phrase General Slang

throwing shade

· phrase · lgbtq

A veiled, contemptuous insult — disrespect you barely have to spell out.

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Definitions

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Disrespecting someone on the slant — a backhanded remark, a look, a pointed silence that lands the insult without quite stating it. As drag legend Dorian Corey put it in Paris Is Burning: 'I don't have to tell you you're ugly because you know you're ugly.' That's shade — the curve to reading's pitch. Born in the 1980s Black and Latino gay ballroom scene, gone fully mainstream after RuPaul's Drag Race.

“She didn't say a word, just glanced at his shoes — pure shade.”
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2

In ballroom and vogue specifically, shade can be thrown through movement itself — a dip, a spin, a gesture aimed at your opponent mid-battle to show contempt without breaking the dance.

“He voguing right past her and dropped into a dip in her face — shade in motion.”
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throwing shade In A Sentence

She didn't say a word, just glanced at his shoes — pure shade.
He voguing right past her and dropped into a dip in her face — shade in motion.

Origin & Usage

From the 1980s Black and Latino gay ballroom and drag scene in New York; defined on camera by Dorian Corey in the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning, then mainstreamed via RuPaul's Drag Race from 2010.

Variants shadethrow shadeno tea no shade
Tags #ballroom#drag#lgbtq#aave#vogue#urban-lingo

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