Fragmenting and defragmenting gender identity: An analysis of intersex gender identity performance in Jeffrey Eugenides Middlesex

Abstract

Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel Middlesex is a hermaphrodite coming-of-age narrative often critiqued in the literary field for its depiction of unstable gender identity performance from the intersex perspective. The novel depicts its main protagonist, Cal, as having an unstable gender identity throughout the narrative, performing his gender in ways that conform to extreme heteronormative gender standards. However, little scholarly attention is given to how Cal’s gender identity is fragmented in this unstable portrayal and how his exploration of gender identity performances in the narrative allows for the defragmentation of his gender identity. This paper aims to highlight Cal’s gender metamorphosis in Eugenides’ Middlesex, working through his gender identity performances in their various states using Irvine Goffman’s presentation of the self and Judith Butler’s gender identity performance theory. Selected instances of Cal’s gender performances from childhood, adolescence and adulthood were textually analysed to examine the gender norms conformed to in each performance. Cal’s performances of gender during childhood and adolescence conformed to extreme heteronormative standards of feminine beauty, female heterosexuality, and female biology. However, in young adulthood Cal begins exploring gender identities, allowing for the onset of his metamorphosis. During adulthood, Cal’s gender is presented in ways that conform to heteronormative standards of masculine appearance, male heteronormativity, and male biology. It is this dramatic gender metamorphosis that allows Cal to stabilise his gender identity and that allows Middlesex to present the intersex condition as having a stable gender identity. It is this perspective of the novel’s depiction of gender that should be.