Realness

In ballroom culture, realness is the ability to present a chosen identity or archetype so convincingly that it passes as the real thing. It is judged in categories at balls, such as Executive Realness, Schoolboy or Schoolgirl Realness, Banjee Realness, and Femme Queen Realness. Competitors, mostly Black and Latino LGBTQ+ people, claimed roles and futures that racism and homophobia often denied them off the floor. Realness also carries a survival meaning: blending in safely in a world that polices gender and status. Jennie Livingston's 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning and later the series Pose brought the concept to wider audiences, showing both the artistry of ball culture and the pressures behind it.