The Performance of Gender Within Society

Everything that we do in our everyday life is a performance. From the way we dress, talk, and act we are performing our idea of who we want to be. This is why Judith Butler believes that our gender should be looked at as a performance as well. Butler’s use of feminists’ views on sex and gender, the constant performance of gender within society, and the gender binary construct all help her to further support her views that gender should be seen as performative rather than as a biological fact.

Feminists believe that sex should be distinguished separately from gender, this supports Butler’s views that the biology of an individual should not determine their gender. To further support her beliefs, Butler uses Simone de Beauvoir’s claim from The Second Sex, “women,’ and by extension, any gender is a historical situation rather than a natural fact” (Butler 520). Beauvoir’s claim describes how history has created the ideas of gender within society. Because history has taught us that we need to perform acts of gender, we have come to believe that one’s biology determines whether or not they are male or female. We as a society further push this performance because history has taught us that this is how it must be done. However, Butler describes to us that gender and sex should be seen as two separate entities, gender is not a biological fact, it is simply a performance that we as a society put on every day.

Gender is constantly being performed within society, Butler describes this performance as, “...one does one’s body” (Butler 521). This describes the idea that one performs the gender associated with the biology that they were born with - which Butler disagrees with. This idea can also be connected to “the doing of gender,” Butler explains this in relation to the body, “...the body is a historical situation, as Beauvoir has claimed, and is a manner, dramatizing, and reproducing a historical situation” (Butler 521). When one is performing gender they are reinforcing the ideas that they have learned about gender from historical situations. Because history has engraved gender roles into us for centuries, we simply follow the gender roles that have been made for us. Consequently, anyone who does not follow these gender norms is punished by a society which is why Butler claims that “...gender is a performance with clearly punitive consequences” (Butler 522). If one does not act like a man or woman corresponding to their biology they are looked down upon. For example, Betsy Lucal has experienced the consequences of not following gender norms first hand stating, “I am a woman who has been called “Sir” so many times that I no longer even hesitate to assume that it is being directed at me. I am a woman whose use of public restrooms regularly causes reactions ranging from confused stares to confrontations over what a man is doing in the women’s room” (Lucal 781). Because of Lucal’s choice to rebel against gender, she is constantly being isolated from society supporting Butler’s claims that the performance of gender has dire consequences within society. Similarly, Michael Messner’s story that he tells in Becoming 100 Percent Straight also shines light on these consequences when he says, “Perhaps the extremely high levels of homophobia that are often endemic in boys’ and men’s organized sports led me to deny and repress my own homoerotic desire through a direct and overt rejection of Timmy” (Messner 67). Because boys are taught from a young age to be masculine, aggressive, and straight homosexuality is shunned. The performance of gender pushes the idea of heterosexuality and further causes people to act in a way they are meant to act rather than act true to who they really are. As one can see gender is constantly being performed within society which is why Butler believes that gender should be independent of biological fact.

The existence of the gender binary construct further enforces the performance of gender in society by creating two distinct entities of feminine and masculine that people are expected to follow. Butler states that a gender binary is put in place in order to guarantee the reproduction of cultural and sexual reproduction in reference to heterosexual marriages placing humans in specific genders which guarantee the reproduction of this kinship system (Butler 524). The gender binary forces individuals to abide by the gender norms, although Butler sees the gender binary as unnatural. Butler believes that the binary is simply trying to cater to reproductive interests and is not in line with contemporary gender identities. In order to change these repetitive and ritualized acts which produce the performance of gender many are trying to instill a new form of repetition by performing opposite to that of their ‘assigned’ genders. By doing so, they are able to challenge the binary gender system similar to the ways that ‘gender-bending’ or homosexuality challenge the binary. Lucal’s objectives differ from that of Butler’s in what they are both attempting to protest against. While Butler is attempting to protest gender itself by rebelling against it, Lucal is seeking to protest masculinity and femininity under the patriarchy in order to completely demolish the binary gender system. Rather than rebelling against gender which Lucal believes only further supports the binary and keeps the performance of gender alive.

Through Butler’s use of feminist views on sex and gender, the constant performance of gender in everyday life, and the gender binary construct she is able to portray to the audience how much of a performance in society gender truly is, and show that gender should be a completely separate entity from biological fact.