Gender Subversion: A Cultural Reconsideration through a Fairy Tale

Abstract

The following paper tries to socially understand gender norms and the possibility of subversion of the recommended roles. Judith Butlers (1990) Performative theory of gender acts, discussed probability of gender subversion in various societal conceptualizations of gender. The undertaken study, through thematic analysis, investigated particular characters in a fairy tale, The land of stories: Beyond the kingdom (2015). It was found that gender was a social construct, and it existed due to repeated and accepted socially ascribed practices. The characters reconsidered gender through subversion by breaching the expected traditional societal gender norms. Though, for the intelligibility, these reconsidered gender roles needed recurrence. The findings also seemed to assert that the subversive acts could be shocking and unacceptable, but, they do not possess the potential to terminate the established gender norms, rather, just assist the characters to meet their ends, towards fresh identities and roles in the extensive societal dominion.