13. Gender as Performance
May 28, 2022
Today’s lesson: gender as performance, a concept popularized by American philosopher Judith Butler. It is the idea that gender is ”something inscribed in daily practices, learned and performed based on cultural norms of femininity and masculinity”.
Examples: fake boobs (foobs) to insert into the mastectomy bra, a lovely eyebrow pencil to experiment with once my eyebrows fall off due to chemotherapy, and a haircut + getting the wig styled in layers. When I talked to the hairdersser about short hair – he said “Short, but still look like a girl. Got it.”
With gender as performance, I have mentioned to some friends that some of it feels drag queen-ish… fake boobs, fake hair, fake eyebrows. LOL.
Doreen is taking it all in stride. Including the eyebrow photo edits… no breast cancer mascots were harmed during this photoshoot.
