Throughout the various posts in this blog we’ve explored the pressure of performativity in literature and life, and examined how gender performativity enforces traditional gender role stereotypes that are based on heteronormative values (See the terminology page for a refresher on bold terms). The pressure to perform an ideal, normative female identity exists strongly in Western society and is a tremendous pressure experienced by girls and women. The pressure to perform the acceptable expression of an ideal femininity is so extreme, it is nearly impossible for any woman to meet; who can be sufficiently skinny, attractive, passive, innocent, sexy, and traditional all at the same time in order to be a ‘good woman’?
In Defoe‘s Moll Flanders we saw how the pressure to act out traditional gender expectations was given more societal value than the fight to survive. As Moll fights to survive in the social conditions she experiences by adapting her identity to varying situations, we consistently see society’s negative connotation of Moll’s non-traditional femininity – a woman being active instead of passive is shocking.
In Bechdel’s Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic we saw how the pressure to conform and perform a normative identity of gender and sexuality is strongly enforced. Bechdel’s autobiographical account reveals to us that the pressure to perform starts at a very young age and that it takes a great level of courage to resist social pressure and perform your own identity.
In Eve Ensler’s Emotional Creatures play, we saw emotional effect and vulnerability created by performativity. The script expresses how the pressure to choose a female identity and then adequately perform in society, is challenging, hurtful, and ultimately unjust. From Eve we also see that through resistance, discourses can be broken.
From Judith Butler’s perspective on the construction of gender through performativity, we have been enlightened and given a new critical perspective to approach notions of gender and sexuality in our lives. We can move past the idea of gender as a determinant and rigid feature of our lives, and towards the idea that gender is constructed – meaning we can take control of our performances.
We’ve examined how discourse makes meaning, produces a subject, and legitimizes power – often expressing discourses of gender and sexuality of male/female, dominance/submission, and heterosexual/homosexual. While literature and language is a prominent form of discourse that has historically been one of the main means we’ve come to understand both gender and sexuality, there are two increasingly popular and important forms of discourse prominent in our society today – the media and the online world.
A large portion of time for many individuals is spent consuming media images (television, movies, magazines, advertisements), and engaging in the online world provided by internet sites as well as social media. We are presented with a literally endless amount of ideals of gender and sexuality through these forms of discourse – and an audience so extensively large it has never before been reached. Media forms are translated into multiple languages and the internet is highly accessible from almost any location, creating an alarming level of power in these forms of discourse. And what may be even more alarming is that many of us merely accept media and the web into our lives without ever thinking twice about what we are being presented.
Take a look at this trailer from the documentary Miss Representation that explores how the misrepresentation of women in media, has led to an under representation of women in society – it is an eye opening and insightful piece.
While the pressure to perform a female identity that is both gender stereotypical and heteronormative is tremendous, there is definitely hope that we can change the level of pressure girls and women experience in our society. By acknowledging that social pressure does exist and that the performance expected of women is both misrepresented and unrealistic, we can then critically analyze the discourses that present these ideals of gender and sexuality to us. Critical analysis can lead to new perspectives and action to change the construction of female identity and decreases the pressure of performativity in the lives of girls and women. Knowledge has always been said to be power, but in the discourses of gender and sexuality knowledge is empowering.
During my research for the course Gender, Sexuality, and Literature, as well as for this blog I have been happy to find popular resources that are openly available to provide knowledge, motivation, activism, and empowerment. Here’s a short list of the many sites out there;
This short video clip from THNKR TV discusses why online forms of discourse are important and how they can be used positively to challenge the existing discourses of gender and sexuality in our society. If the fourth wave of feminism has gone digital it allows all of us to be active members in a movement of online activism.
I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to view and contribute to this blog, I have truly had a very positive experience blogging. I hope that I have been able to effectively communicate the role of gender performativity in various forms of discourse that affect our lives. My goal was for this blog to enlighten viewers about the relationship that exists between gender, sexuality, and social performance- and I hope I have succeed in doing so. The pressure to perform the ideal female identity is immense; however our identity is our own, and although it may be difficult we do have the power to choose not to perform society’s expectations.