Are We Essentially Performing, Then?

Judith Butler's theory of gender as a social construction constituted by performance of gendered characteristics has been challenged by theorists and activists working on behalf of intersexed individuals, particularly in opposition to the traditional OGR (optimum gender of rearing) model, which held that gender assignment should be surgically accomplished in infancy.  This model was founded on the assumption that children are born with a sort of tabula rasa with regard to gender, and that gender is (or can be) socially constructed, as long as indoctrination begins before the age of about 2. Adherents to the OGR cite the relative scarcity of documented gender switching or homosexuality in adult patients who were surgically assigned at birth as evidence of its success. However, this model is undermined by the testimony of actual intersexed adults, and has been challenged by recent oppositional medical protocol issued by the DSD (disorders of sex development) Coalition.

These thoughts are still incubating, but I think I want to say that even if there are certain biological differences between genders, and that those differences are both intrinsic to sex/sex development and significant in terms of medical prognosis for the treatment of disorders of sex development--even if those things hold true--this fact does not undermine the performative aspects of gender identity.  Science, particularly molecular biology, proves that there are innate biological differences between the sexes .  Yet even in the field of molecular biology, concessions are made for external and environmental contributors to the expression of genetic differences (Rosario).  I find it difficult to accept that there is no culturally constructed performance of characteristics that recursively inscribe and express gender (Butler).

Works Cited:

Butler, Judith. "Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions." The Judith Butler Reader. Ed. Judith Butler and Sara Salih. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2004. 90-118. Print.

Rosario, Vernon A. "Quantum Sex: Intersex and the Molecular Deconstruction of Sex." GLQ: of Lesbian and Gay Studies 15.2 (2009): 267-84. Project Muse. Web.