Category: Gender Performativity

In the Murky discourse that surrounds “Bathroom Bills” the overall humanity of the subjects of such bills has been lost. We’ve moved away from empathy and dived headlong into specious claims and assertions with little to no backing. It is important to keep in mind the worth and value of trans people and their right to human dignity. In this paper I’ll focus on trans students’ right to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity and the importance of having their gender affirmed by their community and school faculty.

What is gender? How do we define it and what does it mean to be transgender? Ostensibly gender is a categorical binary of the sexes, an identifier predicated on our own sexual dimorphism. But that is not the whole picture, that only covers sex. gender is far more reaching and complex than our own sexual dimorphism. For instance, gender impacts our social and private life’s, it can, in some subtle ways, impact the course of our life e.g. what careers we’re presented with and expected to aspire to. Gender is more than our sex, it’s the cultural, social and individual identity of a person. To be transgender is to not identify with the gender that you were assigned at birth, this displacement can be referred to as gender dysphoria. Most trans people than go on to transition socially and/or medically. Gender goes beyond your genitals and trans people’s choice to transition not only medically but socially as well shows this.

Gender Performativity is a phrase coined by academic Judith Butler, on the subject she has said “In this sense, gender is in no way a stable identity or locus of agency from which various acts proceed; rather, it is an identity tenuously constituted in time – an identity instituted through a stylish repetition of acts.” (J. Butler, 1988). Judith clarifies and says that performativity should be thought as or compared to an illocutionary act (J. Butler, 1988), insofar that our performance of our gender produces a process that we capitulate to i.e. identifying and “preforming” as a woman or man causes the world to treat you as such, regardless of biological sex. Additionally, we slowly build a gender identity through this repetitious act, some are content with this illocution while others are not, they do not identify with their assigned gender and usually decide to transition. Coming back to Judith Butler, Judith in no ways disregards the materiality of our bodies but instead posits that both the materiality of our bodies and immateriality of our gender have a delicate relationship (Butler, 1993, p. 110-111). While we can’t ignore the materiality of the body, we also can’t ignore the immateriality of gender and the acute position trans youth are in and how we can help them.

We must help trans youth because of the challenges and barriers they face as they navigate from adolescences to adulthood. Where ever trans youths turn they face challenges that range from classroom bullying, unsupportive parents, suicide ideation and lastly to poor access to trans related health-care (Grossman, D’augelli, 2006). It is important to foster a safe and affirming environment for trans students because of the disproportionate rate at which they experience mental illness and/or self-destructive behaviour (Connolly, Zervos, Barone, Johnson, Joseph. 2016). We must work to depreciate difference between trans youths and their peers, a step towards that would be respecting trans youths gender identity with regards to the public bathrooms.

Bullying is wide ranging and many children must undergo and endure a process of bullying in their life time, even more so for trans youths and students in some cases. Bullying can lead to further isolation for a trans student which in turn can lead to the self-destructive behaviours previously mentioned. But bullying goes beyond what happens in classrooms and school hallways and can lead to long term negative affects on its victim’s health and ability to properly function as an adult i.e. they may not be able to formulate lasting relationships, integrating into work and being economically independent (Wolke, Lereya. 2015). Trans youth can face discrimination for things other than their gender identity. This creates a disadvantaged group with many and various reasons why they may become at risk (Daley, Solomon, Newman & Mishna. 2007). The importance of affirming a trans students’ gender shouldn’t be understated, whether it’s using proper pronouns or allowing access to corresponding bathroom facilities, school faculty have a responsibility to ensure the safety and prosperity of their students.

Support and resources for trans youths is necessary but unfortunately access to such necessities is not always possible for them. Some clinics may be ill-equipped to deal with the needs of trans youths, this continues to affect them as they age and may contribute to any isolation or depression they may be feeling. One journal article has described the barriers trans youth face when looking for resources in medical care facilities:

1. few accessible pediatric providers are trained in gender-affirming health care;
2. lack of consistently applied protocols;
3. inconsistent use of chosen name/pronoun;
4. uncoordinated care and gatekeeping;
5. limited/delayed access to pubertal blockers and cross-sex hormones;
6. insurance exclusions.

With proper resources and care trans youth can be given the same possibility of success as any other youth and/or student. A part of helping trans youth can happen in the school, keep in mind how important it is to affirm a trans youth’s gender identity, the use of a trans youth’s chosen name has been linked to a decrease in negative mental health (Russell, Pollitt, Li & Grossman 2016). Teacher can become supports and push their trans students to success as allies, but first they must start with advocacy of trans rights in the classroom.

Trans rights and acceptance in Canada have seemed to make progress with Bill C-16, a bill that includes gender expression and gender identity as prohibited grounds of discrimination (Parliament of Canada. 2017). With the passing of this bill into law there has been no increase of bathroom assaults or persecutions of freedom of speech, like some critics have stated (Crossman. 2018). The framing of such bills as “Bathrooms Bills” relies on stereotyping and the dehumanizing of trans women as predators, but rarely any mention of trans men and where they may fit in the context of this view on gender and bathroom relations. (Schilt, Westbrook. 2015). Fortunately, Bill C-16 gives precedence for school faculty to make space and considerations for trans students, fostering in a more inclusive school that harbours successful and healthy students and dispels stereotyping and specious claims.

As the Equity and Inclusive Education policy from Bluewater District School Board states “Bluewater District School Board is committed to racial equity, and the principles of fairness and equity as essential principles in our school system, reflected through inclusive policies/procedures, programs, services, curriculum, and operations, in accordance with the Ontario Human Rights Code, the Education Act, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and board policy BP 7520-D “Human Rights” (Bluewater District School Board. 2010). Later they include a sub header about definitions, one of which is titled diversity which includes gender identity. With local schools including in policies the need to protect and implement trans rights in their school boards can help ensure the safety of trans youths, if the school board take the responsibility seriously and take the necessary steps to affirm and protect trans students. One step being allowing trans students to use the washroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

Trans youths face many barriers in their life with restrictions to bathrooms in public spaces being just one of them. It’s the right of the trans student to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity and school faculty can go a long way to help trans students feel affirmed and safe in their school. Trans youths struggle with the fickle nature of gender, are faced with barriers and discrimination at school, in the public and possibly at home. They have their rights bartered over in parliament and the public discourse, but Canada has taken steps towards a more inclusive future and school boards can have a hand in that as well.

Gender performativity restricts an individual from reaching their full potential. Those gendered as women are obliged to be feminine and derive self-definition from the way in which they subscribe to feminine norms. Yet these norms frequently relegate them to secondary or submissive roles. In the novels Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, they successfully expose the complex atrocities that emerge from sexual hierarchies. They both exhibit the representation of female gender roles as women who are simply subordinate than men, where women cannot vote, own property or inherit land and wealth, have jobs or do anything else that might allow them to be independent and thereby undermine men.

The greatest power one can hold is autonomy, especially in regards to one’s sexuality. However, this power is ever rarely shared equitably. Gender biases frame the viewing of men as wage-earners and household chores as a woman’s domain. Women are responsible for domestic chores such as cleaning, ironing, dusting, and cooking, whereas men carry out the provider role, taking the perceptible form of income. While housework provides no given salary, women are understood to live off of their husband’s earnings, giving them a lower social status. Paid work has facilitated men’s egalitarian outlook by providing them with power and a sense of fulfillment, dominating women. However, many women dislike the stay-at-home lifestyle and are better suited in other areas but regrettably aren’t given the choice to venture into other fields. In The Handmaid’s Tale, the handmaid’s are permitted to go anywhere within the town that they want, as long as they stay within their boundaries when the text expresses that “A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze” (Atwood 165). Similar to the rats, the handmaid’s are oblivious to how much control they are under. The idea of escaping doesn’t interest them as they aren’t longing to go elsewhere. Atwood suggests that there is a vast contrast between minor and maximum freedom. While the handmaids are given slight liberty, they shouldn’t settle for anything less than full independence, much like in our physical world.

Women should pursue whatever makes them feel most comfortable and content, regardless of any barriers society constructs. In both novels, women are limited to the role as child-bearers, in societies that don’t allow mothers a role in the job industry. Men believe that if women were secluded as only child bearers and not given the ability to explore other options, then they could be more easily manipulated and their potential for power would be suppressed. In Things Fall Apart, gender stereotypes severely shape the entire village, where members of the Igbo society follow these obligations so closely; women stay at home completing domestic tasks while men perform the ‘difficult’ work such as hunting for food. Since men are classified by their strength, they undertake the hard labor as women aren’t supposed to be doing tasks that rely on muscularity and power. So, when Ezinma pauses and says “Can I bring your chair for you?” and Okonkwo replies “No, that is a boy’s job…..” (Achebe 45), he doesn’t allow her to do even the easiest task of carrying his chair to the festival because it is viewed as a man’s job.

The central way that men and women are treated antithetically in the community is by their human sexuality, as a person’s role profoundly influences his or her position in society. There are a set of expectations that society has defined, that are expected to be followed. Women are called to be passive, nurturers, emotional, sensitive and homemakers. While men are aggressive, competitive, confident, stoic and breadwinners. An assumption is made that once a child is born and their gender is declared, that child is compelled to act like its gender. There is a projected notion that these gender roles are attached to our biological sex, despite the fact that masculinity and femininity are not inherent. “Sit like a woman! Okonkwo shouted at her. Ezinma brought her two legs together and stretched them in front of her” (Achebe 32). Gender is so emphasized in Things Fall Apart so it angers her father when Ezinma does not sit like a woman and displays unfeminine actions. Being told to ‘sit like a girl’ and ‘act like a man’ mean two completely different things. To ‘sit like a girl’ is associated with acting dainty and polite, while to ‘act like a man means to be aggressive, strong and confident, declaring that these characteristics cannot be shared between both genders. In both novels, women are the weaker sex but are bestowed with qualities that make them virtuous of reverence, such as the ability to bear children. This capability is exceedingly valuable because if women weren’t able to conceive children, there wouldn’t be future generations, thus no future for the world. This provides both self-confidence and assurance due to their pivotal role. A woman’s body can be perceived of great superiority as it holds the ability to bear children, therefore childbirth gives women power. A man’s body cannot do so, therefore makes men appear weak.

However, males have dominated in leadership positions, so any empowerment coming from females are seen as a threat. In order for men to equipoise for their lost power, they utilize the female capacity to give birth for their own personal and sexual gain. This was done through arranged marriages, slavery, sexual assault etcetera. Many women, however, did not want to carry children, wanting to pursue a career, but had no other option besides motherhood due to the social and economic restrictions placed upon them.

Women are chattels of men – belonging to their husbands and providing for them in all sorts. Whether that be through sexual pleasures, preparing meals, taking care of the baby, a woman needs to be a submissive wife, and her feelings and desires are often neglected. Today’s popular literature such as pornography depicts women solely as creatures of the bedroom, giving them little to zero value and respect. It’s important to combat this patriarchy, in order to recognized as women, and not objects, where our society is free of misogyny and values women and their freedom, in lieu of oppressing them. There is a significant section in The Handmaid’s Tale where Offred lies in the bath and reflects on life before Gilead, on how her body was an instrument she once controlled, she “used to think of [her] body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of [her] will….” (Atwood 84). Now, her body is nothing more than a uterus. Her only purpose is childbearing. Which is why she despises going through her menstruation cycle as that indicates her failure to conceive. The handmaids aren’t given any worth nor importance, they have one sole function that determines their value. Women produce their own misfortune while men are never at fault, “If a woman cannot have children or miscarries, it is not because of any sterility or medicinal issues—it is because the woman is contaminated and full of sin” (Atwood 61). Women are taught that they are the single cause of any negative action that transpires in their lives.

Gender roles regulate how men and women should think, speak, dress and interact with society. They are adopted during childhood and continue into adulthood. This creates an evident distinction and power imbalance between male and female. This gender enforcement gives women no choice but to comply with their own oppression and carry out society’s idea of gender, restraining females opportunities by encapsulating their skills and competence which they will never be able to use to their advantage.

Image is everything? It may. Clothes are everything. They may. What about our hair? These are the questions that were raised while I was watching the romantic comedy on Netflix, ‘Nappily ever after. Nappily, not happy because the main character discovers true happiness only after a nap; an eyes-opening sleep that changed her view on life and perfection.

The main plot of the movie seems quite commonplace. Violet Jones (Sanaa Lathan) has a perfect life: perfect job, perfect boyfriend, and most of all, perfect hair. But one life-changing situation makes her realize that she was not living the life she was longing for. Under all this simple action, the subtext of the movie is much more interesting. (Netflix, web)

From the very beginning, we met Violet waking up from her sleep, starting to fix her make-up, and her hair, only to return to bed so her boyfriend can find himself next to a perfect woman. This looked quite exaggerated to me. Why would she do that? Furthermore, in the movie, we find out that her mother implied this obsession to her from childhood to adulthood. The idea that a woman with hair like hers (the specific afro-American hair) cannot be taken seriously in a world dominated by white beauty standards. (Hollywood Reporter, web)

The mother transformed the whole process of flat-ironing the hair into a traumatic one. Violet was supposed to stand hours of ironing, brushing, and avoiding water no matter what. She could not have fun, enjoy herself or do activities that may ruin her perfect hair. (Netflix, com) This falls into trauma studies. We have a character who has been subject to a psychological trauma that shaped her adult life. She was not allowed to accept her hair, a symbol of her race and identity, and had to adapt herself to a society where she could survive only by wearing a mask. Paulette (Lynn Whitfield), the mother, has the same obsession and views that were transmitted to her daughter, and, for her, everything resumes to looking perfect.

Violet and Paulette’s behavior can also be seen from the point of view of gender performativity. The mother expects her daughter to be feminine, to act like a lady, and most of all, to look like one. She teaches her how to dress, how to make up, and how to arrange her hair which is the defining element for her. She criticizes her daughter when she tries something different and goes through trauma when Violet gets drunk and shaves her hair. This is the most cathartic episode of the movie when after a girl destroys her hair she goes through different changes (fake hair, short blond hair) and it culminates with drunkenness that will end up with her shaving all her hair. The morning after finds Violet struggling with the new situation. She feels lost, imperfect, and not capable of showing off her new hairdo. She does not feel feminine anymore and starts to hide. (Netflix, com)

Will (Liriq Bent) and his daughter Zoe (Daria Johns) will represent a turning point in Violet’s life. They will teach her how to accept herself and wear her hair with pride. Their relationship will be more of a spiritual kind with teachings that eventually will lead to the woman’s awakening. We can say that Violet goes through the return of the repressed. She has been repressing all her life her true self eventually returned when she is middle-aged as a middle-aged crisis. The jump in the pool at the engagement party is also a sign of Violet’s prohibited childhood memory that now is returning to her as an act of self-acceptance and self-confidence despite her mother’s view on it. (Wikipedia, web) She realizes that she has been faking all the time and that she wants something else.

Violet’s first boyfriend, Clint (Ricky Whittle), is also a supporter of gender performativity. He expects his girlfriend to be as feminine as possible, but rejects her when she is trying to be herself. His statement about their relationship, that he felt as going to the first date for two years, makes her realize that trying too much to be perfect only results in looking fake and unnatural. She returns again to him after leaving Will only to strengthen up the image that she lived in a world full of stereotypes. He supposedly accepts her as she is, but asks her to change her hair at a party. This episode awakens something in Violet that will lead to her full detachment of him and the returning to her dream to live her life, not the lives of the others.

On the other hand, Violet’s father is one of her supporters, encouraging her to be herself, her best self. Richard (Ernie Hudson) and his wife are in bad terms since he quit his job and started a career in modeling. (Wikipedia, web) He is the best example for her to do what she likes and what makes her happy. The father figure in this movie is an important key in her decision to live her life, not the mother.

The movie is full of dramatic moments that shaped the character of Violet Jones. A struggling African-American woman that does not find her place in a world where the image is everything. From her childhood through adulthood she has been taught to act as someone else, the thing that will eventually drive her to an identity crisis. Who is Violet Jones? We may never find out, but she does by the end of the movie.

Works Cited

1. https://www.netflix.com/search?q=happily&jbv=80189630&jbp=0&jbr=0
2. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/nappily-ever-review-1148103
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nappily_Ever_After
4. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365545/fullcredits (for actors names)