Butler focus on gender and wants to go beyond Goffman to explore why the social world creates gendered identities at all.īutler challenges the orthodox view that we have a physical, biological sex onto which a social gender is then added, arguing that there is no physical sexed-identity which precedes the social. The idea that there is no essential or foundational identity also characterises Judith Butler’s work. The self is not the mask, it is the mask, there is no aspect of the self which is not touched by the social world.Įven character – the background self or the ethical self reflecting backstage on what one does front stage is a performance.įinally for Goffman the performances we give are fundamentally shaped by social norms – there are correct ways to act, and if someone acts out of character, we try and save them, and we feel horror or embarrassment when someone acts entirely inappropriately – social norms embedded deep within our psyche – also, where gender is concerned, so constraining are norms surrounding this that gender norms take on the hue of being natural – which is something Judith Butler picks up on… Instead of focusing on authentic and inauthentic performances, Goffman suggests we should focus on what constitutes convincing and unconvincing performances.įor Goffman, there is no essence of the self waiting to be given expression to, the self is not the cause of a social situation, it is the result of the social situation. This is not to say that we are being fraudulent, rather it indicates the importance of the social group – because so much of what we act out, we act out for their benefit. To put it simply, it is no good doing something if no one recognises we are doing it – this is ‘ dramatic realisation‘. (At this point Lawler also notes that what we should really be asking ourselves is why we are so concerned with authenticity, when in reality there is no such thing.)įor Goffman, to be a person is to perform being a person. However, for Goffman this idea that there is a ‘true self’ which needs to be drawn out (if it’s a ‘nic’ self) or that can be hidden (with good or evil intent) is, in reality all there is is the performance. In other words the woman (typically) becomes who she is by changing her exterior self. We have a social and cultural preoccupation with authenticity – illustrated through the popularity of the Cinderella story – which is acted out today in various make-over programmes – here the fairy godmother is taken by a series of experts – who help the person to match their bodily appearance to the real person trapped inside. The distinction rests on the assumption that it is possible – and indeed desirable – for one’s true self to simply emerge – when a gap is seen to exist between doing and being – or semblance and substance – then the person is liable to be accused of pretension, inauthenticity, or acting a role. When contestants leave the big brother house for example, they often claim that the other contestants were acting, or wearing masks, rather than being themselves. People in the west conventionally counter-pose being an (authentic) identity against doing an identity (performing). Introduction: between semblance and substance She deals with the differences between the two too, but more of that later.
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