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Gender Performativity
Context:
Gender performativity, a concept that has greatly shaped gender theory, offers a more fluid understanding of gender by questioning fixed ideas of identity.
About Gender Performativity
- Introduced by poststructuralist scholar Judith Butler in her 1990 work Gender Trouble, the theory critiques the essentialist notion that links sex to a strict binary of masculine and feminine.
- Instead, Butler argues that gender is a socially constructed identity, shaped and sustained through repeated actions, behaviours, and discourse.
- As a result, gender can never be fully stable, even if it appears consistent.
- Butler further explains that gender norms are so deeply ingrained in society that they seem natural, trapping individuals in rigid gender roles.
- However, since these norms rely on constant repetition for their stability, they can be challenged and subverted.
- Acts of resistance within societal structures can lead to new understandings of gender. Butler’s work not only critiques traditional gender theories but also marks a key moment in third-wave feminism and contributes significantly to queer theory.
Two Theories of Gender
- There are various debates about the definition of gender, but two key theories stand out:
- Gender Essentialism: It argues that biology primarily explains gender — sex chromosomes and DNA determine one’s sex, which in turn defines their gender.
- From this perspective, traits, roles, and behaviours associated with masculinity and femininity are seen as natural, as they are biologically predetermined.
- Social Constructivism: It posits that gender identity is shaped through discourse, encompassing language, bodily expressions, and non-verbal actions.
- Gender norms become internalised to the extent that they seem natural to individuals who align with their assigned gender.
- For example, a child born with a uterus may be assigned female at birth, given the pronouns she/her, and encouraged to adopt traditionally feminine roles. Deviations from these norms are often met with disapproval or punishment.
- In many Indian schools, girls are expected to keep their hair long and neatly tied, while boys growing long hair might face criticism and pressure to conform to traditional masculine norms.
- This reflects how gender expectations shift based on assigned roles, even in situations where uniformity should apply.
- Iris Marion Young’s 1980 essay, Throwing Like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Body Comportment, Motility, and Spatiality, explores how gender norms can shape physical behaviour.
- Young illustrates how girls are expected to display weaker, more restrained movements, like using less space and energy when throwing a ball compared to boys. Interestingly, these gendered behaviours are not fixed and have shifted across time and cultures. For example, in the 19th century, pink was considered a masculine colour, while blue was associated with femininity.
- This idea also echoes Simone de Beauvoir’s famous statement in The Second Sex (1949): “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” De Beauvoir emphasises that gender identity is shaped by societal norms rather than being an inherent quality.
Sex and Gender
- Judith Butler builds on this discussion by challenging second-wave feminism’s distinction between sex and gender.
- Scholars like Gayle Rubin argue that sex is biologically determined, while gender is shaped by societal norms.
- However, Butler rejects this separation, asserting that even “sex” is shaped by social interpretation.
- According to Butler, biological sex cannot be experienced outside of the social meanings attached to it.
- Thus, both sex and gender are socially constructed, with gender ultimately encompassing sex. The belief that a person’s body predetermines their gender identity is, Butler argues, a product of social discourse rather than biological reality.
- Butler emphasises that gender is not something one is, but something one does. Rather than being a static noun, she views gender as a verb — something performed rather than possessed.
- One does not simply be a woman but rather does ‘womanness’.
- Gender, then, is the stylized repetition of actions over time.
- This can be likened to the act of speaking, where language involves the repeated use of words within a structured framework.
- Similarly, gender performativity involves the repeated performance of behaviours and roles in line with societal expectations.
