Gender Parody Research Articles

Between Camp and Cursi: Humor and Homosexuality in Contemporary Mexican Narrative by Brandon P. Bisbey

Reviewed by: Between Camp and Cursi: Humor and Homosexuality in Contemporary Mexican Narrative by Brandon P. Bisbey Samanta Ordóñez Bisbey, Brandon P. Between Camp and Cursi: Humor and Homosexuality in Contemporary Mexican Narrative. SUNY Press, 2022, 252 pp. ISBN: 9781438486659. In Between Camp and Cursi, Brandon Bisbey analyzes humor in Mexican literature of the past century to show how it destabilizes the dominant social structures that govern the body, sexuality, and gender. While humor in Mexican popular culture historically contributed to the consolidation of heteronormativity, many Mexican authors have disobeyed these norms with humorous narratives that repurpose gay stereotypes to express sensibilities of sexual nonconformity, often through parody, irony, and self-deprecation. The specific modes of dissident humor of interest to Bisbey are defined as camp and cursi, terms that are not to be considered interchangeable but work in combination with one another to create subversive cultural resonances in Mexico. Bisbey connects these two concepts and their destabilizing effects on gender norms through a rich methodological discussion in the book’s introduction and first chapter, referencing the work of Carlos Monsiváis, José Esteban Muñoz, Lidia Santos, and Eve Sedgwick, among others. While Bisbey acknowledges existing research that disputes whether camp is appropriate for Latin American cultural analysis (e.g., Sifuentes Jáuregui), the main strength of his book lies with the way he explains the rationale for resignifying this concept in relation to lo cursi in the work of Mexican authors. One of the key ideas, adapted from Sedgwick, illustrates how both camp and cursi humor can balance both “paranoid” and “reparative” responses to homophobia and patriarchy. According to this schema, humor lends itself to paranoid readings when it primarily functions to critique practices of gender-based oppression, including the internalized behaviors of the oppressed themselves; by contrast, reparative approaches tend to concentrate on transcending negative feelings and establishing queer solidarity. Like Sedgwick, Bisbey argues for the necessity of both kinds of perspectives and shows how they coalesce with the camp and cursi elements of the literature he studies. For example, in the first chapter, he asserts that while the gender parody in Salvador Novo’s autobiography reveals “the internalization and reiteration of machismo, it also provides the possibility for a transcendence of discrimination through self-effacing humor and the constitution of dissident communities” (50). In the second chapter, Bisbey uses a similar approach in his analysis of novels by Luis Zapata and José Rafael Calva. A paranoid reading shows that the characters “are very focused on conforming to hegemonic masculinities, something that leads them uphold stereotypes and prejudices . . . However, they also engage in camp gender [End Page 141] nonconformity and have a close affective relationship to cursilería, demonstrating the importance of the reparative social functions of humor” (77). Bisbey attempts to take his argument beyond the function of humor as defiance of heteronormativity by asserting the possibility for camp and cursilería to challenge racism and class discrimination in Mexico. To do this, he turns to the concept of naquez, which plays an important role in novels that express anxieties arising from the assumed proximity of whiteness to modernity. Bisbey finds that “rejection of lo naco by several characters in these works serves to highlight the extent to which they have internalized racism and how it informs their interaction with other characters” (29). Unfortunately, this aspect of the book falls short of being convincing. None of the works that Bisbey studies fully engages with questions of race (a problem that is not specific to the literature of sexual diversity in Mexico), and his effort to find examples of how the humor contests dominant discourses on mestizaje often comes across as rather forced, as when he uses a reference to Novo’s “kitschy decorating style” as evidence of that author’s supposedly “conflicted racial consciousness” (50). Moreover, Bisbey makes repeated claims regarding how the novels challenge the “coloniality of sex and gender” in Mexico (28, 65, 155, etc.), but his position is not supported by a clear understanding of how María Lugones conceptualized this term to describe the modern/colonial gender system as the product of an imposed Eurocentric epistemology and as a weapon of...

O fantasma travesti: uma rapsódia queer

Este artigo apresenta uma análise crítica do romance O fantasma travesti (1988), de Sylvia Orthof, cuja forma e construção das personagens travam proximidades com o discurso da teoria queer no que se refere à desconstrução dos arquétipos binários de gênero e da performatividade enquanto dispositivo de criação de novas maneiras de se entender o corpo, o gênero e as sexualidades. Tendo como escopo teórico as contribuições de Butler (2015) e Louro (2001), propomos uma aproximação entre a teoria queer e a teoria da ficção com a finalidade de compreender o romance de Orthof enquanto um processo no qual a política da escrita, conceito sugerido por Rancière (1995), desempenha um papel importante na representação da personagem Ziriguidum. Criada sob a égide da paródia de gênero e sob a influência da narrativa fantástica, Ziriguidum é uma ode ao queer. A linguagem com a qual ela se constrói reverbera a ambiguidade e a inconstância que caracterizam a teoria queer, além de ilustrar a confusão pronominal que se instaura quando há a necessidade de se referir às pessoas trans.

Fucking the Body, Rewriting the Text: Proto-Queer Embodiment through Textual Drag in Virginia Woolf's Orlando (1928) and Monique Wittig's Le Corps lesbien (1973)

Inspired by Judith Butler's conceptualization of drag as ‘gender parody’, I develop the conceptual frame of ‘textual drag’ in order to define and examine the relationship between parody, satire and gender. I test this frame by reading two seminal feminist works, Virginia Woolf's Orlando (1928) and Monique Wittig's Le Corps lesbien (The Lesbian Body) (1973). Both texts lend themselves particularly persuasively to analysis with this frame, as they each use parodic strategies to facilitate proto-queer satirical critiques of reductive gender norms. Orlando deploys an exaggerated nineteenth-century biographical style, which foregrounds the protagonist's gender fluidity and her developing critique of the norms and systems that surround her, while Le Corps lesbien rewrites canonical romance narratives from a lesbian perspective, challenging the heterosexism inherent in these narratives and providing new modes of thinking about gender, desire and sexual interaction.

¿Normas y géneros?: performatividad en Judith Butler y la teoría ciberfeminista.

El presente trabajo intenta realizar un paralelismo entre la concepción de la performatividad del género en Judith Butler, y cómo es comprendida, analizada y/o materializada por grupos, sectores, asociaciones, artístas, activistas y teóricas o teóricos ciberfeministas. El punto de partida en esta reflexión es el de la teórica de género basada en la parodia y la performatividad de Butler. Posteriormente se lleva a cabo un análisis comparativo entre, la teórica de la performatividad y la parodia de género y la teoría/práctica ciberfeminista. Se citará en esta comparativa a la ontología Cyborg (Haraway), a la significación semiótico-social del Net.art -o Net art- y el activismo social web de grupos y activistas ciberfeministas. La finalidad de esta aproximación exploratoria no es otra que la de analizar si la teoría, en este trabajo expuesta, puede materializarse en la cibersociedad. El escenario social virtual precisa de una metodología como la etnografía digital -inductiva-, utilizando el análisis de contenidos y del discurso cualitativo como técnicas. Los objetos de estudio son obras Naet art, comics online, vídeos ciberfeministas y webs temáticas. Muestra intencional estratégica que nos permite ver cómo la teoría en este trabajo se materializa en la cibersociedad.

Cindy Sherman y la subversión de la identidad

The critical analysis of the concept of identity has marked implications for gender studies, specifically in relation to fragmenting the notion of static and metaphysical identity of sexualized subjects. This paper analyzes how gender identity can be constructed and reconstructed based on culture, periods in history, symbolism and the discourse of power. To this end, this article will discuss various concepts of gender identity described in the work of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, as well as the concepts of performativity and gender parody developed by Judith Butler. Finally, the concept of pastiche, developed by Fredric Jameson, will be discussed. Photographs of Cindy Sherman’s Centerfolds will be used as support.

Parody, subversion and the politics of gender at work: the case of Futurama’s ‘Raging Bender’

This article extends our understanding of how media culture offers a critique of patriarchal gender relations in organizations. Our attention turns to comedies in media culture, arguing that parody harbours the potential to inform a politics of gender at work through the way that it denaturalizes culturally embedded gendered practices. Drawing on Judith Butler’s discussions of gender performativity, subversive parody and gender undoing we illustrate the critical and transgressive potential of parody in media culture. We do so in relation to a reading of the American animated television programme Futurama (1999–2003) with specific focus on the episode ‘Raging Bender’ (2000)—an episode that explicitly engages in drag-based gender parody. We consider the political salience of this critique and how it relates to the politics of doing and undoing gender in organizations more generally. The article demonstrates how media culture can be a valuable avenue for undertaking politically motivated studies of gender and organizations, and how this politics can be supported by the paradoxical undoing of gender that parody makes possible.

The Cultural Critique of Gender Parody in Canadian Sketch Comedy

This article considers the performance of Canadian masculinity in sketch comedy. In particular I consider the characters Buddy Cole (The Kids in the Hall), Red Green (The Red Green Show), and Raj Binder (This Hour Has 22 Minutes). These characters offer Canadian audiences unique parodies of nostalgic conceptions of Canadian masculinity. Using camp and gender parody, the above-mentioned comedians deconstruct popular mythologies about masculinity and Canadian-ness. These portrayals are at one and the same time both critical and optimistic—a paradox that works its way through much of Canadian popular culture.

Performing the Curmudgeon: The Toothless Lion

Growing old is a process of reinvention. Performing the curmudgeon is one way to redefine dignity in a time of waning powers. The curmudgeon trades in earlier roles of authority and virility and, by repositioning himself above the fray, creates a new space where he can perform. This paper draws on J.L. Austin’s notion of performative utterances and explores how they can coalesce to form a persona which becomes a functioning gender parody (J. Butler) and participate in a broader dynamic of masculinities (R.W. Connell and J.W. Messerschmidt). After defining the curmudgeon, this paper considers two “case studies:” the comedian George Carlin and the poet Philip Larkin, in light of issues of chronology, space, sexuality and the creation of a “post-virile” status. Lastly, it addresses the political coding of the curmudgeon and its future as a masculine parody.

Um romance policial latinoamericano e os fantasmas do passado

In this paper, we aim to analyze Memórias de Aldenham House, written by Antonio Callado. In this novel, the author develops historical questions involving the imperialist policies practiced in England. By considering the typical narrative techniques used in detective story telling, Callado builds a sort of gender parody and illustrates the true crime behind the official report, thus leading the reader to have a critical perspective on reality. Antonio Callado emphasizes the representation of the symbolical violence resulting from truculent practices held by Latin American dictators after the World War II. The novel is, then, perceived as a post-traumatic memory writing of Latin American history.

Satan’s Body: Religion and Gender Parody in Late Medieval Italy

In late-medieval Italian scenes of the Last Judgment, Satan is a monstrous parody of Christ. These figures are shown to parody not only Christ as ruler, but also the theology of the body of Christ. In particular, the figures of Satan are emasculated, and in some cases they give mock birth to sinners. These Satans confirm the importance of somatization and gender ambiguity in late-medieval Latin Christianity. They also help to explain the Last Judgment as an image: it represents the body of Christ, both historically and institutionally. Examples include the mosaic at Torcello, Giotto’s fresco at Padua, the fresco in the Camposanto at Pisa, the fresco at San Gimignano by Taddeo di Bartolo, and the Satan described by Dante in the Inferno.

The “mock‐macho” situation comedy: Hegemonic masculinity and its reiteration

This essay examines how Home Improvement and Coach play off the stereotypes of conventional masculinity in order to describe how these texts work to reiterate hegemonic masculinity. The analysis focuses on how the “mock‐macho” sitcom takes masculinity as an object of its own discourse and induces pleasure in the realization of masculinity as a gender performance. This study suggests some of the features and complexities of this discursive strategy and draws on Butler's (1990) concept of “gender parody” to theorize “mock‐macho” gender performances and their comic effectivity. The essay concludes with an assessment of the ambivalent gender politics of “mock‐macho” situation comedies.

Parody and Pacifist Transformations in Maxine Hong Kingston's Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book

There is subversive laughter in the pastiche-effect of parodic practices in which the original, the and the are themselves constituted as effects. - Judith Butler, Gender Trouble The epigraph might have easily been written to describe the technique of Maxine Hong Kingston's Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book. In fact, the quote comes at the end of Butler's book-length critique of feminist politics which assumes that universal identity is necessary for effective political action. This insistence on real or authentic unifying definition of women overlooks (or perhaps, underemphasizes) the social, cultural and economic differences that combine with gender in the shaping of women's experiences. Judith Butler asserts that feminism should not insist on the need for articulating foundationalist frame (the preoccupation with defining an essential and thus unifying characteristic for all women) prior to political action, but rather, should recognize that gender identities are constructed through political practice. An equally divisive monologism can be seen in the identity politics practiced by many within ethnic communities. One need only look as far as the debate spawned by Kingston's The Woman Warrior to see how individuals can get caught between two such unifying groups and find themselves not doubly represented but, rather, twice denied individual identity and agency. Parody, through its ability to question notions of the or authentic, can be read as defensive mechanism in Tripmaster Monkey, protecting the text from the antagonisms provoked by Kingston's earlier work and, beyond that, as positive gesture towards healing the rift between the various communities with which Kingston and her work is connected. This essay will explore Kingston's use of parody in confronting the conflicting desires of individuality and community by focusing on how it works to question and subvert monologic constructions of identity pertaining to her male protagonist, Wittman Ah Sing. It will also examine her use of parody not only as tool for dismantling foundationalist notions of identity and community but as model for building an inclusive community that is made up of individual identities rather than in opposition to an individual's identity. I am using parody in the sense of form of mimicry or imitation which, while requiring degree of similarity to be recognized in connection with the thing parodied, also contains the imperative for difference, something distinguishing it from the object of the parody.(1) The seemingly paradoxical coexistence of similarity and difference, imitation and originality, commonality and uniqueness is at the heart of Kingston's novel. This definition of parody is informed by Judith Butler's concept of gender parody which does not assume that there is an which such parodic identities imitate. Indeed, the parody is of the very notion of an (138). In this concept of parody, the act of mimesis asserts relationship or membership in tradition with the thing copied even as it questions the authenticity or original status of the thing copied. This essay will analyze parody on the textual plane of Tripmaster Monkey but will also rely on the work of Judith Butler in terms of her analysis of identity formation to analyze the politics of Kingston's parodic practices and their relationship to community formation. To discuss the text in terms of community, one must first place the novel within the context of the reception Kingston's work has received in its several reading communities. The feminist community has largely embraced Kingston's work. Yet many within predominantly white readership have appropriated The Woman Warrior as catalogue of sexism in Chinese and Chinese-American culture. In her essay French Feminism in an International Frame, Gayatri Spivak describes the trap that Western-trained feminist academics often fall into when they think about women in cultural context different from their own as a web of information retrieval inspired at best by 'what can I do for them? …