gender preformativity

This weeks concept of gender preformativity stood out to me as really interesting. 

This idea of gender preformativity was created by Judith Butler, who essentially argues that one’s gender is something that is socially and culturally fabricated by gender norms and roles. In her video she explains that gender being performative means that the ways in which we as individuals present ourselves (through how we walk, talk, dress ect.) put out an image that others perceive. This image that is perceived by others is, then is compared to the socially accepted ideal of what makes a man or a woman. If someone deviates to far or completely away from what that acceptable gender norm is society will often turn against them.

I was drawn to this concept because it really illustrates how complex gender is. The podcast that we listened to at the beginning of the week is what really got me interested in how subjective gender can be. Cristen Conger and Caroline Ervin, the two hosts of Things Mom Never Told You, nicely set up the idea that gender is a spectrum not binary. There is not one right answer to how you can express your gender, there isn’t just male or female, but a whole spectrum of femininity and masculinity. This plays really well with what Butler was saying about how the way we express where we fall on that spectrum is perceived by others, who then create opinions. But it is really hard to tell where the right spot to fall on the spectrum is, and different people can have different ideas of what the best spot is. 

To really examine this problem, I thought that the episode of 30 rock we watched in class would be a great representation of how our gender expression and the way that people receive and interpret our gender is heavily constructed by our culture, but also our own individual biases. 

Men and women can interpret these gender roles or norms differently. When we look at the how the men and the women in the 30 Rock respond to the introduction of the guest writer, Abby Flynn, to the team. The men have absolutely no problem with the way that she acts out her gender while the women are mostly horrified and attempt to change her to fit what they believe is the best way to represent the female gender. 

The men automatically try to change themselves and the way that they dress and act in order to better fit a model of masculinity that will attract Abby to them. One attempts to act rich, the other a “bad boy” and the third adopts a british accent in hopes of seeming interesting because of the foreign accent. They believe that these are the qualities that women find the most attractive and best represent the masculine side of the gender spectrum. What I found really interesting about this, is they never really seek to alter their appearance, besides a wardrobe change. Contrast this with how Abby completely changes her appearance in order to seem more appealing. I argue that this is because the men believe that the rich, bad boy and foreign personas are all they need in order to get her attention. Before they even meet her they decide that they don’t need to prove their intelligence or share the same morals and beliefs as her, all they need to do is show off their new personalities. This ties back to what Butler was saying about performing a gender and it being performative because they have been told through society that those new personas are the defining factors of masculinity. 

The women do not respond as positively to Abby’s arrival as the men do. I will admit at first I was with Tina Fey (Liz), I found Abby ’s clothes, voice and jokes (innuendos) cringe worthy. Most of the episode I cheered Liz on as she attempted to get Allyson to speak in her normal voice, but when Liz finally confronted her about it I realized that my attitude was part of the problem. 

When the women in 30 Rock feel that Abby has deviated to far from how they think she should present herself they turn against her. One reason for this could be because of the reason Jack gives at the beginning of the episode, that women are programed to compete against each other. Which I believe for Jenna could be her main motivation. However, for Liz, Abby had gone to far away from what Liz believes is the proper way a woman should behave. This is shown when the two are talking in the park and Liz says that she is embarrassed as a woman because Abby wasn’t representing her gender well. Liz has the right intentions and doesn’t mean to be malicious or harm Abby in any way, however she doesn’t understand that there is no right answer  to how a gender should be portrayed only the one that we construct in our heads based on our experiences and society. 

This interaction is what has led me to believe that the its not just the ideal that society and culture project that shapes the way we look at gender and if people are conforming or not. To me it is a much more individual evaluation. As Judith Butler argues, gender preformativity has a lot to do with how people respond to your expression of gender, and people responded differently to Abby. The men in the show were totally fine with the way she acted and dressed, but that does not represent how all men would have responded if they were introduced to a female similar to Abby. The women really portray the idea that it is more individual, because they all had different reactions to Abby’s expression of gender but those reactions had different roots. As I addressed before, Jenna was more upset because there was a woman acting the same way she was and she didn’t want the competition, where as Liz thought of Abby’s behavior as embarrassing and a poor representation of how her gender should be shown. For Liz, she would have preferred someone to express themselves more like she does. The one person that I have not looked at yet is the character of Sue, who is the only woman who is accepting of Abby’s presence. Sue is really interesting because the show hint that her acceptance is based off of a sexual attraction to Abby like the men, however she does not attempt to change herself radically (or at all) in order to get Abby’s attention, something that sets her apart from the men. 

Do you think that media needs to be more representational of how men and women would respond to a person like Abby? Or does the episode address the larger societal response well enough? 

I got into this a bit when I addressed how the men responded to Abby. I don’t think that the show fully represented how men would treat Abby, but I do think they represent the larger societal notion that women should look a certain way. I guess the bigger question then is: should media represent what is the general and overall attitude or should it strive to include different reactions?   For me I think a show, even a satrical one like 30 rock loses a lot when they only try to show two reactions to how a person presents their gender. I would have loved to have seen how Abby would have responded to a man who didn’t like her gender expression, or what it would have looked like to have a woman reach out and be friendly towards her without an ulterior motive like Liz had, or sexually aggressive like Sue. I don’t know if thats even possible for a short show like 30 Rock to even incorporate that but it would have been much more interesting and thought provoking, and not to mention realistic if there had been different reactions shown. 

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Here is the episode that we watched in class