In Judith Butler’s Imitation and Gender Insubordiation she asserts that identity categories, such as her lesbian identity, can act both as points of coalition and point of oppression. Thus Butler advocates for questioning and subverting these very gender and sexuality categories. Butler explains that one way to do this is to realize that both gender and sexuality are imitations for which there is no original. Both gender and sexuality are supposed to be “natural” iterations of compulsory heterosexuality but that they are in fact hopeful idealizations which are never perfect. Thus drag is not an imitation any more than typical gender performance is, and homosexuality is no more an imitation of sexuality than heterosexuality is.
I found this text particularly enlightening regarding Butler’s description of drag. So often in our society drag is seen as a person putting on a gender which does not “naturally” belong to them. However, as Butler explains, we are all preforming gender and there is in fact no “natural” or perfect presentation of it. Additionally I found Butler’s comparison of the popular rhetoric regarding lesbians and gay men to be interesting. Butler explains how gay men are seen as having a perverted sexuality, and are constantly discussed as an aberration. Conversely, lesbians are often just not discussed at all, not even in the same highly negative tone. This erasure of lesbian sexuality raises the necessity of “rendering lesbianism visible” and raises questions of how to go about doing so.
Do you agree with Butler’s analysis that lesbianism needs to be rendered visible (compared to male gayness)? Do you agree or disagree with her prescription on how to do so?
Do you agree with Butler’s explanation of how both “butch” and “femme” lesbians end up in inverted gender and sexuality positions (where the “butch” ends up taking on “femme” traits and vise versa)? What are the broader implications if this inversion is true?
Do you have any ideas how one can practice Butler’s suggestion of “working sexuality against identity” in a day-to-day manner?
I think Butler's comments about butch and femme lesbians speak to the dialectic nature of binaries like butch/femme and man/woman--nobody is all one or all the other, and everyone contains some of both.
ReplyDeleteI really like what Ray said; simple and truthful. I am one who (if you haven't noticed already) have a hard time summing up emotions or opinions briefly like that.
DeleteTo expand on that, i do like when Butler explains, "we are all performing gender and there is in fact no “natural” or perfect presentation of it," because pulling from experience i am a walking example of that. Some days i'm more feminine on the outside--lots of jewelry, cute clothes, putting makeup and nail polish on; i try not to slouch--and other days i'm more MASCULINE on the outside--jus a few items of jewelry, maybe some dark eyeliner or no makeup, i grew up a tomboy so i like to wear huge sweatshirts and other baggy items of clothing, sometimes i wear a hat a certain way, my composure is more relaxed. To sum it up it is in my mannerisms or what i wear. However, the outside doesn't always mean it matches the inside or that the way i present myself is the ONLY way or CORRECT way i present myself; i have many sides. Ever since i took a psychology coarse years ago it has all made sense; both sexes have both or more genders engrained in them. My sex is female. My gender most of or half the time i FEEL is female and I think "i am a proud, strong woman!" but other times i have this masculine part of me that will always live with me so i question my gender (a butch woman?!?) My orientation is that I'm gay, the "umbrella term" that i learned throughout high school, because i'm attracted to everyone, all genders, though maybe that orientation name still incorrect. And what makes it MORE complex or confusing (to some people, not me) is i am engaged to a straight man whose gender is male. Almost EVERY day i think to myself *Why the f*** am i categorizing myself?!" I'm all over the place. I say i don't want to be in a box and yet i feel the need to have a strong sense of my identity.
**Honestly i'm glad we have this blog and this question, because i've been wanting to express these things. So quick thank you.
I agree with Butler's analysis that lesbianism needs to be rendered more visible. When lesbianism (or female same-sex relations) is portrayed in literature or in the media, it is often presented as an act to please or arouse a man. There is obviously plenty of female-centered queer literature that does not do this, but I think the lesbian experience is much more invisible than the gay or male same-sex experience. That being said, I appreciate Butler's thoughts on the complications behind making the lesbian label more visible and in effect subjecting oneself to a different type of closet.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. In society there is a notion that "lesbianism" is okay as long as it is for the pleasure of men. Bringing more visibility to lesbians within the lgbt movement would let real people who define themselves as lesbians tell their own stories instead of letting the media with their misogynistic views of lesbians tell their story. It isn't so simple though and I like how Butler explains the complexities of identities.
DeleteI think this is a great example of Butler's idea that coming out of the closet puts a different set of expectations on someone. In this case, many people have specific ideas of how lesbians and bisexuals act. And as you both said, it is often sexualized for the gaze of straight men, much like Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl". For this reason, I think coming out and visibility are important politically in that they allow for more education and recognition for those who don't really understand queerness and have stereotypical ideas of what it is like to be queer. It may create new closets and new boundaries, but for now I think it is beneficial in terms of gaining equality.
DeleteI could be wrong, but I have a theory with why 'lesbianism' isn't talked about as much as gays and appear to have less open controversy surrounding the matter. It could be the result of this fixation of masculinity that is emphasized more so than a woman's femininity. There seems to be a bigger reaction to the manipulation and "disfigurement" of the notion of masculinity. E.g. kissing another man would be a removal of masculinity. I acknowledge that homosexuality is not frequently associated with 'femininity', but the perception and stereotypical concept of gayness does in some extent, affiliate with the idea of femininity. Because gayness transgresses masculinity, it causes a bigger commotion in the eyes of straight men and is therefore, rejected. And as Zuri Anderson pointed out, lesbianism is seen as sexual, and hence is a concept more accepted. This also factors in on why lesbianism isn't as visible as male same sex relations are.
DeleteFirstly, I agree with Butler when she says lesbianism has suffered from a degree of invisibility. Even during our first two classes, I have marveled at the discrepancy between society's focus on male gayness as opposed to lesbianism. Butler also states that lesbianism needs to acquire the same visibility that is associated with male gayness, which is another valid point. As lesbianism tries to shed the invisibility that has been placed upon it, it will benefit from the same visibility that male gayness has received.
ReplyDeleteI would also agree with the second comment pertaining to "butch" and "femme" lesbians. Ray's comment was succinct and accurate, as he mentioned that every individual's gender contains female and male aspects that will surface at different times.
Finally, I would like to comment about a personal topic of interest that I found in Butler's article. Butler chooses to describe the catch 22 she faced when identifying herself as an open lesbian woman. She was anxious to label herself in this way, but also wanted to express an aspect of her identity. Butler states, "To write or speak as a lesbian appears a paradoxical appearance of this "I," one which feels neither true nor false." Butler is cautious about accepting this label of lesbianism, because it is often stereotyped and overemphasized in our society. Thus, she does not want to contribute to the perpetual evolution of the "lesbian" label, but she does not want to abandon this aspect of her identity.
I'd like to point out maybe a few factors that contribute to the "invisibility" that lesbians have felt in the LGBT+ community. I think the fetishization of of lesbians in the male gaze has created this bubble in which "lesbians" are pictured as engaging in sexual acts with women while being constantly available to men. Even lesbians in real life who are not available to men are continually seen that way, and with being seen as always available to men their identity is lost behind the male gaze. Oddly enough bisexuals experience this type of erasure, although much differently. All in all, society rejects or erases women who at any time make themselves obviously unavailable to men. Being out and obviously lesbian is incredibly hard, as making yourself visible makes you both a target and an outlier. In that same way, remaining in the closet or passively being assumed straight is just as alienating and hurtful to the self. Coming "out of the closet" makes the act sound permanent and liberating, when in fact I see it as more of "leaving one restricting societally-contained box to move to a new box that is also restricting and societally-contained."
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you wrote a bit about bisexuality because I was definitely thinking about that when reading Butler's analysis on the struggles of continually coming out and being her lesbian identity. Like what Zuri and Andrea noted about, lesbians are so often erased in our culture and their desires discredited, but I think it's important that we expand that analysis, to an extent, to bisexual individuals as well. Denial of bisexuality and commentary on how bisexuals just "haven't made up their minds" control the dialogue, which speaks to Butlers statement that many lesbians operate "in a political discourse that wages its violence against lesbianism in part by excluding lesbianism from discourse itself" (312). Thus, inserting ourselves into the the discourse, as unfair and challenging as it is, may be one of the best ways to begin fighting back against the invisibility that Butler criticizes.
DeleteI agree with everything being said. I think it is also important to point out, as briefly discussed in class, that Butler's argument (that there is no true gender identity and that all is established through socialization) can overlook the experiences of members of the trans community that feel their gender is distinctly different from their sex. Butler uses Foucault’s idea of the Panopticon as a means of asserting gender in society; she believes gender to be entirely constructed through internalized normalization.Through this reconfiguration of our contemporary understanding of sex and gender and through her cis-priveleged perspective, Butler excludes the experiences of the trans community that has long fought to differentiate between biological sex and felt gender.
ReplyDeleteAs Greg Hardy says, visibility is important for the education of queerness to those who are less informed, and also for the proud "recognition" of ones sexuality. Butler acknowledges the paradoxical fact of having to identity ones sexuality whilst claiming that ones sexuality shouldn't be something that defines one person. Yet, in today's society, that can't be true just yet. Taken from another reading (Fausto-Sterling), heteronormativity is sadly still a true occurrence of today. Many people just assume that heterosexuality is the norm, but I believe that this is not a result of obduracy but rather a result of being uninformed and the prevalence of heterosexuality.
ReplyDeleteBut despite the need for visibility, some individuals who identity as queer find it offensive when some people who are less informed make a naieve remark. There were a couple of instances during class where (I can't remember the exact phrases but here's a scenario) someone would say : A female with short hair is automatically assumed to be gay. This would be followed with scoffing. It is easy to feel that those who assume "short hair + women = lesbian" are being stereotypical and ignorant. Of course, this is a sensitive issue and it would seem contemptuous to make remarks like that above. But many forget that people are just oblivious to the subject of queerness and are genuinely trying to understand it. I myself knows little to nothing about this matter and in taking this class, hope to gain a deeper awareness of the subject.
So visibility is a must. I find that many are hyper sensitive about this issue, but yet they fail to recognize that there are people who do not have frequent exposure to queerness. Hence, visibility should be the norm within the queer community. This would progress society into a less bigoted and open place.