The aim of Butler’s essay (2009), according to her, is to resist homophobic regulatory oppression through rethinking gender and sexuality. She points out that identity categories are tools of oppressive regulatory systems. Butler opposes an essentialist approach of fitting sexuality into a clear-cut definition, as this does not account for all the complexities and the pluralities within a particular group. She questions whether there is a right way to be gay and maintains that asserting this would be discriminating against homosexuals that do not fit into that framework. Instead, she suggests that sexuality is fluid and unclear and even implies that that is what makes it sexy.
A key idea for Butler is that all gender and sexuality is performative. An example of homophobic oppression that Butler is trying to resist is the claim that homosexuality is a “bad copy” of heterosexuality. Rather than arguing this is not so, Butler proposes this can be said about all sexuality and gender. By using the example of “drag,” she demonstrates that gender can be acted out and “worn”, concluding that physical sex and gender are separate entities. Also testifying to her argument are expressions that claim someone can feel more or less “like a woman” or “like a man”, which suggest these categories are not natural but assumed identities. Butler argues not only that gender and sexuality can both be performed, but that they are always performative. In other words, it’s not being a heterosexual that causes one to act as a heterosexual. Rather, repeatedly acting in a way that is associated with being heterosexual is what defines one as such. Butler insists that heterosexuality is an imitation of an idealised concept of what heterosexuality is – an imitation of itself. Therefore, even if homosexuality is a copy, it’s only a copy of a copy as there is no original, similar to Baudrillard’s theory of “simulacra” (2009).
Butler also argues that similarly to how gender is not physiologically natural, it’s also not natural to the psyche. She maintains that it’s an effect of the complexities that occur with the formation of an identity, rather than its cause. Therefore the notion of an “inner sex” is just an illusion. Butler believes that for this reason, any given performance can never fully express sexuality, similarly to how a “self” in the mirror, is not a complete expression of the agent in Lacan’s “Mirror Stage” theory (2009). She says that if identity is constituted by performance, breaks in that performance can cause a disruption of an identity. She concludes that people are subconsciously aware of this and compulsively repeat acts to confirm their heterosexuality. Butler suggests to position sexuality against identity and gender and to embrace the disruption caused by the psychic access that cannot be expressed by performance.
There are parts of Butler’s complex essay that I agree with, and others that I find questionable. The idea that gender and sexuality can only be expressed through performance makes sense. Similarly, fitting identities into rigid boundaries can be limiting, not only in terms of sexuality, but also in other spheres of life. The term “gender benders” in popular culture was coined to describe people who push these boundaries and cause “gender trouble”. Performers like Madonna and Prince were noted for this. The Austrian singer Conchita Wurst is a more recent example. Having the appearance of a woman but also a beard, she simultaneously rejects and embraces both genders. However, Foucault would argue that identity groups could also serve for the purpose of resistance by those against whom this type of discourse is positioned. Also, Butler diagnosing people who are consistent in their practices (be those “straight” or “gay”) as “compulsive” seems to reinforce the very oppression Butler is trying to resist. After all, she bases the idea that instability is sexy mostly on personal experience, while others may prefer consistency, even if it is performative.
References
Baudrillard J. (2009). The Precession of Simulacra. In J. Storey (Ed.), Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader (4th ed.) (pp. 409-415). Harlow: Pearson.
Butler, J. (2009). Imitation and Gender Insubordination. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Anthology. Ed. J. Storey. (pp. 224 – 238) Harlow: Pearson.
Foucault, M. (2009). “Method.” Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Anthology. Ed. J. Storey. (pp. 313 – 319) Harlow: Pearson.
Lacan J. (2009). The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Anthology. Ed. J. Storey. (pp. 255 – 260) Harlow: Pearson.