Judith Butler Gender

Gender is imprinted on the body from birth, with a pink blanket for girls and a blue blanket for boys. As we grow older, gender is continually imprinted onto us, with gendered toys, and heavy social judgement that comes along with breaking gender norms. Judith Butler’s idea of gender has been developed through her entire career, but her most constant thought on gender is that it is socially constructed, that the roles men and women play in society are due to their upbringing and culture. The purpose of this essay will be to explain Butler’s theory and using examples from popular culture, show how gender is imprinted on the body, and what effect that has.

In today’s society there is a widely understood (and supported) separation of sex and

‘The script’, if you like, is always already determined within this regulatory frame, and the subject has a limited number of costumes from which to make a constrained choice of gender style” (Salih, 2002), this analogy provides an insight into Butler’s views of the repeated stylization of the body, and demonstrates that one cannot simply go into their wardrobe and choose a different outfit and transform into a wildly different gender, it is instead a repeated stylization that isn’t voluntary, and the repetition is “very often a repetition of oppressive and painful gender norms…this is not freedom, but a question of how to work the trap that one is inevitably in” (Kotz, 1992). Simone de Beauvoir is quoted in Butlers book Gender Trouble; ‘one is not born a woman, but rather becomes one’ (Beauvoir, 1973), this backs Butler’s theory that gender is a gradual process and is an effect of the surrounding culture. One of Butler’s books, Undoing Gender, discusses how gender is “done” every day without people being aware of it, and states that our performances of gender are so polished and so convincing that none of the ‘actors’ can see the on-going

Andy is shamed into wearing designer clothes by her fellow colleagues, and some of her clothes were considered masculine by her peers, which is similar to real life, where women feel a pressure to dress a certain way to be perceived as attractive and ‘girly’. For Andy to need to be wearing dresses, high heels and makeup to be considered ‘feminine’ mimics societies fragile view of gender, and that be ‘seen’ and not invisible she needed to dress a certain way shows how gender roles are ingrained from an early age. Another feature of the movie is watching Andy getting ready every day, applying her makeup, putting on her expensive clothes and jewellery, which is a good example of the repeated acts women do every day that reaffirm their gender identity. Women (and men) and constantly styling their bodies in a way that conforms to traditional gender norms, thus continuing the cycle of performing within society to maintain a ‘normal’ view of