Gender May Not Be Fixed

Untangling Sex and Gender and Defining Performativity

Sep 20, 2009 Nadia Santiago

Many theorists and scholars believe that gender is not determined by one's sexual anatomy.

Gender has historically been seen as fixed because of its link to sex. Taking a look at the theory of performativity and the gender habits of real people who express themselves differently may help create a different viewpoint of the topic.

Untangling Sex and Gender

The two variables of sex are identified as male and female. Obvious biological differences between men and women, including but not limited to sex anatomy, the ability to give birth, differences in muscle and bone structure, and body mass delineate individuals as belonging to one category or another.

People’s ideas about gender often become intertwined with these typical sex differences. Male becomes paired with masculine, female becomes paired with feminine, and each of these is matched with behaviors and roles for each sex. The very possibility that these classifications may not accurately describe reality is shocking for many who may have never doubted these traditional pairings. But the many scholars, theorists, and researchers are beginning notice that the face of gender is changing.

The Theory of Performativity

In her groundbreaking work, Gender Trouble, Judith Butler wove an elaborate picture of the individual’s actions and behaviors to show that gender is not predetermined or fixed, but rather it is performative. Performativity as she described it is the condition of creating one’s identity through the enactment of the specific roles and behaviors that define it. Gender performativity, or doing gender, is the manning or womaning of oneself through the rehearsal of traditionally masculine (for men) or feminine (for women) behaviors.

Doing Gender Differently

While some people perform actions to maintain their normative status, there are also those who do gender differently. According to Barb J. Burdge, author of Bending Gender, Ending Gender: Theoretical Foundations for Social Work Practice, “Many people deviate from traditional gender norms." In fact, the way people are doing gender in today’s society has led scholar Ellen Cole to write that to a certain extent “nowadays anything goes (lipstick lesbians, biker dykes, vanilla dykes, androgyny, celibacy, porn, queer)."

The problem, Cole says in her Review of End of Gender, is that theorists as well as the general public do “not yet have a theoretical lens that does justice to understanding or explaining the gender shifts of today’s popular culture." Rather than celebrating the discovery of differences, people fear that the loss of these distinctions will make them less manly or womanly.

Looking at Gender Differently

Taking these reactions into account, perhaps it is too extreme to suggest that gender is coming to an end. What may be more appropriate to suggest is that it may no longer be useful to use gender as a dividing line between the sexes, but rather it can and should be used as a form of creativity, expression, and self-exploration.

References

Burdge, B. J. (2007). Bending gender, ending gender: Theoretical foundations for social work practice with the transgender community. Social Work, 52(3), 243-250

Butler, J. (1994). Gender as performance: An interview with Judith Butler. Radical Philosophy, 67, 32-39.

Cole, E. (2007). Review of the end of gender. American Journal of Psychology, 120(3), 505-509.

The copyright of the article Gender May Not Be Fixed in Gay/Gender Issues is owned by Nadia Santiago. Permission to republish Gender May Not Be Fixed in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Gender Is Performative