>On good days, I believe the nurturing/relational stance is "natural" for
>both sexes.
>And that the need for power "over", is always a reaction.
>
>And besides, people fulfilling stereotypes just gets on my nerves.
>
>p
I'm too much of a Fruedian to by that we are 'naturally' nurturing; people also have the capacity to be destructive--and we must in order to grow, develop, change we must be capable of destruction.
But anyway, you could see it as maybe performance in the sense that "snitgrrRl' is a performance. I have other identities Barbie, Miss Manners, and just this past weekend I was dubbed Dingbat. Although I was also dubbed 'satisfied philistine' I thought I preferred to play dingbat. Frances thinks I'm a horrible "femmie" and I just can't figure that one out--but maybe that's why I like to play SnitgrrRl--or develop that possibility when and where I can. Recall just how difficult a time folks had with SnitgrrRl. They refused to call me snitgrrRl. They wanted a serious name. And what was at issue was this idea that I'd embraced girl, but certainly not a timid, giggly little girl, ey? (I seem to recall you calling me a tomcat in need of getting my balls cut off?)
So, what I'm saying is that you can also perform gender by exagerrating gender norms. This is why Judy followers once loved Madonna so. She idealized and exaggerated various aspects of womanhood--played them, let them play her, performed them. And, more importantly for the Judy fans and cultural studies people, she offered up images of femininity that played out, played w/ gender 'stereotypes' And yet, it was always already obvious, this performance--the fissures, the gaps in the performance (because it wasn't a merely mimetic reproduction these various personas she played with/in/on. So, the 'stereotype' was made available for inspection and thus for commentary and reflection.
Another example people refer to is 'identity politics' ACT UP is a classic example of people playing with/on/in queer steretypes in order to make them available for inspection, critique, etc.
The basic idea is that by recognizing the performativity of gender et al we might be able to undermine the stereotypes and will no longer be consigned to deterministic accounts.
Kelley, blathering