It’s official. Throwing ‘shade’ has now been added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary along with another 1000 ‘new’ words last week. For those of you who have been careless bandying shade around recklessly recently and don’t know your queer history, then we should tell you it was first largely introduced into the LGBTQ lexicon by Dorian Corey in the 1990 cult-classic documentary, Paris is Burning.
Merriam-Webster defines ‘shade’ as a subtle, sneering expression of contempt for or disgust with someone—sometimes verbal, and sometimes not. It is in fact slang that has been a part of the American black experience since slavery but after Paris is Burning, it began slowly infiltrating popular culture in the early ’90s, before becoming a LGBTQ crucial word when RuPaul’s Drag Race launched in 2010.
However, there is no need to take our word about it, listen to Dorien Corey explain what throwing shade is really all about.
Labels: 2017, culture, drag, gay slang, Paris Is Burning
