The postmodernist view of gender is the argument that gender is not a natural or fixed category but is produced through language, discourse and repeated performance, and that the categories of man and woman themselves are unstable. It grows out of the wider scepticism of postmodernism about fixed identities and universal explanations.

What is the postmodernist view of gender?

Postmodernists reject the idea that there are two natural genders with stable essences. They argue that what counts as masculine or feminine differs between societies and historical periods, and that the categories themselves are the outcome of discourse, the ways of speaking and writing that define what is normal. This is a stronger claim than the social constructionist view, which accepts that gender is learned but often still assumes a biological base. Postmodernists question whether the distinction between sex and gender can be made at all.

What did Judith Butler say about gender performativity?

Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble, published in 1990, is the central text. Butler argues that gender is not something a person is but something a person does, through repeated acts, gestures and speech that appear to express an inner identity. Because these acts are repeated, gender looks natural. This is performativity, and it is different from a theatrical performance, since the individual does not choose the role freely. People are compelled to perform gender in recognisable ways, and failure to do so is punished.

The implication is that categories can be unsettled. Butler pointed to drag as a case that exposes the imitative structure of all gender, since it shows that no original exists that the performance copies. This is also where the ideas of queer theory take their start.

How did Foucault influence postmodernist views of gender?

Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality argued that modern categories of sexuality were created by medical, legal and religious discourse in the nineteenth century, and that they are tools of power as well as descriptions. People came to be classified by their sexuality and then to understand themselves through those classifications. Butler draws on this to argue that gender categories regulate those they name. There is more on his wider approach in the post on Michel Foucault, and the related argument about sexuality is set out in the postmodernist view of sexuality.

How does the postmodernist view of gender differ from other theories?

Functionalists see gender roles as complementary and useful for society, while feminists in most traditions treat women as a shared group whose oppression can be explained and resisted. Postmodernists doubt that approach. Following Jean-Francois Lyotard’s suspicion of grand narratives, they argue that a single category of woman hides differences of race, class and sexuality. Black feminists such as Kimberle Crenshaw made a related point in developing intersectionality, though from a more materialist starting point. See also the different types of feminism.

Examples of the postmodernist view of gender

Non-binary and genderfluid identities are often used as examples, since they show gender categories being questioned in everyday life. Drag and other gender play expose the performed nature of gender. Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto of 1985 imagined a world in which the boundaries between human and machine, and between male and female, were blurred. Changes in language, such as the use of gender-neutral pronouns, show categories being redefined through discourse.

What are the criticisms of the postmodernist view of gender?

Materialist and radical feminists argue that the approach loses sight of real inequalities in pay, violence and unpaid labour, which affect women whatever the status of the category. Martha Nussbaum criticised Butler for offering little political direction and for writing in a way that few could follow. Others say that if the category of woman is dissolved, it becomes harder to organise politically around it. Defenders reply that questioning categories is itself political, because it opens up lives that the binary excludes.