Judith Butler is a gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. Butler has written many books which explore gender identity. Much of Butler’s early political activism centred around queer and feminist issues, and they served, for a period of time, as the chair of the board of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. Over the years, Butler has been particularly active in the gay and lesbian rights, feminist, and anti-war movements.

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

Fluidity of Identity The ability to change how something is seen or something having no set identity

Constructed Identity How something is “meant” to be seen

Negotiated Identity An understanding of somethings identity through a collective

Collective Identity Belonging to a group

“There is a sense that this brand is about celebrating what is already there and encouraging customers to be themselves.” – Fluidity of identity

“I don’t think that putting someone’s face on something sells a bad product,” – Paul Lazarfeld 2 step flow model

 “products that excite the senses and blur the boundaries” – Fluidity of identity

Stylized repetition of acts and repeated performance – shows gender normative stereotypes and countertypes. These reinforce gender consistently through non verbal communication. For example in my product, the tall posture and crossed arms comply with masculine norms.

Judith Butler describes gender as “an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts”. In other words, it is something learnt through repeated performance.

In other words, Butler is saying that gender doesn’t really exist but the repeated actions kind of creates gender.

” Styles announced that he hoped to “dispel the myth of a binary existence”.

Harry Styles saying he wishes the act of being non binary being a wish to be dispelled brings others to become more interested in the matter and potentially get in on the action to get rid of the ‘myth’.

‘Undoubtedly, there is serious value in beauty now. In July, the global beauty industry was valued at $511bn’

This shows more stylized acts are seen more then others which proves some beauty products are more depended on than others claiming more popularity. Worth more and seen more often, constructed representation.

1. Gender and identity is represented in many ways, many ways in which are communicated by us subconsciously constantly. Depending on your gender and how you wish to be represented, we do specific actions physically, verbally and non-verbally to communicate our gender and identity automatically.
2. For example, as a male you could represent your gender by dressing in a more masculine way, having facial hair or even by the way you smell.
3. By doing these different actions, society puts you into these constructed identity groups.
4. Judith counter-types these ideas that of gender representation. She doesn’t believe that certain actions should factor into how your gender is represented, such as why is body building regarded as a male thing to do? She thinks that these stereotypes and identifications are not fixed or definite states.

Fluidity of Identity

Gauntlett commented on the changing representation of men and women in mainstream media. For example, the depiction of the passive housewife throughout the twentieth century was being increasingly replaced by images of assertive women taking control of their lives, epitomised by the “girl power” endorsed by the Spice Girls. The representation of men being active and confident was giving way to a more introspective and emotionally-aware version of masculinity. Despite the old binary representations still finding their way to the front covers of magazines and forming the narrative of most Hollywood blockbusters, there is now a “greater diversity of identities”.

Constructed Identity

Although the representation of femininity and masculinity might be shifting, they will still offer a variety of cues we can use in the meaningful construction of our identity. The magazines we read or the films we watch all provide information about ways of living which we can purposely and knowingly integrate into our own relationships and lifestyles. For instance, we value the ideas expressed by the contemporary opinion leaders who dominate our social media feeds. If an influencer suggests we should visit a particular shop or buy a certain brand, we might act on that advice. The representation of characters in a sitcom or a film could help us discover our own identity. This concept of the constructed identity is similar to the symbolic modelling in Albert Bandura’s social learning theory which argues children learn behaviour from the role models they see on television.

Negotiated Identity

The media can help us establish our own identity – no matter what texts we choose to consume, there will certain representations of gender that will appeal to our own sensibilities. However, there might be some tension between this construct and how we present ourselves to the world. Whether it is our relationships, interests or careers, we want to engage with others but still retain some individuality. Therefore, as Goffman argued, we need to reach a “working consensus” or agreement regarding the roles each person will assume in any interaction. A negotiated identity is a balance between our own desires and meeting the expectations of others.

Collective Identity

In terms of media studies, collective identity refers to our sense of belonging to group, especially because there is shared interest or love for a media text. Fandoms are an excellent example of this cultural experience because they try to define and develop a way of life.

Fluid of identity

Fluid of identity is having the choice to change the way you come across however you like. If you don’t want to look a certain way fluid of identity creates the meaning of being able to change that and change how you perceive yourself as a person. Not only that Fluid of identity also means having the fluidity to change the way you act to something favoured or to something which can be categorised as normal. Fluid of Identity is the freedom to change who you are as a person from how you look to how you act if you prefer to-do that.

Constructed identity

Constructed identity is stereotypical. For example the fixed idea that a women should have long straight blonde hair with blue eyes and a man should be tall with big muscles and a brunette. These ideas have been constructed within society to change how we look at men and women. Constructed identity isn’t all about gender its also for who your preferred gender attraction is. Once again society has created ideal attraction preference, males are supposed to be attracted to women, and women are supposed to be attracted to men. Men aren’t supposed to like other men and women aren’t supposed to like other women, Society has constructed those identity’s for people which places pressure and shame onto those who are gay and do prefer people of the same gender.

Negotiated identity

Negotiated identity is when people come to an agreement of who is who and who identifies as something other than their birth gender. Men may come to terms and agree with the fact that they are a man and friends may be women or men and vice versa. Not only that people may agree that their friends may want to change from their assigned gender to become another gender as of which they are more comfortable being in. Not just that in gay relationships both partners come to terms of who is who in that relationship. This can be described as “wearing the pants in the relationship” which is basically who takes on the dominant role within the relationship.

Collective identity

Collective identity is associating with a group or a group associating as something. An example of this is drag queens. These people identify as men but have feminine traits and perspectives. Majority of these men are gay but love to dress up as women and do make up. Collectively these men all identify as drag queens. Also religions, many people collectively identify as Christian or Hindu, which society don’t have a problem with as its something they believe in but some people in society may argue that drag queens are wrong due to stereotypes that men should work for the family whereas the women are supposed to dress up to please them and apply make up to look pretty for the men. Everyone is apart of a group that have a certain identity, for another example actors. They all identify as actors same with the scouts they all identify as a scout until they leave the group but the traits and skills they learnt as a scout will stay with them for life.

Judith Butler talks about “an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts”. This can be shown through the acts of male and female and the stereotypical acts of females and males and what is a typical act for both of these genders. The typical act of a female could be to wear makeup or straighten their hair. A typical act for a male could be to drink a pint or play football. This can also be shown through photographs. For example, if a male was to hold up a sign with their hands or be standing in a certain stance. However, for females it could be to be stood in a certain more feminine stance and be playing with their hair this would represent both genders as it it the most stereotypical things that these genders would be doing to represent that gender. This is presented as a female doing or acting in a certain way that would represent that gender.

 the global beauty industry was valued at $511bn- some acts of stylised repetition are worth more money than others therefore you would be able to see it more often than others.

Styles announced that he hoped to “dispel the myth of a binary existence”.

judith butler quotes– ‘an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts’

This may be coming across as your identity (male/female) and the acts you do, if you’re a female you may repeatedly get your eyelashes done, straighten your hair or get your nails done and these acts wh8ich are constantly repeated are considered as who you are and what your identity is overlooked as. This relates to gauntlets constructed identity.

” Styles announced that he hoped to “dispel the myth of a binary existence”.

Harry Styles saying he wishes the act of being non binary being a wish to be dispelled brings others to become more interested in the matter and potentially get in on the action to get rid of the ‘myth’.

‘Undoubtedly, there is serious value in beauty now. In July, the global beauty industry was valued at $511bn’

This shows more stylized acts are seen more then others which proves some beauty products are more depended on than others claiming more popularity. Worth more and seen more often, constructed representation.