Performance is how we act in regard to our identities. We speak and talk in defining ways. Performances such as dressing and speaking, although seemingly mundane and everyday occurrences in society, are in fact, profoundly impacted by gender roles. Gender roles are ideologies and concepts that have been associated with specific genders, such as skirts for females and cologne for males. Populations perform in particular ways to fit the gender roles of the dominating society around us, and in doing so propel the roles continuation. However, continuing to act in particular ways to suit gender roles affects not only their continuance but the LGBTQ community as well. It affects the LGBTQ community because those within the community that choose to defy the performances …show more content…
This is because it shows that the ostracisms and penalization of those that choose to go against performing to fit gender roles is in fact done so on the foundation of changing concepts, performance, and gender roles. How we perform in society solidifies certain hegemonic social conventions in society, such as gender roles. Performing outside what is allotted to each gender role has led to consequences, specifically for the queer community, such as policing and ostracism. However, drag through the parodying of the performances connected with each gender role has shown performance and gender roles fluidity, the capability of change. As Meg-John Barker and Julia Scheele notes in Queer-A Graphic History “...there's no real, authentic performance of gender. All gender is imitative performance.” () Therefore, performance should be considered a queer issue due to the impact performing, and performing to fit gender roles has had on those that stray from its considered normality’s, despite its shown
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory." Theatre Journal 40.4 (1988): 519-31. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Web. 11 May 2011.
The semiotics of traditional theatrical form reinforce an oppressive patriarchal system. The physical body becomes the catalyst by which gender is assigned and expected. This emphasis on the body is amplified in the theater. Simone Benmussa’s play The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs, adapted from the short story by George Moore, deals with issues of femininity and masculinity and how these are portrayed within the theater as well as how theater is formed by the traditional patriarchal gaze. This play also deals with issues of class and how class status is intrinsically tied to gender, gender performance and sexuality. Through the example of this play it is seen that a form of theater which creates and maintains the woman as subject rather than object (as Sue-Ellen Case proposes) cannot be truly realized until the performative nature and many issues inherent in masculinity are acknowledged and processed. Here also is an excellent case study of how the politics of the theater are deeply rooted in body politics and gender essentialism. All of these factors contribute to the play’s overall complexity in matters surrounding and pertaining to the performative nature of masculinity and the manner in which masculinities are brought forth on stage and how that differs from femininity on stage.
Judith Butler’s concept of gender being performative focuses on how it creates a sequence of effect or impression. Human have a consistent way of talking about their gender as if it were something that is simply a fact. People go about their lives following patterns that are interconnected with their male or female appearance. They get very settled in the expected behaviors and common attributes of male or female, without recognizing that gender is a social construction. It is difficult to wrap your head around the idea that gender is always changing and being reproduced because it is conversation that often goes unnoticed. Butler realizes that it will be a struggle to get people to grasp the idea that nobody actually is their gender and that
Explaining how to challenge the discriminatory attitudes that remain rampant throughout the world, Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a recent article, quotes the incisive words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu: "We are all of equal worth, born equal in dignity and born free and for this reason deserving respect. . . . We belong in a world whose very structure, whose essence, is diversity almost bewildering in extent, and it is to live in a fool's paradise to ignore this basic fact."
The community I chose to research is the Gay and Lesbian community. I chose to look at this community because, as I meet more and more people in my life, I have found that I come into contact with many Gay and Lesbian people, and to understand their issues, would be beneficial to a social worker. As Berkman and Zinberg (1997), states, social workers are "susceptible to absorbing the explicit and implicit biases held by mainstream society." I personally feel that the more you learn about other communities, its history and its struggles, it gives us a broader range of understanding and empathy, in which to do our work.
Austin ([1962] 1975), Felman (2003) and Sedgwick (1993) (as cited in Gerdes 2014, p. 148) suggest that expressions such as “shame on you” ‘accomplish the action that it also announces’, where by saying it, a person confers shame and embarrassment upon another group or individual. Performative inspires actions and has the power to produce a series of effect that can compel further collective recognition of the performative itself and its viability. Performativity, therefore, can account for the construction and reconstruction of gender. Gender is performative, in other words, one’s gender is real only if it is acted out continually (Butler 1993, p.12). People perform their gender according to the social and cultural norms and/or their inner masculinity and femininity. A person becomes gendered by doing and acting gender. Their gender is not given or inherent. It is built and acquired over time through the way they perceive, communicate, behave or generally represent themselves. They consolidate their so-called gender by enacting it with their body as they
In this article, Shaw and Lee describe how the action of labels on being “feminine” or “masculine” affect society. Shaw and Lee describe how gender is, “the social organization of sexual difference” (124). In biology gender is what sex a person is and in culture gender is how a person should act and portray themselves. They mention how gender is what we were taught to do in our daily lives from a young age so that it can become natural(Shaw, Lee 126). They speak on the process of gender socialization that teaches us how to act and think in accordance to what sex a person is. Shaw and Lee state that many people identify themselves as being transgendered, which involves a person, “resisting the social construction of gender into two distinct, categories, masculinity and femininity and working to break down these constraining and polarized categories” ( 129). They write about how in mainstream America masculinity and femininity are described with the masculine trait being the more dominant of the two. They define how this contributes to putting a higher value of one gender over the other gender called gender ranking (Shaw, Lee 137). They also speak about how in order for femininity to be viewed that other systems of inequality also need to be looked at first(Shaw,Lee 139).
Butler (271) defines gender performativity as the product of repeated actions over time, which forms an individual’s sense of gender identity. In this regard, the repeated stylization of the human body through a set of acts that are repeated within a regulatory frame that is highly rigid generates the appearance of the substance of the natural being. In
Intersectionality is something that is not always addressed within cultures. It is the aspect of life that is not seen nor heard unless need be. Humans like to put everything into neat little boxes, categorizing everything from the color yellow, to the size of a shoe. Intersectionality complicated the categorization by creating a fuller image of the object which is being categorized. When it comes to the identity of a person, the same is done as with objects, splitting aspects of one life and categorizing them. A person’s sexuality, race, gender, disability statues, etc., are just a few aspects that make them who they are as a person. Some identities take over another within the sphere of social life, raising one aspect over another, such as someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. This boxing off created an LGBTQ identity, as well as a community. This creates a cultural and a communal identity based on this shared attribute which shapes someone’s individual identity related to the collective and communal identities. Understanding the difference between the intersections of gender and sexuality, especially the kinds of differences of the body produced through various abilities discourses and practices. One intersection that can be addressed is the intersection of ability and LGBTQ identity. Along with, how sources structure the understanding of identity over time.
Through discourses in theatrical, anthropological and philosophical discussions, Butler portrays gender identity as being performative rather than expressive. Gender, rather than being drawn from a particular essence, is inscribed and repeated by bodies through the use of taboos and social
In the challenge to classify and distinguish the sex, gender and gender preference, Judith Butler `s theory about perforsmative acts in her Performative Acts and Gender Consititution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory is very important for us to understand queer. She purposed, the acts of homosexual, bisexual or heterosexual are not a settled identity; it is an act that is constantly changing like a actor. In her opinion, there is no real gender in this society. Gender is a substructure for repetitive act that is histrionic.
Throughout Western civilization, culturally hegemonic views on gender and sexuality have upheld a rigid and monolithic societal structure, resulting in the marginalization and dehumanization of millions of individuals who differ from the expected norm. Whether they are ridiculed as freaks, persecuted as blasphemers, or discriminated as sub-human, these individuals have been historically treated as invisible and pushed into vulnerable positions, resulting in cycles of poverty and oppression that remain prevalent even in modern times. Today, while many of these individuals are not publicly displayed as freaks or persecuted under Western law, women, queer, and intersexed persons within our society still nonetheless find themselves under constant
LGBT rights have changed in many ways throughout the years. The idea of being a part of the LGBT community has been around for a long time. People who are LGBT go through many rough patches during life. Many of their rights have been taken away, because many people don’t agree with it. They face abuse, discrimination, threats, and many other things. The LGBT community should be treated with respect like any other person, but that’s not what they always get.
In today’s day in age, different sexualities and gender identities are quickly becoming more accepted in mainstream society. Despite this change, there are many people who believe that having a different sexual orientation or gender identity is a choice that is frowned upon. In order to refute this belief, research and biology of the brain is necessary. Researching the brain on the basis of sexuality is a fairly new topic of discussion because it is somewhat difficult and confusing. This paper will explore the different identities of gender, sex and sexual orientation and the main biological reasons behind these. There is also some validity of different sexual orientations and identities through the evidence of sexual disorders like Klinefelter’s and Turner’s Syndrome and gender dysphoria.
The LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community has been disapproved by many since it first came about in the 1950s. Since then, the societal attitude towards homosexuality and LGBT culture has changed greatly, as much of the world has become more accepting of same-sex sexuality as it has become more common. Studies have also shown that the younger generation are more tolerant towards LGBT views. The LGBT community consists of many beliefs and values that make the community different and intriguing.