Gender

Essentialist/Functionalist Paradigm

The oldest and most traditional school views gender as an “essentialist” category of identity. Meaning that there is a feminine, masculine, or androgynous “essence” inside each individual and that essence is what dictates that person's gender(ed) behavior. The essentialist school of thought views gender as largely biological, determined by forces that are “natural” rather than “naturalized.” Natural forces are said to be those that preexist language and social conditioning, whereas naturalizing something means to make it an acceptable [Page 306]mode or form of behavior as a result of socialization and other processes that are sociocultural, political, and historical. The essentialist school of thought argues that individuals live out their lives based on gendered roles and prescriptions that they were essentially “born to fill.”

Naturalist/Constructivist Paradigm

The next school of thought, the “naturalist” paradigm, believes that gender roles are socially constructed and that discourse shapes our reality and therefore our social markers of identity such as gender. Adherents of this school of thought believe that gender is not innate or inherent in the individual; instead, society either agrees upon or hegemonically/insidiously (Antonio Gramsci) perpetuates a sex/gender system (Gayle S. Rubin) in which individuals act out their gender identities (usually) based on their biological sex.

When gender is seen as a cultural and social construct, it is often conceptualized as a lens through which a person views the world. Here is where the potential for organizing based on gender comes into play. In terms of identity politics, being able to identify and organize based on one's gender identity gives a social movement a platform from which to make change. With those who share a similar gender identity as you, you can collectively imagine new ways of doing gender and problematize oppressive gender constraints through consciousness raising and consciousness expansion.

Performance Paradigm

Following the constructionist/naturalist paradigm is the performance paradigm. Followers of this school of thought posit that discourse is not merely shaped by reality but that it is reality, or an effect structure of reality. These theorists are largely influenced by postmodern and poststructuralist theorists regarding gender and identity. Borrowing from J. L. Austin's speech act theory, Judith Butler, a leading scholar in gender, identity, and performance, posits that in the form of modeling, we act out and perform our genders. Butler, like many contemporary gender and identity theorists, believes that gender is fluid and not monolithic and static. Viewing our gender identity as a performance gives us many ways in which we can “do” and “undo” gender. Hyperbolic performances of gender and identity (performances where the constructed nature of gender and identity are overexaggerated to make a point and call into question the factitious nature of gender roles) are often championed in order to challenge the ways in which we enact our gender(ed) identities daily. Gender expressions, therefore, are not an indicator of the person's “true self” or personality (as earlier scholars of gender and identity have posited) but instead are viewed as a “show,” a performance, that supports social and universal mandates of behavior.

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