Response to “Radical Gestures: …”

In the chapter “Roles and Transformations,” Jayne Wark quotes Simone de Beauvoir who said that “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” Wark then paraphrases Judith Butler saying “that there is no essential femininity (or masculinity). Rather, we ‘perform’ our subjectivities by means of stylized and repeated acts of speech and gesture that create the illusion of an abiding (gendered) self.” In other words, the female or male sex organs that a person is born with neither limit nor define that person’s gender identification. To support this, I have included an image of the recently pregnant Thomas Beatie who gave birth to a baby girl this last July. He was born a woman (or rather, born with female body parts), and around ten years ago, he underwent a gender-reassignment operation and since then has been personally and legally identified as a man.

The LGBT community has had to deal with many of the issues that have had and continue to have an impact on women and minorities throughout history – issues of belonging. The LGBT community seems to fit with Eleanor Antin’s ideas of being an “other” in society. Although Thomas has had to deal with much media criticism due to his pregnancy, he said that, “despite the fact that my belly is growing with a new life inside me, I am stable and confident being the man that I am.”