Judith – Gender Performance –

Judith mentions that ‘nobody is a gender from the start’, this can suggest that we as people force or construct the idea / rule that people should be fixed within their gender, that there should be two ‘types’ of humans, male and female, however Judith proposes that we are not female or male, we choose to act and decide our actions in either a more feminine way or masculine way. She wants to break the idea that specific ‘things’ have to be titled through s gender, football is a mens sport or makeup is for women. She wants to create an idea that we can choose and normalise who we want to be, wheither we’re male but want to wear makeup or we’re female and want to play football without it being abnormal.

Maybelline Advertisement –

Maybelline have always presented their advertisement through glamorous women, however this multimillion dollar global eyeliner company released a video advert called ‘boss it up’, the company decided to have a male and female as their presenters, both of them wore the eyeliner, in a way to make a statement. Maybelline know that makeup is starting to shift from just a females use, to a neutral choice. Ideas globally are starting to see that there is no abnormal choice if a male decides to wear makeup. For example, Johnny Depp is a straight man, however he wears eyeliner, there is should be no constructed idea on clothes, cosmetic products and peoples actions.

Score Advertisment –

The score printed advert, suggests that men and women are separate, that women are ‘used’ for feminine acts, such as giving birth and cooking all meals, where as men are the dominant, stronger gender, who bring the money into the household and work hard. This idea of one gender does one thing and another does some differently, suggests that men and women are not equal and one gender is more powerful than the other.

Judith Butler at home notes:

Judith writes and creates the idea that there is not specific acts or qualities that make you your gender, gender is a title and has nothing to do with the way you act or whatever you do. You can change your gender, be yourself and choose who you want to be and whatever you do will not change who you are and who you identify yourself as. Butler writes to identify and break the idea that genders have stereotypical acts, like football for men, netball for woman, pints for men and gin for women.

Maybelline & Score at home notes:

Firstly, Maybelline, when advertising their eyeliner product line, have always been using females in their adverts, this is because the idea that because females use eyeliner on a daily bases, its seen as a female product due to the repetitive acts of one gender, however this isn’t true, for example bands like Fall out boy, and celebrities like Johnny Depp have used and continue to use eyeliner when turning up to social events and shows. Secondly, Score, advertises the idea that if you shave you will be more attractive and “get what you’ve always wanted”. This is seen as a product for males and that men should be buying it, however because its a shaving cream doesn’t mean it cannot be for men, just because men use shaving cream, doesn’t mean woman don’t. Lastly, the woman seen in the score advert seem to be carrying the man who has recently shaved using the product, as well as this they are trying to touch, stroke and feel the man, this can be seen as a sexist, stereotypical representation of woman as it shows that they bow down and treat men like kings when they are attractive/using the product advertised, this is a repetitive theme used in adverts still to this day.