Gender and its meaning are often discussed by anthropologists, feminists, and other researchers. However, the way that each defines the word gender is very different and there seems to be no fixed definition as to when one identifies as man or woman. This problematic, that there are so many different definitions for gender, Judith Butler takes as the center of her work, and tries to explain what they understand behind the notions of sex and gender.
I will therefore base my analysis on Judith Butler’s "Gender Trouble", published in 1990. Butler’s approach is very interesting, as it brings in the notion of culture as well. And because Butler brings in culture, and culture is the subject of anthropological research, I will take some ideas of Lila Abu Lughod’s "Writing Against Culture", published in Recapturing anthropology: working in the present. The anthropological approach will only lead to a better understand of how culture
and gender are so similar, as they are both not innate. The fact that gender is not innate and has to be learned, or as Judith says performed, will be the key idea that I will represent in this paper.
The idea that gender is performed and is a social construction, is clearly represented in Walt Disney’s "Mulan". I will, therefore, use this movie to prove the point that I am aiming to elaborate. My point is that any individual can perform different gender identities and that individuals are able to change their gender. So, gender is not related to the sexual organs or chromosomes one has, but gender is simply a behavior that adapts to its environment and is fluid.
Table of contents
1. Introduction
2. Judith Butler's Notion of Gender Performativity
3. Gender Performativity in Disney's Mulan
i. Bring honor to us all
ii. Reflection
iii. I'll make a man out of you
4. The ‘reality of gender'
5. Conclusion
6. Bibliography
1. Introduction
Gender and its meaning are often discussed by anthropologists, feminists, and other researchers. However, the way that each defines the word gender is very different and there seems to be no fixed definition as to when one identifies as man or woman. This problematic, that there are so many different definitions for gender, Judith Butler takes as the center of her work, and tries to explain what they understand behind the notions of sex and gender.
I will therefore base my analysis on Judith Butler's Gender Trouble, published in 1990. Butler's approach is very interesting, as it brings in the notion of culture as well. And because Butler brings in culture, and culture is the subject of anthropological research, I will take some ideas of Lila Abu Lughod's Writing Against Culture, published in Recapturing anthropology: working in the present. The anthropological approach will only lead to a better understand of how culture and gender are so similar, as they are both not innate. The fact that gender is not innate and has to be learned, or as Judith says performed, will be the key idea that I will represent in this paper.
The idea that gender is performed and is a social construction, is clearly represented in Walt Disney's Mulan. I will, therefore, use this movie to prove the point that I am aiming to elaborate. My point is that any individual can perform different gender identities and that individuals are able to change their gender. So, gender is not related to the sexual organs or chromosomes one has, but gender is simply a behavior that adapts to its environment and is fluid.
2. Judith Butler's Notion of Gender Performativity
Gender has been studied for many years and has been defined differently over the course of time. Some feminists choose to take a biological approach when describing “women” as they define “women” as individuals being able to reproduce. A different approach is a psychoanalytical one, describing women as simply being beings without a phallus. Now this could mean, literally no phallus, meaning that they do not have a penis. Or this could have a deeper thought to it, meaning that they are beings with no “traditional” masculine characteristics. A sociological approach would be to define women as the ones being subdued to men and therefore, inferior. Because feminism seems to be so unsure on how to properly define women and gender in general, Judith Butler claims that “contemporary feminist debates over the meanings of gender lead time and again to a certain sense of trouble, as if the indeterminacy of gender might eventually culminate in the failure of feminism.”1 Their statement should lead feminists to find a clear and fixed definition for gender and starts her approach with the idea evoked by Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex, that women are not born, but somewhat created. Now this reminds me of the anthropologist Clifford Geertz, who states that culture is not innate but learned, whereas on the other hand, race is innate and cannot be learned. Therefore, it is possible to draw a parallel between the terms culture and gender, as both must be learned and are not innate. This is a significant starting point that Judith takes on their study, as this will lead them to show that the same way we can distinguish race and culture, we can distinguish sex and gender.
Now sex is, like I mentioned, something that is innate and refers to biology. Our sex is defined by the hormones our bodies produce, and by our chromosomes. For males have XY chromosomes and females have XX chromosomes. Gender on the other hand, is a cultural term and is therefore learned over time due to the traditions and morals in a society. Masculinity and femininity are social constructions and are repeatedly constructed over the time. The base of Judith Butler's queer theory is that gender is an act that is performed and is very fluid. Now they do not mean to say, that it is an act that one chooses to perform, or maybe even notices that it is performing it, but the constant repetition of the acts that are associated to a gender, suddenly become a part of that gender. So, to say that I am a male/female would be wrong, as the correct way of saying it should be that I am simply doing man-ness/woman-ness. And because “gender is not expressed, but done ”2, it varies a lot depending on the society we live in.
The idea that gender is constructed, similarly to culture, is also represented in films and shows how difficult it can be to “escape” the norms associated to a gender in a society, but that finally everyone is in the power to perform and to adapt to various genders. I will apply the theory of gender performativity to Disney's Mulan, and show how gender is performed in this film.
3. Gender Performativity in Disney's Mulan
To show how gender is performed in the movie, I will create an analysis of three songs, following Butler's queer theory on gender performativity.
i. Bring honor to us all
To the beginning of the film, the central character Mulan is facing the planning of an arranged marriage. While they are getting their makeup done and all dressed up in a pinkish Kimono, the track Honor to us all is playing in the background. The lyrics of that track go as such: “Men want girls with good taste, calm, obedient, who work fast-paced, with good breeding and a tiny waist.
...
1 Butler, Judith, 1990, Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity, Routledge, xxii
2 Digeser, Peter, 1994, Performativity Trouble: Postmodern Feminism and Essential Subjects, Sage Publications, Inc., p.665
- Citation du texte
- Sabrina Fiel Abade (Auteur), 2021, Gender Performativity in Disney’s "Mulan", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1183095
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