Striking a pose in . . . Mexico City
01 Jan 2020.

I’ll be honest, the only reason I wanted to see The Category Is . . . Mexico City was because I find Mexican men cute. And in that department, The Category Is . . . Mexico City  delivers. The series is about a voguing house called House of Mamis. It seems to be made up of a bunch of sweet kids with no families who have come together to apply make-up and twirl in circles while waving their arms. 

Voguing, which takes its name from the fashion magazine Vogue, came into prominence with both the documentary Paris Is Burning and with Madonna’s hit single and video. Suddenly, legions of queenie kids found a style they could embrace. Voguing isn’t quite drag and isn’t quite dancing, more like posing with attitude, and it seems utterly arrogant and narcissistic, very much “look at me, I’m fucking fabulous.” Ultimately, there is nothing wrong with expressing oneself, but frankly, all that sashaying can be nauseating.

The main problem with The Category Is . . . Mexico City is that it is just footage. There is no tension in any episode. Nothing is at jeopardy. There is no sense of competition, which is how voguing began. We don’t see the participants struggle with bill payments or prejudice, at least not in the first three episodes, which, by the way, are only eight minutes long. It is also very very woke (For example, the word ‘woman’ is spelled ‘womxn’ in the subtitles). It’s all about empowerment and nothing else. I was dying to know what makes these people tick, what horrors they had to endure growing up, but none of those questions are raised. 

The filmmakers write in their mission statement that “it was inevitable that we would tell this story about these beautiful humans.” Later, they refer to their subjects as ‘Young lgbtq folx’. I’m not sure why it is necessary to stomp all over spelling and grammar rules, but I do understand that it is important to make TV shows that depict how some people find love and meaning in their lives. At its heart, The Category Is . . . Mexico City has all the right intentions. It just doesn’t have the vision to communicate those intentions. Thank God the guys are cute.