categories. As Butler argues, “multiple and coexisting identifications produce conflicts, convergences, and...