Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist
Theory
Author(s): Judith Butler
Source: Theatre Journal, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Dec., 1988), pp. 519-531
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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PerformativeActs and Gender
Constitution:An Essay in Phenomenology
and FeministTheory
Judith Butler
thinkaboutactingin thetheatrical
sense,buttheydo havea
Philosophers
rarely
associativesemanticmeaningswiththeoriesof
discourseof 'acts' thatmaintains
and acting.Forexample,JohnSearle's'speechacts,'thoseverbalasperformance
but
whichseemnotonlytorefer
toa speakingrelationship,
surancesand promises
a moralbondbetweenspeakers,
one oftheillocutionary
toconstitute
illustrate
gesthestageoftheanalytic
oflanguage.Further,
'action
turesthatconstitutes
philosophy
a
to
what
it
is
'to
do'
domain
of
moral
seeks
understand
theory,'
prior
philosophy,
thephenomenological
toanyclaimofwhatoneought
todo. Finally,
of'acts,'
theory
and GeorgeHerbert
Mead,
espousedbyEdmundHusserl,MauriceMerleau-Ponty
in
to
the
mundane
which
constitute
seeks
social
others,
among
explain
way
agents
socialrealitythroughlanguage,gesture,and all mannerof symbolic
socialsign.
the
a choosing
sometimes
to
existence
of
assume
Thoughphenomenology
appears
and constituting
the
ofitsconto
as
sole
source
agentprior language(whoposes
there
a
radical
the
is
also
more
use
of
doctrine
of
constitution
that
acts),
stituting
rather
takesthesocialagentas an object
thanthesubjectofconstitutive
acts.
WhenSimonede Beauvoir
a woman,"
becomes
claims,"oneis notborn,but,rather,
she is appropriating
and reinterpreting
ofconstituting
actsfromthe
thisdoctrine
In thissense,genderis in no waya stableidentity
tradition.'
or
phenomenological
locusofagencyfromwhichvariousactsproceede;rather,
itis an identity
tenuously
constituted
intime-an identity
a stylized
instituted
through
repetition
ofacts.Further,
thestylization
ofthebodyand,hence,mustbe undergenderis instituted
through
stoodas themundanewayin whichbodilygestures,
and enactments
movements,
ofvariouskindsconstitute
theillusionofan abidinggenderedself.Thisformulation
at GeorgeWashington
She is the
University.
JudithButleris an Assistant
Professor
ofPhilosophy
in Twentieth-Century
authorofSubjectsof Desire: HegelianReflection
France.Shehas
and gendertheory.
publishedarticlesin post-structuralist
'For a furtherdiscussion of Beauvoir's feministcontributionto phenomenological theory,see my
"Variationson Sex and Gender: Beauvoir's The SecondSex," Yale FrenchStudies172 (1986).
519
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520
/ Judith
Butler
moves theconceptionof genderoffthe groundof a substantialmodel ofidentityto
socialtemporality.
ifgender
one thatrequiresa conceptionofa constituted
Significantly,
then
the
is institutedthroughacts whichare internally
discontinuous,
appearance
of
substance
is preciselythat,a constructedidentity,a performative
accomplishment
whichthemundanesocialaudience,includingtheactorsthemselves,cometobelieve
in themode ofbelief.Ifthegroundofgenderidentityis the stylized
and to perform
of
acts
throughtime,and not a seeminglyseamless identity,then the
repetition
relationbetween
aretobe foundin thearbitrary
of
possibilities gendertransformation
in
the
a
of
of
different
sort
such acts, in the possibility
repeating,
breakingor subversiverepetitionof thatstyle.
Throughthe conceptionof genderacts sketchedabove, I will tryto show some
ways in whichreifiedand naturalizedconceptionsof gendermightbe understood
In oppositionto
as constitutedand, hence,capable ofbeingconstituteddifferently.
theatricalor phenomenologicalmodels whichtake the genderedselfto be priorto
the identityof
acts not only as constituting
its acts, I will understandconstituting
thatidentityas a compellingillusion,an objectofbelief.
theactor,but as constituting
In thecourse of makingmyargument,I will draw fromtheatrical,
anthropological,
toshow thatwhatis called
and philosophicaldiscourses,butmainlyphenomenology,
compelledby social sanctionand
accomplishment
genderidentityis a performative
resides the possibilityof contestingits
taboo. In its verycharacteras performative
reifiedstatus.
I. Sex/Gender:Feministand PhenomenologicalViews
Feministtheoryhas oftenbeen criticalof naturalistic
explanationsof sex and sexualitythatassume thatthemeaningofwomen's socialexistencecan be derivedfrom
sex fromgender,feministtheorists
some factof theirphysiology.In distinguishing
have disputedcausal explanationsthatassume thatsexdictatesornecessitatescertain
social meaningsforwomen's experience.Phenomenologicaltheoriesof humanembodimenthave also been concernedto distinguishbetweenthevariousphysiological
thatemand biologicalcausalitiesthatstructure
bodilyexistenceand the meanings
bodied existenceassumes in the contextof lived experience.In Merleau-Ponty's
on "the body in its sexual being,"he
in ThePhenomenology
reflections
ofPerception
takesissue withsuch accountsofbodilyexperienceand claimsthatthebody is "an
it is this claim that
historicalidea" ratherthan "a naturalspecies."2Significantly,
Simonede Beauvoircitesin TheSecondSexwhen she setsthestageforherclaimthat
situationratherthana natural
"woman,"and byextension,anygender,is an historical
fact.3
of thematerialor naturaldimensions
In bothcontexts,the existenceand facticity
of the body are not denied, but reconceivedas distinctfromthe processby which
the body comes to bear culturalmeanings.For both Beauvoirand Merleau-Ponty,
trans.
ofPerception,
2MauriceMerleau-Ponty,"The Body in its Sexual Being," in ThePhenomenology
Colin Smith (Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1962).
3Simonede Beauvoir, The SecondSex, trans. H. M. Parshley(New York:Vintage, 1974), 38.
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PERFORMANCEACTS AND GENDER CONSTITUTION / 521
the body is understoodto be an activeprocess of embodyingcertainculturaland
historicalpossibilities,a complicatedprocess of appropriationwhichany phenomenologicaltheoryofembodimentneeds to describe.In orderto describethegendered
body, a phenomenologicaltheoryof constitution
requiresan expansionof the conventionalview ofactsto meanboththatwhichconstitutes
meaningand thatthrough
whichmeaningis performedor enacted. In otherwords, the acts by whichgender
is constitutedbear similaritiesto performative
acts withintheatricalcontexts.My
task,then,is toexamineinwhatwaysgenderis constructed
throughspecificcorporeal
of genderthrough
acts, and what possibilitiesexistforthe culturaltransformation
such acts.
Merleau-Pontymaintainsnot onlythatthe body is an historicalidea but a set of
possibilitiesto be continuallyrealized.In claimingthatthebodyis an historicalidea,
Merleau-Pontymeans thatit gains its meaningthrougha concreteand historically
mediatedexpressionin the world.Thatthebody is a set of possibilitiessignifies(a)
thatitsappearanceintheworld,forperception,is notpredetermined
bysomemanner
of interioressence, and (b) thatits concreteexpressionin the world must be understoodas the takingup and renderingspecificof a set of historicalpossibilities.
Hence, thereis an agency which is understoodas the process of renderingsuch
possibilitiesdeterminate.These possibilitiesare necessarilyconstrainedby available
historicalconventions.The body is nota self-identical
or merelyfacticmateriality;
it
is a materiality
thatbears meaning,ifnothingelse, and the mannerof thisbearing
is fundamentally
dramatic.By dramaticI mean only thatthe body is not merely
matterbut a continualand incessantmaterializing
of possibilities.One is not simply
a body, but, in some verykey sense, one does one's body and, indeed, one does
one's body differently
fromone's contemporaries
and fromone's embodiedpredecessorsand successorsas well.
It is, however,clearlyunfortunate
grammarto claimthatthereis a 'we' or an 'I'
thatdoes its body, as ifa disembodiedagencyprecededand directedan embodied
exterior.
Moreappropriate,I suggest,would be a vocabularythatresiststhesubstance
and reliesinsteadon an ontologyofpresent
formations
metaphysicsof subject-verb
The
that
is
its
of
'I'
participles.
body is, necessity,a mode of embodying,and the
that
it
embodies
is
'what'
possibilities.Buthereagain thegrammaroftheformulation
for
the
exterioror
misleads,
possibilitiesthatare embodied are not fundamentally
antecedentto the process of embodyingitself.As an intentionally
organizedmateriality,the body is always an embodyingofpossibilitiesboth conditionedand circumscribedbyhistorical
convention.In otherwords,thebodyisa historicalsituation,
as Beauvoirhas claimed,and is a mannerof doing, dramatizing,and reproducing
a
historicalsituation.
To do, to dramatize,to reproduce,these seem to be some of the elementary
structuresof embodiment.This doing of genderis not merelya way in whichembodied agentsare exterior,surfaced,open to theperceptionof others.Embodiment
clearlymanifestsa set ofstrategiesor whatSartrewould perhapshave called a style
of being or Foucault,"a stylisticsof existence."This styleis neverfullyself-styled,
forlivingstyleshave a history,and thathistoryconditionsand limitspossibilities.
Considergender,forinstance,as a corporeal
style,an 'act,' as it were, whichis both
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522
/ Judith
Butler
and performative,
where'performative'
intentional
itselfcarriesthedouble-meaning
of 'dramatic'and 'non-referential.'
When Beauvoirclaimsthat'woman' is a historicalidea and nota naturalfact,she
betweensex, as biologicalfacticity,
and gender,
clearlyunderscoresthe distinction
orsignification
ofthatfacticity.
To be femaleis, according
as theculturalinterpretation
a facticity
whichhas no meaning,but to be a woman is to have
to thatdistinction,
a woman,to compelthebody to conformto an historicalidea of 'woman,' to
become
induce thebody to becomea culturalsign,to materializeoneselfin obedienceto an
and to do thisas a sustainedand repeatedcorporeal
delimitedpossibility,
historically
a
forceofa radical
The
notion
of
project.
'project',however,suggeststheoriginating
will,and because genderis a projectwhichhas culturalsurvivalas itsend, theterm
bettersuggeststhe situationof duress under which genderperformance
'strategy'
ofsurvival,genderis a performance
and
variouslyoccurs.Hence,as a strategy
always
withclearlypunitiveconsequences.Discretegendersare partof what 'humanizes'
individualswithincontemporary
culture;indeed, thosewho failto do theirgender
thereis neitheran 'essence' thatgenderexBecause
are
right regularlypunished.
ideal
towhichgenderaspires;because gender
nor
an
or
externalizes
objective
presses
is nota fact,thevariousactsofgendercreatestheidea ofgender,and withoutthose
thatregularly
acts,therewould be no genderat all. Genderis, thus,a construction
concealsitsgenesis.The tacitcollectiveagreementto perform,
produce,and sustain
of its
discreteand polar gendersas culturalfictionsis obscuredby the credibility
own production.The authorsof gender become entrancedby theirown fictions
wherebythe construction
compelsone's beliefin its necessityand naturalness.The
materialized
historical
throughvariouscorporealstylesare nothingother
possibilities
than those punitivelyregulatedculturalfictionsthatare alternatelyembodiedand
disguisedunderduress.
How usefulis a phenomenologicalpointofdeparturefora feminist
descriptionof
with
shares
feminist
it
that
the
surface
On
analysis
appears
phenomenology
gender?
to groundingtheoryin lived experience,and in revealingtheway in
a commitment
acts of subjectiveexperience.
whichtheworldis producedthroughtheconstituting
the
would
all
feminist
not
point of view of the subject,
privilege
theory
Clearly,
and yetthefeminist
as
'too
to
feminist
once
existentialist')4
(Kristeva
theory
objected
claimthatthepersonalis politicalsuggests,in part,thatsubjectiveexperienceis not
those
but effectsand structures
only structured
by existingpoliticalarrangements,
in
the
which
to
understand
in
has
turn.
Feminist
way
sought
theory
arrangements
systemicor pervasivepoliticaland culturalstructuresare enacted and reproduced
throughindividualacts and practices,and how the analysisof ostensiblypersonal
situationsis clarifiedthroughsituatingthe issues in a broaderand shared cultural
context.Indeed, the feministimpulse,and I am sure thereis more than one, has
oftenemergedin the recognitionthatmy pain or my silence or my anger or my
perceptionis finallynot mine alone, and thatit delimitsme in a shared cultural
situationwhich in turnenables and empowersme in certainunanticipatedways.
The personalis thusimplicitly
politicalinasmuchas itis conditionedby sharedsocial
4JuliaKristeva,Histoired'amour(Paris: Editions Denoel, 1983), 242.
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PERFORMANCEACTS AND GENDER CONSTITUTION / 523
but the personalhas also been immunizedagainstpoliticalchallengeto
structures,
distinctionsendure. For feministtheory,then, the
the extentthat public/private
personalbecomesan expansivecategory,one whichaccommodates,ifonlyimplicitly,
usuallyviewedas public.Indeed,theverymeaningofthepolitical
politicalstructures
expands as well. At itsbest,feministtheoryinvolvesa dialecticalexpansionofboth
of these categories.My situationdoes not cease to be mine just because it is the
situationofsomeoneelse, and myacts,individualas theyare,nevertheless
reproduce
the situationof my gender,and do thatin variousways. In otherwords, thereis,
of feministtheory,a suppositionthat
latentin the personalis politicalformulation
atleastpartially,
thelife-world
ofgenderrelationsis constituted,
throughtheconcrete
and historically
mediatedactsofindividuals.Consideringthat"the"bodyis invariably
transformed
intohis bodyor herbody,thebodyis onlyknownthroughitsgendered
appearance. It would seem imperativeto considerthe way in whichthisgendering
of the body occurs. My suggestionis thatthe body becomes its genderthrougha
series of acts which are renewed,revised,and consolidatedthroughtime.Froma
feministpointofview,one mighttryto reconceivethegenderedbody as the legacy
or foreclosedstructure,essence or
of sedimentedacts ratherthan a predetermined
fact,whethernatural,cultural,or linguistic.
The feministappropriationof the phenomenologicaltheoryof constitution
might
employthenotionofan actin a richlyambiguoussense. Ifthepersonalis a category
which expands to include the widerpoliticaland social structures,
thenthe actsof
the genderedsubjectwould be similarlyexpansive.Clearly,thereare politicalacts
whichare deliberateand instrumental
actionsofpoliticalorganizing,resistancecolwith the broad aim of instatinga more just set of social and
lectiveintervention
politicalrelations.Thereare thus acts whichare done in the name of women, and
thenthereare acts in and of themselves,apartfromany instrumental
consequence,
thatchallengethecategoryofwomenitself.Indeed, one oughtto considerthefutility
ofa politicalprogramwhichseeksradicallytotransform
thesocialsituationofwomen
withoutfirstdetermining
whetherthe categoryof woman is sociallyconstructedin
such a way thatto be a woman is, by definition,
to be in an oppressedsituation.In
an understandabledesireto forgebonds of solidarity,feministdiscoursehas often
reliedupon the categoryof woman as a universalpresuppositionof culturalexperiencewhich,in itsuniversalstatus,providesa falseontologicalpromiseofeventual
politicalsolidarity.In a culturein whichthefalseuniversalof'man' has forthemost
part been presupposed as coextensivewith humannessitself,feministtheoryhas
and torewritethehistory
intovisibility
soughtwithsuccesstobringfemalespecificity
of culturein termswhich acknowledgethe presence,the influence,and the opto combattheinvisibility
ofwomenas a category
pressionofwomen.Yet,in thiseffort
feministsrun the risk of renderingvisible a categorywhich may or may not be
oftheconcretelivesofwomen.As feminists,
we have been less eager,
representative
I think,to consider the status of the categoryitselfand, indeed, to discernthe
conditionsof oppressionwhichissue froman unexaminedreproductionof gender
identitieswhich sustaindiscreteand binarycategoriesof man and woman.
WhenBeauvoirclaimsthatwomanis an "historicalsituation,"she emphasizesthat
the body suffersa certainculturalconstruction,
not onlythroughconventionsthat
sanctionand proscribehow one acts one's body, the 'act' or performance
thatone's
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524
/ Judith
Butler
theway thebodyis culturally
bodyis, butalso in thetacitconventionsthatstructure
if
is
the
cultural
thatthesexedbodyassumes,
Indeed,
perceived.
gender
significance
and ifthatsignificance
is codeterminedthroughvariousacts and theirculturalperception,thenitwould appear thatfromwithinthetermsofcultureitis notpossible
to know sex as distinctfromgender.The reproductionof the categoryof genderis
enacted on a large politicalscale, as when women firstentera professionor gain
certainrights,or are reconceivedin legal or politicaldiscoursein significantly
new
But
the
more
mundane
of
takes
ways.
reproduction genderedidentity
place through
thevariousways in whichbodies are acted in relationshipto the deeplyentrenched
or sedimentedexpectationsof gendered existence.Consider that thereis a sedimentationofgendernormsthatproducesthepeculiarphenomenonofa naturalsex,
or a realwoman,or anynumberofprevalentand compellingsocialfictions,
and that
thisis a sedimentationthatover timehas produceda set ofcorporealstyleswhich,
in reifiedform,appear as thenaturalconfiguration
ofbodies intosexes whichexist
in a binaryrelationto one another.
II. BinaryGenders and the Heterosexual Contract
To guaranteethe reproductionof a given culture,various requirements,wellestablishedin the anthropological
literatureof kinship,have instatedsexual reproductionwithinthe confinesof a heterosexually-based
systemof marriagewhich
the
in
of
human
certain
requires
reproduction
beings
genderedmodes which,in
the
eventual
of
that
effect,
guarantee
reproduction
kinshipsystem.As Foucaultand
othershave pointedout, the associationof a naturalsex witha discretegenderand
with an ostensiblynatural'attraction'to the opposing sex/genderis an unnatural
Feminist
conjunctionof culturalconstructsin the serviceof reproductiveinterests.5
culturalanthropologyand kinshipstudieshave shown how culturesare governed
by conventionsthatnotonlyregulateand guaranteetheproduction,exchange,and
consumptionofmaterialgoods,butalso reproducethebonds ofkinshipitself,which
requiretaboos and a punitiveregulationof reproductionto effectthatend. Lev'iStrausshas shown how the incesttaboo worksto guaranteethe channelingof sexGayle Rubinhas argued conualityintovariousmodes of heterosexualmarriage,6
vincinglythattheincesttabooproducescertainkindsofdiscretegenderedidentities
and sexualities.7
Mypointis simplythatone way in whichthissystemofcompulsory
is reproducedand concealedis throughthecultivation
ofbodies into
heterosexuality
discretesexes with 'natural'appearances and 'natural'heterosexualdispositions.
conceitsuggestsa progressionbeyond the mandatory
Althoughthe enthnocentric
ofkinshiprelationsas describedby Levi-Strauss,I would suggest,along
structures
withRubin,thatcontemporary
genderidentitiesare so manymarksor "traces"of
trans. RobertHurley (New York:
SSee Michel Foucault, The Historyof Sexuality:An Introduction,
Random House, 1980), 154: "the notion of 'sex' made it possible to group together,in an artificial
unity,anatomicalelements,biologicalfunctions,conducts,sensations,and pleasures, and itenabled
one to make use of this fictitiousunityas a causal principle.
Structures
ofKinship(Boston: Beacon Press, 1965).
6See Claude Levi-Strauss,TheElementary
7Gayle Rubin, "The Trafficin Women: Notes on the 'Political Economy' of Sex," in Towardan
of Women,ed. Rayna R. Reiter(New York: MonthlyReview Press, 1975), 178-85.
Anthropology
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PERFORMANCEACTS AND GENDER CONSTITUTION / 525
are historical
residualkinship.The contentionthatsex, gender,and heterosexuality
over
time
has received
and
reified
as
natural
have
become
which
conjoined
products
a good deal ofcriticalattentionnot onlyfromMichelFoucault,but Monique Wittig,
and socialpsychologists
in recent
gayhistorians,and variousculturalanthropologists
resources
lack
the
critical
for
still
These
theories,however,
thinkingradically
years.8
about the historicalsedimentationof sexualityand sex-relatedconstructsiftheydo
not delimitand describethe mundane mannerin which these constructsare produced, reproduced,and maintainedwithinthe fieldof bodies.
of the sedimentedcharacter
Can phenomenologyassist a feministreconstruction
of sex, gender,and sexualityat the level of the body? In the firstplace, the pheand
nomenologicalfocuson thevariousactsbywhichculturalidentityis constituted
effort
to understandthe
assumed providesa felicitousstartingpointforthefeminist
of the
mundanemannerin whichbodies get craftedintogenders.The formulation
a
or
offers
a
to
understand
as
mode
of
way
dramatizing enactingpossibilities
body
if not
how a culturalconventionis embodied and enacted. But it seems difficult,
a
the
scale
and
of
to
to
character
systemic
impossible, imagine way conceptualize
acts to be
women's oppressionfroma theoreticalpositionwhichtakesconstituting
itspointof departure.Althoughindividualacts do workto maintainand reproduce
systemsof oppression,and, indeed, any theoryof personalpoliticalresponsibility
presupposes such a view,it doesn't followthatoppressionis a sole consequenceof
such acts. One mightargue thatwithouthumanbeingswhose variousacts,largely
construed,produceand maintainoppressiveconditions,thoseconditionswould fall
away, but notethattherelationbetweenactsand conditionsis neitherunilateralnor
unmediated.Thereare socialcontextsand conventionswithinwhichcertainactsnot
of
onlybecome possible but become conceivableas acts at all. The transformation
socialrelationsbecomesa matter,then,oftransforming
social
conditions
hegemonic
ratherthan the individualacts thatare spawned by those conditions.Indeed, one
runs the riskof addressingthe merelyindirect,ifnot epiphenomenal,reflection
of
those conditionsifone remainsrestricted
to a politicsof acts.
Butthetheatrical
sense ofan "act"forcesa revisionoftheindividualist
assumptions
the
more
restrictedview of constituting
acts withinphenomenological
underlying
discourse.As a giventemporaldurationwithintheentireperformance,
"acts" are a
shared experienceand 'collectiveaction.' Justas withinfeministtheorythe very
categoryof the personal is expanded to include politicalstructures,so is therea
view ofactsthatgoes some
and, indeed,less individually-oriented
theatrically-based
of the way in defusingthe criticism
of act theoryas 'too existentialist.'
The act that
the
act
that
inasmuch
as
and actively
embodied
are
genderis,
agents
theydramatically
one's
actalone.
certain
cultural
is
not
wear
embodyand, indeed,
significations,clearly
there
are
nuanced
and
individual
of
one's
but
thatone
Surely,
ways doing
gender,
does it, and thatone does it in accordwithcertainsanctionsand proscriptions,
is
clearlynota fullyindividualmatter.Here again, I don't mean to minimizetheeffect
as Critique,
8See my "Variationson Sex and Gender: Beauvoir, Wittig,and Foucault," in Feminism
ed. Seyla Benhabib and Drucila Cornell (London: Basil Blackwell,1987 [distributedby Universityof
Minnesota Press]).
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526 / Judith
Butler
ofcertaingendernormswhichoriginatewithinthefamilyand are enforcedthrough
certainfamilialmodes of punishmentand rewardand which, as a consequence,
mightbe construedas highlyindividual,foreven therefamilyrelationsrecapitulate,
individualize,and specifypre-existingculturalrelations;they are rarely,if ever,
radicallyoriginal.The act thatone does, the act thatone performs,is, in a sense,
an act thathas been goingon beforeone arrivedon the scene. Hence, genderis an
act whichhas been rehearsed,much as a scriptsurvivesthe particularactorswho
make use of it, but which requiresindividualactorsin orderto be actualizedand
reproducedas realityonce again. The complexcomponentsthatgo intoan act must
be distinguishedin orderto understandthe kindof actingin concertand actingin
accordwhichactingone's genderinvariablyis.
In what senses, then,is genderan act?As anthropologist
VictorTurnersuggests
in his studies of ritualsocial drama,social actionrequiresa performance
whichis
is
a
and
This
at
once
reenactment
of
repeated.
repetition
reexperiencing a set of
it
is
the
mundane
and
ritualizedformoftheir
established;
meaningsalreadysocially
When
this
of
social
is
legitimation.9
conception
performance applied to gender,it is
clear that althoughthereare individualbodies that enact these significations
by
publicas well.
becomingstylizedintogenderedmodes, this"action"is immediately
Therearetemporaland collectivedimensionsto theseactions,and theirpublicnature
is effectedwiththe strategicaim of
is not inconsequential;indeed, theperformance
frame.
in pedagogicalterms,the
within
its
Understood
binary
maintaininggender
renders
social
laws
explicit.
performance
As a public actionand performative
act, genderis not a radicalchoice or project
thatreflectsa merelyindividualchoice,but neitheris it imposed or inscribedupon
theindividual,as somepost-structuralist
displacementsofthesubjectwould contend.
The bodyis notpassivelyscriptedwithculturalcodes, as ifitwerea lifelessrecipient
ofwhollypre-givenculturalrelations.But neitherdo embodiedselves pre-existthe
culturalconventionswhichessentiallysignifybodies. Actorsare always alreadyon
the stage, withinthe termsof the performance.
Justas a scriptmay be enactedin
so the
various ways, and just as the play requiresboth textand interpretation,
and
enacts
in
a
restricted
acts
its
culturally
part
corporealspace
genderedbody
directives.
within
the
of
confines
alreadyexisting
interpretations
9See VictorTurner,Dramas,Fields,and Metaphors(Ithaca: Cornell UniversityPress, 1974). Clifford
Further
Geertz suggestsin "BlurredGenres: The Refigurationof Thought,"in LocalKnowledge,
Essays
in Interpretive
(New York: Basic Books, 1983), that the theatricalmetaphor is used by
Anthropology
recent social theoryin two, often opposing, ways. Ritual theoristslike VictorTurner focus on a
notion of social drama of various kinds as a means for settlinginternalconflictswithina culture
and regeneratingsocial cohesion. On the other hand, symbolicaction approaches, influencedby
figuresas diverse as Emile Durkheim, Kenneth Burke, and Michel Foucault, focus on the way in
which politicalauthorityand questions of legitimationare thematizedand settledwithinthe terms
of performedmeaning. Geertz himselfsuggests that the tension mightbe viewed dialectically;his
study of politicalorganizationin Bali as a "theatre-state"is a case in point. In termsof an explicitly
itseems clearto me thatan accountofgenderas ritualized,
feministaccountofgenderas performative,
public performancemust be combined with an analysis of the politicalsanctionsand taboos under
which that performancemay and may not occur withinthe public sphere freeof punitive consequence.
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PERFORMANCEACTS AND GENDER CONSTITUTION / 527
Althoughthe links between a theatricaland a social role are complexand the
distinctions
not easilydrawn(BruceWilshirepointsout thelimitsofthecomparison
it seems clear that,
in Role-Playing
and Identity:
TheLimitsofTheatreas Metaphor'o),
with
can
meet
theatrical
politicalcensorshipand scathing
although
performances
in
contexts
aregovernedbymoreclearly
non-theatrical
criticism,
genderperformances
the
and
social
conventions.
Indeed,
onstage
punitive
sightofa transvestite
regulatory
can compel pleasure and applause while the sightof the same transvestite
on the
seat next to us on the bus can compel fear,rage, even violence. The conventions
in these two instancesare clearlyquite
whichmediateproximity
and identification
I want to make two different
kindsof claimsregardingthistentativedisdifferent.
tinction.In thetheatre,one can say, 'thisis just an act,'and de-realizetheact,make
actinginto somethingquite distinctfromwhat is real. Because of thisdistinction,
one can maintainone's sense ofrealityin thefaceofthistemporary
challengeto our
thevariousconventions
existingontologicalassumptionsaboutgenderarrangements;
whichannouncethat'thisis onlya play' allows strictlines to be drawnbetweenthe
and life.On the streetor in the bus, the act becomes dangerous,ifit
performance
does, preciselybecause thereare no theatricalconventionsto delimitthe purely
imaginarycharacterof the act, indeed, on the streetor in the bus, thereis no
presumptionthatthe act is distinctfroma reality;the disquietingeffectofthe act is
thatthereare no conventionsthatfacilitate
makingthisseparation.Clearly,thereis
theatrewhich attemptsto contestor, indeed, break down those conventionsthat
demarcatetheimaginary
fromthereal(RichardSchechnerbringsthisoutquiteclearly
in BetweenTheatreand Anthropology").
Yet in those cases one confrontsthe same
a
phenomenon,namely,thatthe act is not contrastedwiththe real, but constitutes
that
in
is
some
sense
a
of
that
cannot
be
assimnew,
reality
modality gender
readily
ilatedintothepre-existing
categoriesthatregulategenderreality.Fromthepointof
view of those establishedcategories,one may want to claim,but oh, thisis reallya
girlor a woman, or this is reallya boy or a man, and furtherthatthe appearance
contradictsthe realityof the gender,thatthe discreteand familiarrealitymust be
there,nascent,temporarily
unrealized,perhapsrealizedatothertimesorotherplaces.
The transvestite,
between
however,can do morethansimplyexpressthedistinction
sexand gender,butchallenges,at leastimplicitly,
thedistinction
betweenappearance
and realitythatstructures
a good deal of popular thinkingabout genderidentity.If
the'reality'ofgenderis constituted
itself,thenthereis no recourse
bytheperformance
toan essentialand unrealized'sex' or 'gender'whichgenderperformances
ostensibly
express.Indeed, the transvestite's
genderis as fullyreal as anyonewhose performance complieswithsocial expectations.
Gender realityis performative
whichmeans, quite simply,thatit is real only to
the extentthat it is performed.It seems fairto say thatcertainkinds of acts are
usually interpretedas expressiveof a gendercore or identity,and thatthese acts
eitherconformto an expectedgenderidentityor contestthatexpectationin some
and Identity:TheLmitsofTheatreas Metaphor(Boston: Routledge and
'oBruceWilshire,Role-Playing
Kegan Paul, 1981).
"Richard Schechner, BetweenTheatreand Anthropology
(Philadelphia: Universityof Pennsylvania
Press, 1985). See especially, "News, Sex, and Performance,"295-324.
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528 / Judith
Butler
way. That expectation,in turn,is based upon the perceptionof sex, where sex is
understoodto be thediscreteand facticdatumofprimarysexualcharacteristics.
This
of
as
and
acts
and
of
implicit populartheory
gestures expressive gendersuggeststhat
itself
is
to
the
various
acts,postures,and gesturesby which
gender
somethingprior
it is dramatizedand known;indeed, genderappears to the popularimaginationas
a substantialcore whichmightwell be understoodas the spiritualor psychological
correlateof biologicalsex.12 If gender attributes,however,are not expressivebut
thentheseattributes
constitutetheidentitytheyare said to
performative,
effectively
is quite
or
The
distinction
between
reveal.
expressionand performativeness
express
in
and
the
which
a
for
if
attributes
various
acts,
crucial,
ways
body shows
gender
thenthereis no preexisting
or producesits culturalsignification,
are performative,
mightbe measured;therewould be no trueor
identityby whichan act or attribute
of
real
or
distorted
acts
false,
gender,and the postulationof a truegenderidentity
a
would be revealed as regulatoryfiction.That gender realityis createdthrough
means thattheverynotionsofan essentialsex, a true
sustainedsocialperformances
or abidingmasculinityor femininity,
are also constitutedas partof the strategyby
whichthe performative
aspect of genderis concealed.
As a consequence,gendercannotbe understoodas a rolewhicheitherexpresses
or disguises an interior'self,'whetherthat 'self' is conceivedas sexed or not. As
performancewhich is performative,
gender is an 'act,' broadlyconstrued,which
As opposed to a view
constructs
thesocialfictionofitsown psychologicalinteriority.
such as ErvingGoffman'swhichpositsa selfwhichassumes and exchangesvarious
'roles' withinthe complexsocial expectationsof the 'game' of modernlife,13
I am
in
disconstituted
social
self
is
not
that
this
'outside,'
onlyirretrievably
suggesting
and
is
sancitself
a
the
of
but
that
course,
publicallyregulated
ascription interiority
tioned formof essence fabrication.Genders, then, can be neithertrue nor false,
neitherreal nor apparent.And yet, one is compelledto live in a world in which
in whichgenderis stabilized,polarized,rengendersconstituteunivocalsignifiers,
dered discreteand intractable.In effect,genderis made to complywitha model of
but serves
itsown performative
truthand falsitywhichnotonlycontradicts
fluidity,
one's
a social policy of gender regulationand control.Performing
gender wrong
it well
initiatesa set of punishmentsboth obvious and indirect,and performing
providesthe reassurancethatthereis an essentialismof genderidentityafterall.
Thatthisreassuranceis so easilydisplacedbyanxiety,thatcultureso readilypunishes
or marginalizesthosewho failto performtheillusionofgenderessentialismshould
be signenoughthaton some level thereis social knowledgethatthe truthor falsity
of genderis onlysociallycompelledand in no sense ontologically
necessitated.14
'2InMotherCamp(Prentice-Hall,1974), AnthropologistEstherNewton gives an urbenethnography
of drag queens in which she suggests that all gender mightbe understood on the model of drag.
In Gender:An Ethnomethodological
Approach(Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press, 1978), Suzanne J.
Kessler and Wendy McKenna argue that gender is an "accomplishment"which requires the skills
of constructingthe body into a sociallylegitimateartifice.
'3See ErvingGoffmann,ThePresentation
ofSelfin EverydayLife(Garden City: Doubleday, 1959).
'4See Michel Foucault's edition of HerculineBarbin:The Journalsof a NineteenthCenturyFrench
trans.RichardMcDougall (New York:PantheonBooks, 1984),foran interestingdisplay
Hermaphrodite,
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PERFORMANCEACTS AND GENDER CONSTITUTION / 529
III. FeministTheory: Beyond an Expressive Model of Gender
This view of genderdoes notpose as a comprehensivetheoryabout whatgender
is or themannerofitsconstruction,
and neitherdoes itprescribean explicitfeminist
I
can
Indeed,
imaginethisview ofgenderbeingused fora number
politicalprogram.
of discrepantpoliticalstrategies.Some ofmyfriendsmayfaultme forthisand insist
has politicalpresuppositionsand implications,
thatanytheoryofgenderconstitution
and thatit is impossibleto separatea theoryof genderfroma politicalphilosophy
of feminism.In fact,I would agree, and argue thatit is primarily
politicalinterests
whichcreatethesocialphenomenaofgenderitself,and thatwithouta radicalcritique
of gender constitutionfeministtheoryfailsto take stockof the way in which oppression structuresthe ontologicalcategoriesthroughwhich genderis conceived.
need to relyon an operationalessentialism,
GayatriSpivakhas arguedthatfeminists
a false ontologyof women as a universalin orderto advance a feministpolitical
She knows thatthe categoryof 'women' is not fullyexpressive,thatthe
program.15
and discontinuity
of thereferent
mocksand rebelsagainstthe univocity
multiplicity
of the sign,but suggestsit could be used forstrategicpurposes. Kristevasuggests
somethingsimilar,I think,when she prescribesthatfeministsuse the categoryof
women as a politicaltool withoutattributing
to the term,and
ontologicalintegrity
adds that,strictly
be
said
to
exist.16
women
cannot
Feminists
speaking,
mightwell
about
the
of
that
women
do
not
exist,especially
worry
politicalimplications claiming
in lightof the persuasiveargumentsadvanced by MaryAnne Warrenin her book,
She argues thatsocial policiesregardingpopulationcontroland reproGendercide.17
ductivetechnologyare designed to limitand, at times,eradicatethe existenceof
women altogether.In lightof such a claim,what good does it do to quarrelabout
the metaphysicalstatusof the term,and perhaps,forclearlypoliticalreasons,feministsoughtto silencethe quarrelaltogether.
Butitis one thingto use thetermand knowitsontologicalinsufficiency
and quite
anotherto articulatea normativevisionforfeminist
which
celebrates
or emantheory
an
a
or
a
shared
cultural
which
cannot
be
found.
The
essence,
nature,
cipates
reality
I
am
is
not
to
redescribe
the
world
from
the
of
view
of
women.
option
defending
point
I don't know what thatpoint of view is, but whateverit is, it is not singular,and
notmineto espouse. It would onlybe half-right
to claimthatI am interestedin how
the phenomenonof a men's or women's pointof view gets constituted,forwhile I
do thinkthat those points of views are, indeed, sociallyconstituted,and that a
reflexivegenealogyofthosepointsofview is important
to do, it is not primarily
the
I
that
am
in
interested
or
genderepisteme
exposing,deconstructing, reconstructing.
of the horrorevoked by intersexedbodies. Foucault's introductionmakes clear that the medical
delimitationof univocal sex is yetanotherwayward applicationof the discourse on truth-as-identity.
See also the work of RobertEdgerton in AmericanAnthropologist
on the cross-culturalvariationsof
response to hermaphroditicbodies.
"'Remarksat the Center forHumanities, Wesleyan University,Spring, 1985.
'6JuliaKristeva,"Woman Can Never Be Defined", trans. MarilynA. August, in New FrenchFeminisms,ed. Elaine Marks and Isabelle de Courtivron(New York: Schocken, 1981).
The Implications
17MaryAnne Warren, Gendercide:
of Sex Selection(New Jersey:Rowman and Allanheld, 1985).
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530 / Judith
Butler
Indeed,itis thepresuppositionofthecategoryofwomanitselfthatrequiresa critical
and discursivemeansbywhichitis constituted.
genealogyofthecomplexinstitutional
some
feminist
critics
Although
literary
suggest that the presuppositionof sexual
difference
is necessaryforall discourse,thatpositionreifiessexual difference
as the
of
an
moment
culture
and
not
of
how
sexual
analysis
founding
only
precludes
is constitutedto begin withbut how it is continuouslyconstituted,
difference
both
the
masculine
tradition
that
the
universal
and
of
those
by
point view,
preempts
by
feministpositionsthatconstructthe univocalcategoryof 'women' in the name of
expressingor,indeed, liberatinga subjectedclass. As Foucaultclaimedabout those
humanistefforts
to liberatethecriminalizedsubject,the subjectthatis freedis even
moredeeply shackledthanoriginallythought.'1
Clearly,though,I envisionthe criticalgenealogyof genderto relyon a phenomenologicalset of presuppositions,mostimportantamong themthe expanded conconstituted,and
ceptionof an "act" which is both sociallyshared and historically
in the sense I previouslydescribed.But a criticalgenealogy
whichis performative
needs to be supplementedby a politicsofperformative
genderacts,one whichboth
view about the kind
redescribesexistinggenderidentitiesand offersa prescriptive
needs to expose thereifications
ofgenderrealitythereoughttobe. The redescription
thattacitlyserveas substantialgendercores or identities,and to elucidateboththe
ofdisavowalwhichat once constituteand concealgenderas we
act and thestrategy
ifonlybecause we need to think
is invariablymoredifficult,
liveit. The prescription
a worldinwhichacts,gestures,thevisualbody,theclothedbody,thevariousphysical
In a sense, theprescription
attributes
nothing.
usuallyassociatedwithgender,express
is notutopian,but consistsin an imperativeto acknowledgetheexistingcomplexity
of genderwhich our vocabularyinvariablydisguisesand to bringthatcomplexity
intoa dramaticculturalinterplaywithoutpunitiveconsequences.
Certainly,it remainspoliticallyimportantto representwomen,but to do thatin
the theoryis supposed to
a way thatdoes not distortand reifytheverycollectivity
as the necessary
sexual
difference
which
Feminist
theory
presupposes
emancipate.
and invarianttheoreticalpointof departureclearlyimprovesupon those humanist
discourseswhich conflatethe universalwith the masculineand appropriateall of
cultureas masculineproperty.Clearly,it is necessaryto rereadthe textsof western
philosophyfromthe various pointsof view thathave been excluded,not only to
thoseostensiblytransrevealtheparticular
perspectiveand setofinterestsinforming
and prescriptions;
offer
alternative
but
to
of
the
real,
descriptions
parentdescriptions
its tenetsfrom
and
to
criticize
as
a
cultural
establish
to
indeed,
practice,
philosophy
with
this
I
have
no
locations.
cultural
procedure,and have
quarrel
marginalized
not
sexual difference
is
that
concern
those
from
benefited
analyses.My only
clearly
on
restriction
a
become a reificationwhich unwittingly
gender
preserves binary
identityand an implicitlyheterosexualframeworkforthe descriptionof gender,
genderidentity,and sexuality.Thereis, in myview,nothingabout femalenessthat
is waitingto be expressed;thereis, on theotherhand, a good deal aboutthediverse
'Ibid.; Michel Foucault, Disciplineand Punish:The Birthof thePrisontrans. Alan Sheridan (New
York: Vintage Books, 1978).
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PERFORMANCEACTS AND GENDER CONSTITUTION / 531
experiencesof women thatis being expressedand stillneeds to be expressed,but
cautionis needed withrespectto thattheoreticallanguage, forit does not simply
thatexperienceas well as thelimits
reporta pre-linguistic
experience,but constructs
and theprevalence
ofitsanalysis.Regardlessofthepervasivecharacterofpatriarchy
as an operativeculturaldistinction,thereis nothingabout a
of sexual difference
binarygendersystemthatis given. As a corporealfieldof culturalplay, genderis
a basicallyinnovativeaffair,
althoughitis quiteclearthatthereare strictpunishments
forcontesting
thescriptbyperforming
outofturnorthroughunwarranted
improvisations.Genderis notpassivelyscriptedon thebody, and neitheris it determinedby
Gender
nature,language,the symbolic,or the overwhelminghistoryof patriarchy.
is what is put on, invariably,under constraint,dailyand incessantly,withanxiety
and pleasure,but ifthiscontinuousact is mistakenfora naturalor linguisticgiven,
power is relinquishedto expand the culturalfieldbodilythroughsubversiveperformancesof variouskinds.
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