[Serious] That Trans Thread

[Rev. Rye]

And for the record, when IA talks about people putting on a performance, I suspect that this is what he means:



Seeing gender as not just one’s identity, but as a set of behaviors that one does because that’s what one’s “supposed” to do given the anatomy one is born with. It comes more easily to some than others, but that doesn’t make it any less of a performance.

And an interesting thing this is reminding me of: Some Like it Hot. And don’t worry, I know where I’m going with this. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis are obviously performing femininity when they pretend to be girls (and it’s obviously a performance, especially with Jack Lemmon’s Daphne being a glorified drag queen), but what may be less obvious is that Marilyn Monroe is putting on a performance as well. And I don’t even mean how Marilyn Monroe is performing as Sugar “Kane” Kowalczyk, or how, indeed, the entire “Marilyn” persona was one that Norma Jean Mortensen could actually turn on and off at will. Even if the way she acts as Sugar was exactly how she was IRL, Judith Butler would likely see what she does as performance. Her clothing, her raw sexuality, her nurturing side as seen in this scene (or at least parts of it that happened before the clip started) are all part of Sugar performing femininity:



And nobody questions whether Marilyn was a real woman, due in no small part to her performing femininity so effortlessly. Gender performance isn’t just something trans folk or a dude in a dress does. It’s something that the majority of people just do, whether they have to put severe effort into it or whether it comes naturally.