In reading the essays Sorties by Hélène Cixous and Gendered and Sexual Performativity by Judith Butler, it is clear that both theorists are establishing a feminist position on the treatment of women in society. Evidently, both agree that society is phallocentric. Throughout history, culture has operated as a male dominated, patriarchal society where men prevail, come in first or come out on top and women are left to haul the slack from behind. This inequality creates the objective of any feminist: a discourse for all genders to be respected and treated with unbiased opinion and equality. However, to the unread, average Joe, it may seem here that their argument splits – Cixous attacking societal hierarchies and Butler, then critiquing Cixous for reinforcing the gender binary. However, this is not necessarily so…
In Cixous’s argument, she uses the concept of active/passive hierarchy to demonstrate the oppression of the female gender by the male gender. Essentially, Cixous is saying that that language constitutes the binary of male/female so we are in no way able to escape it because language is all that we know, and it is how we construct our reality. (related back to Saussure: “there is no truth outside language.”) Now many people tend to misread Cixous’s theory as a misreading of Lacan, as does Butler. As a critique of her argument, Butler states that Cixous is reinforcing the gender binary and a patriarchal society because she voices that the binary is a natural concept, not as a societal and culturally created notion. This, however, being a misreading of Lacan, is not what Cixous is really arguing. Cixous is in agreement with Butler that gender is a performance and that binaries are not natural, but ultimately all genders and sexes participate in the reinforcement of binaries though language’s hegemonic construction.
Butler wants to theorize the performance of gender and language in that gender wants to break down binaries of strictly masculine/feminine. She uses drag as an example of the performance of gender and language. Drag is often associated with cross-dressing, where men dress “as women” and women dress “as men.” But what really does it mean to “dress like a woman or man?” Is there an essential truth to dressing like a male/female, or even being man or woman? No, of course not. In fact, we all participate in drag by assuming and naturalizing that sex is always tied to gender.
Now, let’s step away from these feuding theorists and look at something stated by our super conservative, political commentator “friend” Rush Limbaugh, in hopes that it will unite Cixous and Butler and what they are truly rallying for.
“Feminism was established to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream.” – Rush Limbaugh, 1987
Ok Limbaugh...
Feminists, you’re up!
What would Cixous and Butler have to say to a statement like this? Regardless of whatever Rush (who couldn’t sound more uneducated) may have been trying to convey about Feminism, this quote comes across as extremely sexist. Surely Cixous would bring to the table Rush’s binary of women as attractive/unattractive, essentializing that women are objects of sexual desire and should be valued in regards to aesthetics and not intellect – not like they are human or anything! Perhaps Butler would state how Mr. Limbaugh is perpetuating ideals, such as a patriarchal society, by saying that woman’s opinions should be kept out of the mainstream, or in the very least strictly censored!
In reference to Butler, you mention drag as an example of gender performativity. Do you think it's possible that drag can be a powerful and subversive force within the feminist movement, despite the presence of a strict binary? I think this is often the argument of the opposition: that there can be no improvement made if we are still working within the confines of the binary system. However, I would agree with Butler that drag, in its hyperbolic nature, draws attention to the performativity of gender, and thus denies any essential "womanness" or "manness." There seems to be some power in the parodic nature of drag and in the act of recognizing that gender is a mere performance. Do you think drag is enough, though? Are there other sites of power that are effective within the feminist movement?
ReplyDelete(This is the official comment for Critically Conditioned this week.)