1. Consult your reading from last week from Foucault and this week’s reading from Judith Butler. Using direct quotes from both Butler and Foucault, explain how Butler comes from of a Foucauldian tradition. What do they have in common? (4 marks, maximum 300 words)
It is evident in Butler’s reading that she comes from a Foucauldian tradition. Foucault’s idea that discourse is “controlled, selected, organized” (Foucault, 1996) in the sense that what comes to be accepted as truth is based on a deliberate inclusion and exclusion of information, which in turn forms social norms. Butler applies this concept to gender. How we act in certain situations depends on the social constructs that surround us (discourse), and “our acting of our role playing is crucial to the gender that we are” (Butler, 1998) e.g. Men acting masculine, and women being feminine. We act this way because we feel based on social expectations that we are obliged to act a …show more content…
Being a drag is considered a performance because it ends and it is conscious. Drags are metaphorical subjects because they are imitating this mime of gender that already exists. ‘Drag’ is the act in which males dress up as females and perform that gender in the most approximate way, the characteristics associated by females. It is exaggerated due to the excessive make-up and feminine characteristics displayed by ‘drags’. It is considered an act as you can take it on and take it off, whereas you can’t change your biological gender of male or female. Males and females are constantly miming certain gender codes, with endless repetition and unconsciously (performative). However, ‘drag’ points these mimes out which are already in place, through exaggeration and the performance aspects of gender. It is an impersonation and fraudulent, as those performing the act are not their true
It is evident in Butler’s reading that she comes from a Foucauldian tradition. Foucault’s idea that discourse is “controlled, selected, organized” (Foucault, 1996) in the sense that what comes to be accepted as truth is based on a deliberate inclusion and exclusion of information, which in turn forms social norms. Butler applies this concept to gender. How we act in certain situations depends on the social constructs that surround us (discourse), and “our acting of our role playing is crucial to the gender that we are” (Butler, 1998) e.g. Men acting masculine, and women being feminine. We act this way because we feel based on social expectations that we are obliged to act a …show more content…
Being a drag is considered a performance because it ends and it is conscious. Drags are metaphorical subjects because they are imitating this mime of gender that already exists. ‘Drag’ is the act in which males dress up as females and perform that gender in the most approximate way, the characteristics associated by females. It is exaggerated due to the excessive make-up and feminine characteristics displayed by ‘drags’. It is considered an act as you can take it on and take it off, whereas you can’t change your biological gender of male or female. Males and females are constantly miming certain gender codes, with endless repetition and unconsciously (performative). However, ‘drag’ points these mimes out which are already in place, through exaggeration and the performance aspects of gender. It is an impersonation and fraudulent, as those performing the act are not their true