Question

Performing, embodying, and constructing gender.

You read quite a few readings about the social construction of gender. Give examples in your own loves how you might "perform" gender. Think about why you do it. What do you think this performance tells you about the gender? How does this performance reinforce gender norms? Can we use this performance to remake ideas of gender?

Answer 1

Gender performance is the idea that gender is something inscribed in daily practices, learned and performed based on cultural norms of femininity and masculinity. The idea of gender as performance was popularized by American poststructuralist philosopher Judith Butler. Such a concept goes against the predominant philosophical framework established since the 1970s which assumes a sex/gender divide, where gender would be a cultural construct built upon a biological sex. The main point of gender performance is that neither gender nor sex is completely natural, and both are performed and become naturalized over time: we act and walk and talk in ways that consolidate the idea of “being a man” or “being a woman.”

Understanding gender as performative has a number of radical implications because it gives rise to the notion that all gender performances are imitative, and makes no reference to an authentic, original man or woman that predates culture and language. All genders are forms of impersonation because they are modes of corporeal enactment, and the effects of particular practices. For instance, girls would learn, internalize, and reproduce certain social norms and stereotypes considered feminine within a specific culture. In addition, they would learn to perform acts, such as wearing dresses and makeup, to fit in the category “woman.” Failing to reenact these acts would affect a subject’s social legitimacy and normalcy. Therefore, Butler considers gender as oppressive because it forces people to conform to one of only two genders.

For Example- i. drag queens who fail to conform are considered to have abject bodies and therefore face social sanctions. By imitating gender, drag implicitly reveals the imitative structure of gender, as well as its arbitrariness. The example of drag is used because numerous scholars interpreted it to depict gender performance as a voluntary role a subject selects or a construction that could be changed like clothes.