Butler writes “Gender reality is performative which means…that it is only real only to the extent that it is performed”. I believe that Butler means by this is that gender is a social construct and it is only as real as we make it to be, and it does not actually exist.

She states ‘We need to rethink the category of women’ In order to have more rights for women, the meaning of being a women need to be rethought of which can be done as historically the meaning of gender is able to change as the normality of it is by being reenacted, refused or recreated and today this will include trans women in the category of the female gender.

In the Score advert, the women create their identity as a ‘stylised repetition of acts’ as females as they are typically ‘girly girls’ and they create a repetitive performance by having the features of a ‘girly girl’ as they have long hair that is styled and this is seen as typically feminine, as well as their makeup done and wearing outfits that fit the female shape instead of covering themselves up. This supports the Laura Mulvey’s theory as it is shown that gender and sexuality are fixed due to the indexical signs of heterosexuality of the women and the men showing the man has the attention from the women as the strapline states ‘Get what you’ve always wanted’ and their gaze shows admiration towards the man and one of the women’s hand is reaching towards him as though she wants his attention.

Shayla is portraying herself as a female in the Maybelline advert as she too has the typical feminine look with long hair and is wearing makeup. There is also the repetitive performance of her portraying herself as female by advertising the makeup.

However, Manny defies the typical masculine look as he is wearing makeup which is typically more feminine. This relates to Butler as