Theory Of Gender Performativity Research Articles

Māori and Pacific student’s resistance to colonial cis-heteronormative discourse within high schools in Aotearoa, New Zealand

ABSTRACT In this article, we draw on findings from two critical ethnographic studies across three high schools in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. While the critical ethnographies canvased a range of topics, this article draws on the empirical findings specific to exploring how relationships and sexuality education as a key learning area within Health Education, continues to privilege western, cis-heteronormative understands of relationships and sexuality. Drawing on Butler’s theory of gender performativity and Foucault’s understanding of power relations we share student narratives which demonstrate the strength of cis-heteronormativity, even as teachers and students work to disrupt these norms. Furthermore, we engage queer theory and Tongan concepts such as tauhi vā to demonstrate how the inclusion of Pacific and queer knowledges allow students to subvert dominant colonial understandings of relationships and sexuality.

Resistance to Heteronormative Laws and Homophobic Religions in Selected Short Stories from Sub-Saharan Africa

This article explores the resistance exhibited by queer characters against homophobic legislation and religious norms within the framework of gender performativity in selected short stories from Sub-Saharan Africa. The analysis focuses on narratives from diverse regions, including Stanley Kenani’s “Love on Trial” and “In the Best Interests of the Child” (Malawi), Monica Arac de Nyeko’s “Jambula Tree” (Uganda), Davina Owombre’s “Pelican Driver” (Nigeria), Emil Rorke’s “Poisoned Grief” (Zimbabwe), and Dolar Vasani’s “All Covered Up” (Tanzania). The article argues that the queer protagonists featured in the chosen short stories actively resist societal pressures towards compulsory sexuality and assigned gender roles. Within the sociopolitical contexts of the characters, laws and religious doctrines prescribe and enforce a heteronormative framework that homosexual characters are compelled to adhere to. The theoretical framework guiding this analysis draws from Judith Butler’s gender performativity, which challenges the assumption of a direct alignment between biological sex and gender identity. According to Butler, being biologically male or female does not dictate one’s gender identity, and the same principle applies to sexuality. The article examines how heteronormative laws and homophobic religious doctrines contribute to the construction of mandatory sexuality and assigned gender roles. Through the lens of characterisation, the article analyses how queer characters in the selected stories actively challenge and denounce the homophobia perpetuated by these legal and religious structures. This exploration sheds light on the nuanced ways in which gender performativity theory manifests in the lived experiences and narratives of queer individuals in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“Live like a Man:” Analysing The White Tiger’s Balram Halwai in a Patriarchal India

Gender, as a socially constructed role that societies assign to individuals based on their perceived sex, has been significantly influenced by social and cultural norms throughout history (Connell 1987, 70). In patriarchal societies like India, the concept of masculinity is particularly shaped by the prevailing social and cultural factors. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of masculinity through the character of Balram Halwai in Arvind Adiga’s The White Tiger (2008). The primary focus of this study lies in exploring how rigid gender roles contribute to the perpetuation of child abuse and child labour under the guise of upholding “masculinity.” By employing R.W. Connell's theory of masculinities, Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity, structural functionalism perspectives on gender, the paper delves into the character of Balram Halwai to investigate the profound impact that social expectations and gender roles have on his psyche. Furthermore, the paper investigates the extreme measures Balram undertakes in his pursuit of embodying the societal ideals of being a “man.” This study offers an intricate multidimensional exploration of masculinity in a patriarchal Indian context, uncovering the ways in which social expectations and gender roles can profoundly impact individuals’ lives.

“This Is Your Safe Space”: The Intersections of Rurality, Ethnicity, and LGBTQIA+ Language Educator Identity in the Southeastern U.S.

AbstractIn the contexts of the Southeastern U.S. and globally, the ascendance of parental rights bills has sought to limit what can be discussed in the classroom related to gender and sexuality as well as limiting access to healthcare for transgender, gender non‐conforming, and non‐binary individuals (HRC, 2023). In language education, scholastic and pedagogical pursuits related to the lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ students in classrooms and educators have emphasized consideration of the interconnectedness between language teachers' identities, pedagogical decisions, and place (Coda, 2021; Fogle & Moser, 2017). In rural spaces, language educators can experience increased emotional labor and marginalization (Acheson et al., 2016; Moser & Wei, 2021); however, there is limited attention to rural LGBTQIA+ language educators in contexts such as the Southeastern U.S. Drawing from a larger mixed methods study of LGBTQIA+ rural language educators in the Southeastern U.S., this study centers on one focal participant, Mariana, a cisgender, pansexual ESL educator. Utilizing Butler's (1990) theory of gender performativity and Crenshaw's (1989) intersectionality, findings draw attention to the intersections between Mariana's gender and sexual identities, rurality, and ethnicity, highlighting the tensions and contradictions related to identity performance, pedagogy decisions, and allyship efforts.

“Who the Hell Are You?”

Tom Stoppard is an outstanding playwright, embellishing his plays with scientific and philosophical approaches and presenting complicated, mysterious plots to the reader. He bases the plot of his postmodern play, Hapgood (1988), on quantum theory and draws an analogy between Werner Heisenberg’s principle of indeterminism, termed “The Uncertainty Principle”, and international espionage. Thus, he constructs the complicated relationship between the particle and the whole throughout the play to depict the relativistic and deceptive relationship between sex and gender. Focusing on the title character of the play, the present study proposes that the play represents the fluid and indeterminate nature of gender and identity within the context of espionage and indeterminism. Hapgood, who is a mother, a lover and a successful master agent in a man-dominated British secret service, navigates between “masculinity” and “femininity” during a day. Moreover, she metamorphoses into her twin, who is entirely different from her, except for their identical faces, to entrap the mole in the office. The study consults Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity and fluidity to indicate the unpredictable and uncertain nature of ‘gender identity’, which formulates itself through performances in social relations and trespasses the heterosexual matrix. It juxtaposes the Butlerian approach with the Uncertainty Principle in quantum theory pertaining to the confusing relationship between gender, the body and identity. The Butlerian analysis of the play reveals that particularly the modern way of life makes women transgress the Cartesian dichotomies of sex/gender, masculine/feminine and man/woman through the fluidity of their roles even during a single day and makes it difficult to find out who is really who.

Affective dimensions and the psychosocial work performed by naked body protests

ABSTRACT This paper is about the liberatory affective states associated with participation in naked body protests. The article will also touch on notions of gender as performative and located within the habitus, since affective states are intertwined with gender performance, embodiment and social construction. Exploration of these phenomena is done by analysing interview data from 16 women who participated in various naked body protests in South Africa. These include protests in Dobsonville, Soweto in 1990 and student protests at four universities in 2016. The study draws upon Wetherell’s theorisation of affect, especially their concept of affective practice. The findings illustrate that affects are always embedded in acts and practices, including forms of protest. In addition, using Judith Butler’s gender performativity theory, the study demonstrates that naked body protests have performative possibilities that both reify and challenge gender.

Joy and the mop: The role of film in doing and undoing gender in entrepreneurship

AbstractEntrepreneurship remains principally constructed as a masculine activity performed by men, suggesting that women entrepreneurs continue to experience contradictory gendered expectations whereby they are both evaluated against male norms and expected to display culturally acceptable forms of femininity. While there is a growing body of critical literature on gender and entrepreneurship, limited work explores the audio‐visual modalities of how gender performances reinforce and/or subvert gendered expectations in women's entrepreneurial activities. Considering this gap, we follow the feminist tradition of elaborating gender theory through film as an important medium of cultural production and transmission. By drawing on Butler's theory of gender performativity, we explore how a successful woman entrepreneur is represented in the semi‐fictionalized film, Joy. Using a critical social semiotic approach, we analyze how the audio‐visual aspects of the gender performances in Joy unfold across time and space to construct expectations of women's entrepreneurship. From our analysis, we make two principal contributions. First, we examine how the medium of film simultaneously reinforces and subverts the gendering of entrepreneurial activity. Second, we propose three sub‐genres of gender performance—exaggerated femininities, instrumental masculinities, and situational gender (in)congruity—that can serve to subvert stereotypical expectations about women's entrepreneurship.

Villainess Protagonists’ Performative Acts as the Representation of Modern Femininity

The research discussed a different representations of femininity through the villainesses and heroines in two Korean webtoons (web cartoons). Traditionally, villainesses were depicted as undesirable antagonists as they did not fit into the frame of traditional femininity or were merely viewed as sexually attractive. However, the traditional aspects of femininity were now contested by the villainess protagonists. Utilizing Butler’s theory of gender performativity along with Kress and van Leeuwen’s visual analysis, the protagonists’ and antagonists’ thoughts, actions, and appearance were analyzed. A descriptive qualitative analysis was conducted on two webtoons, The Villainess Reverses the Hourglass, and It Looks Like I’ve Fallen into the World of a Reverse Harem Game. The studied data are selected from chapters 1-45 in each webtoon. The results show that the villainess protagonists are depicted as more independent, have more power, and occasionally dress in a masculine way, while the heroines-turned-antagonists are illustrated as a dependent, lack power, and always dressed femininely. In this case, the heroines-turned-antagonists’ traits represent Korea’s traditional notion of femininity. Meanwhile, the villainess protagonists possess traits opposing the heroines’ traits. Positioning the villainesses as protagonists and heroines as antagonists show a clash of modern vs. traditional notion of femininity, and putting the ‘villainesses’ as the desirable protagonists imply how their representation of femininity is considered more favorable in the modern context.

Gender stereotypes in a modern Javanese nuclear family in film Mudik (2020)

The characters of a Javanese husband and wife in films are often presented with gender stereotypes, such as Angayani (Providing for Family) for husbands and Manak (Giving and Caring for Children) for wives. This article aims to show the gender stereotypes of a husband and a wife in a modern Javanese nuclear family in film Mudik (2020) by Adriyanto Dewo. Gender stereotypes are established values that have been socialized through the concepts of Dadi Wong (Being a successful person) and Durung Tutug, Jowo, or Rampung (Being an unsuccessful person) in Javanese society. Those who successfully meet these values will be included in Dadi Wong category, but if they are not able to, they will be classified in Durung Tutug, Jowo, or Rampung category. This study uses narratology as an analytical method which is elaborated with the theory of gender performativity and power relations. The results of this study indicate that the representation of the husband in this film is considered unable to fulfill Dadi Wong conception due to the absence of children and financial instability. Meanwhile, the representation of the wife is unable to reach the qualifications of Dadi Wong due to her infertility condition and role in the public sphere.

Dressing Masculinity in the Nineteenth-Century, or Feeling Tight Around the Collar

Abstract By examining a cache of mid-nineteenth-century daguerreotypes, it becomes evident that, for the middle-class young men who sat for these portraits, masculine vestimentary self-representation was not a simple task. This article sheds light on the crisis in the regime of masculine domination and white supremacy, twin forces deployed in France with and for the development of the modern capitalist system. Stemming from a perceived physical degeneracy in men's bodies, this feeling of crisis was alleviated by scaffolding these bodies with normative and pseudo-scientific tailoring practices. In these daguerreotypes, the young men photographed used various accessories and embellishments to push against the dark uniformity of men's clothing and demonstrate their own idiosyncratic singularity. By reading this vestimentary play alongside Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity, the true decentering power of fashion accessories, particularly in men's fashion in the nineteenth century, is revealed.

‘I just want a shirt that will fit me!’: An inductive approach to understanding transgender consumers’ shopping experiences

Transgender consumers are often unable to express their identity or construct their appearance in the way they desire. Social realities inhibit realness, and it can be difficult or even impossible for them to externally realize their full identity (Gray 2009). The purpose of this research is to understand how transgender consumers’ gender identity influences their shopping experiences. Utilizing a lens of gender performativity theory, the research questions guiding the study include the following: (1) In what ways do transgender and gender non-conforming individuals experience the current retail apparel landscape? (2) How do transgender individuals navigate experience shopping for clothing and grooming products? (3) How does the shopping experience exacerbate or alleviate gender dysphoria? Ethnographic and survey methods were used to gain understanding into the shopping behaviours of these consumers. Additionally, the researchers identified × themes through thematic analysis and several rounds of coding (1) gendered and clothing, (2) positive experiences, (3) the body, fit and sizing and (4) accessibility to clothing and fashion.

Tarrying with Trauma While Improvising Gender in Who Do You Think You Are?

Alice Munro’s 1978 collection of linked stories, Who Do You Think You Are? enacts what Lorraine York calls Munro’s theory of fiction as “tarrying with difficult emotions and knowledges.” Judith Butler’s seminal 1988 theory of gender performativity postulated that improvising gender incurs obvious and covert social punishments, but that performing gender includes the possibility of innovation. Rose, the protagonist, succumbs to and contests norms imposed on women in the southwestern Ontario township of Huron County during the 1940s to 1970s. This thesis explores Rose surviving punitive social conventions in her cultural context which are contiguous with trauma. For Rose, failure to conform is what Jack Halberstam defines as “queer failure”: it is a triumph of personal authenticity over gender essentialism and an acceptance of human imperfection. In the journey towards self-knowledge, Rose’s surviving trauma and defying gender scripts cause the “sticky affects” of shame and humiliation identified by Amelia DeFalco; the feeling that women are not afforded hope; and, in stressful situations, emotional dissociation and emotional economies, as identified by DeFalco and York. Rose’s marriage fails because of a sadomasochistic power struggle. Rose tarries with disconnection from others and from self; however, she innovates gender and subverts the intergenerational cycle of victimvictimizer by achieving a sense of community and strengthening personal authenticity, which Margaret Atwood says is, for “Munro’s women,” “an essential element, like air.”

From performing gender to symbolic violence in English women’s football: “Women are not supposed to be viewed in this way”

ABSTRACT Research question This paper explores the recollections of twelve women’s physical education experiences in England, and the impact of this on their future footballing opportunities; six of whom went on to become semi-professional footballers and six whom did not continue in football post school life. Research methods The age range of participants in the qualitative study was from 18 to 37 years. These themes were addressed using Bourdieu’s sensitising notions of symbolic violence and collective expectations. Furthermore, the study embeds itself within the broad critical feminist writings of Judith Butler and the theory of gender performativity. Results and findings Following the data collection, reflexive thematic analysis identified limiting narratives of success, sexism, and the significant role that gender played within footballing environments. The study identified key themes around gendered experiences of PE, school sport and community pathways in the context of girls’ and women’s football. Implications The recommendations suggest the promotion of a more inclusive landscape for women and girls’ participation in football, and physical education more broadly, is required if we wish to improve women and girls experiences within the sport.

Una rearticulacion de las imagenes que representan el poder de las distinciones de genero dominantes a traves del teatro feminista chileno

Images about the gender represent a powerful mean of social control, which can be to note through a feminist theater, that has opened the possibility to rethink the way in which gender definitions configure our subjetivity, starting by show the ideological nature of these representations. This effect is produced by revisiting the stereotypes that revolve around the gender, developing a critical view of those definitions, that have been decisive for inducing the social role and the psychological disposition of women. This article will approach a set of chileans plays, that in recent years have tried to reconstruct our notion of the feminine, through a visual proposal that activates the critical potential of some signs drawn from the patriarchal culture, and their gender definitions. To do this, we will support on the theory of gender performativity, exposed by Judith Butler, to think of gender as a do that involve a look, which is strategically expressed in the way that costumes, bodies and gestures, are staged to redefine our image of the feminine gender.

Performing Anti‐Colonial Military Identities in the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, 1943–1945: War, Diasporic Women and Decolonisation

AbstractThe processes by which diasporic colonised Indian women were constituted as anti‐colonial military subjects offer a valuable corrective to the neglected role of colonised women in the scholarship on decolonisation and war. This article addresses how female officers of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment staged and performed anti‐colonial gendered military identities across several novel sites. Reworking Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity, it investigates the punitive consequences and agential possibilities of militarised anti‐colonial performance of gender and considers how anti‐colonial military identities, performed through the body and emotion, reproduced and disrupted gender norms.

L.M. Montgomery and Gender ed. by E. Holly Pike and Laura M. Robinson (review)

Reviewed by: L.M. Montgomery and Gender ed. by E. Holly Pike and Laura M. Robinson Ann F. Howey (bio) L.M. Montgomery and Gender, edited by E. Holly Pike and Laura M. Robinson. McGill-Queen's UP, 2021. Since 1994, when biennial conferences sponsored by the L.M. Montgomery Institute began, numerous edited collections have appeared that have developed out of and expanded on conference themes. Such collections include L.M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture (after the 1996 conference; edited by Irene Gammel and Elizabeth R. Epperley, U of Toronto P, 1999), L.M. Montgomery and Popular Culture (after the 2000 conference; edited by Gammel, U of Toronto P, 2002), The Intimate Life of L.M. Montgomery (after the 2004 conference; edited by Gammel, U of Toronto P, 2005), Storm and Dissonance (after the 2006 conference; edited by Jean Mitchell, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008), and Anne Around the World (after the 2008 conference; edited by Jane Ledwell and Mitchell, McGill-Queen's U P, 2013). L.M. Montgomery and Gender, with its genesis in the 2016 conference, is thus the latest in a distinguished line of edited collections that build on conference [End Page 214] discussions to disseminate scholarship on various aspects of Montgomery's works and life. As the introduction by the editors E. Holly Pike and Laura M. Robinson makes clear, Montgomery's writing invites consideration of gender representation, in part because her most famous novel's protagonist, Anne, is initially unwanted at Green Gables because she is not a boy. The timing of this collection of essays investigating Montgomery and gender—it appears just after a century of women's suffrage in Canada—speaks to ongoing concerns over women's rights and roles, and as many of its articles suggest, Montgomery's own views of such rights and roles were neither static nor simple. The goal of the collection is thus to provide "an exploration of the variety of gender analyses possible in the early twenty-first century" in order to extend the feminist and genderstudies perspectives that have informed much Montgomery scholarship in the past and "to examine how Montgomery's constructions of gender reflect her own historical moment, shape later understandings of gender, and potentially transmogrify when examined through new perspectives" (2). The collection seeks to fulfil its goal through articles that examine constructions of femininity and masculinity, not only in Montgomery's novels, but also in her short fiction and journals. The introduction, "'You Don't Want Me Because I'm Not a Boy': L.M. Montgomery and Gender," establishes context for the articles that follow. Striking about this context is the way it invites consideration of the myriad ways in which the terms "Montgomery" and "gender" intersect. Pike and Robinson provide evidence of Montgomery's attitudes to suffrage and gendered responses to her work (3), such as the recurrent use of "charming" in reviews (4); they also survey the male modernist Canadian literary scene and its response to—and, one might say, its deliberate exclusion of—Montgomery (4–5). In addition to this attention to the way gender informed the context within which Montgomery wrote and within which her writings were received, Pike and Robinson trace the importance of feminist scholarship in the reevaluation of Montgomery and the obstacles faced by early Montgomery scholars, many of them women working within a patriarchal academic establishment in the late 1970s to early 1990s. The introduction then situates the collection within a theoretical context by reviewing Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity and Karen Barad's theory of "the materiality of identity" (10), which productively suggests "the agency of all actors," whether author, reader, or critic (11). Such agency may conflict, however; Pike and Robinson importantly recognize the [End Page 215] resistance that critical readings of Montgomery can face, if such readings counter the desire of fans (and governments and tourism industries) to maintain Anne of Green Gables, in particular, as "the perfect Canadian female archetype" (8). The introduction thus articulates the collection's concern with the ways social constructions of gender affected Montgomery and continue to affect the reception of and the scholarly conversation about her work, as well as investigating representations of...

Gender Performativity of Characters in 2000s Indonesian Novels

This study aims to analyze the gender performativity of lesbian and gay characters in 2000s Indonesian novels. The research is based on Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity with a research design based on a literary sociology approach. Data in the form of quotations are collected by reading and note-taking techniques. The data were analyzed using a hermeneutic model to find out the gender performativity of the characters created by the author. The results showed that the performativity of lesbian and gay characters in the novel included physical and conversation, sexual activity, and homosexual talk. The performance of lesbian and gay figures as a form of gender identity cannot be separated from the coming out process. Lesbian and gay characters will hide their sexual disorders from other characters to maintain their relationship with their environment so that conflicts do not arise. Lesbian and gay characters perform performances as a form of their identity as lesbian and gay. The author created the gender performance of the lesbian and gay characters in the 2000s Indonesian novel to gain self-identity.

Tracing the Influence of Simone de Beauvoir in Judith Butler’s Work

Beauvoir’s existentialist ethics relates to and informs eminently contemporary accounts of feminist ethics in the Western continental feminist canon. To date only a few scholars have emphasized this connection. In this work, I show the centrality of Beauvoirian philosophy to contemporary philosophical discussions by elucidating the influence of Beauvoir’s existentialist ethics on Judith Butler’s feminist philosophy. While I acknowledge other possible influences, especially by French philosophers, on Butler’s work, I find it important to emphasize Beauvoir’s contributions as they have not received the attention they deserve. My paper shows how Beauvoir’s account of agency as an ambiguous becoming reverberates in Butler’s theory of gender performativity developed in her early writings. I consider Butler’s theory of gender performativity to have existentialist roots based on the existentialist perception of the subject as a becoming that never coincides with itself. I also discuss how Butler takes on some basic ethical questions which Beauvoir already accentuates in her writings. I focus on three main points of intersection between the two philosophers, which are vulnerability and interconnectedness, violence and inevitability of ethical failure, and finally the ambiguity and opaqueness that come with situated ethics.

Everything is more difficult when you are different: analysis of the experiences of homosexual students in Physical Education

ABSTRACT The aim of this research is to analyse the experiences of seven homosexual students (four boys and three girls) in Physical Education (PE). Their families are also involved in the study, looking in depth at how their children’s experiences have affected their daily lives throughout their adolescence. A qualitative approach is used, exploring the students’ and families’ perceptions from an analytic approach called ‘thinking with theory’ (Jackson & Mazzei, [2012]. Thinking with theory in qualitative research: Viewing data across multiple perspectives. Routledge), with which we try to highlight the networked functioning connections and tensions between some basic ideas of gender performativity theory and the data obtained from the experiences of the students and their families. The data collection instruments used are interviews with the participants and discussion groups with their families. The results show how the construction and reinforcement of gender roles and stereotypes in PE lead them to reject the subject in many cases. They show how, on many occasions, their role is relegated to the background, presenting certain fears and insecurities about taking the initiative in activities. In some cases, the relationship with their peers is clearly limited, receiving gestures of mockery and insults from others. The families admit to having suffered a lot at certain times during their children’s schooling. They explain that there is still a long way to go to achieve true acceptance and inclusion in PE .

Construction of Gender in Two Chinese Translations of Little Women

This paper aims to explore the influence of the translators’ sexual difference on their construction of gender identity in the two translations of Little Women written by Louisa May Alcott. The influence of the translators’ gender on the translations is a controversial topic. However, most of gender and translation studies have been done from a restricted feminist translation viewpoint. Based on Judith Butler’s gender performativity theory, this paper thus takes the two Chinese translations of Little Women as examples to explore the differences between the male and female translators and their gender constructions in the translations. This paper adopts a critical discourse analysis of the source text and the translations of the characterisation of the female characters and the gendered discourses in Little Women. Focus of this paper is on the translator’s paratextual elements as well. Since these approaches have rarely been applied in Chinese translation studies, this paper opens more discussion on the gender constructions of translators. It shows that the translators’ translation strategies reflect the association of gender with their own gender identity in the translations. However, further research is needed to expand the scope of the data size to include the analysis of multiple translations by different groups of translators of different genders, to explore the operational mechanisms of translation activities and the ways how translation render or even construct gender identities.