Venus Xtravaganza

Venus Xtravaganza (died 1989) was a transgender Italian American saving up money for sex reassignment surgery while earning a living as a prostitute in New York City. She appeared in Jennie Livingston's "Paris is Burning", a 1990 documentary film about New York City ball culture.

While her birth name and date of birth remain unknown (her given name was Thomas Pellagatti), her last name was given to her because of her membership in the House of Xtravaganza. The house, like similar houses, is named in the style of European fashion houses (e.g. House of Chanel) and is an affiliation of young drag queens and transgender youth who have come together around the Harlem drag ball scene.

During a 1987 interview in "Paris is Burning", she says she wanted to be "a spoiled, rich, white girl living in the suburbs." Judith Halberstam and Ira Livingston (eds.), "Posthuman Bodies." Indiana University Press] She shares a story of her time as a prostitute where one of her clients became enraged upon the discovery that Venus was not a biological woman. Venus fled through a window and, fearing for her life, claims to have left the prostitution business as a result, opting instead to work as an escort.

According to her drag mother Anji Xtravaganza, Venus Xtravaganza was found strangled and stuffed under the bed in a New York hotel in 1989. Butler, J (1993) 'Gender is Burning: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion', in Thornham, S (Ed) (1999) "Feminist Film Theory, a Reader", Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press] Her body was discovered by a stranger four days after her death. [http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/ReadingRoom/AcademicPapers/shopping-for-a-change Shopping For a Change:The House of Mirth and "Paris is Burning"] ]

References

External links

*imdb name|0944620
* [http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/archive/parisburn.shtml Paris Is Burning (1991)]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ4J_f-aDzU The 1987 interview with Venus from Paris is Burning]