performativity
The capacity of speech, text, and symbolism to bring something into being. This has been utilized to explore how identity (and particularly gender identity) is socially constructed. Judith Butler argues that these forms of communication are performative in that they define identities. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault, she argues that discourse produces the identity that it then regulates through norms in society, and which is sustained through repetition. She sees gender not as an expression of who we are but as something that one does and that has been rehearsed on the basis of normative expectations. By ‘doing’ our gender, we bring it into existence. The concept extends beyond gender and can be applied to any identity for which there are normative expectations.... ...
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