Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory

“Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” is a 1988 article published in Theatre Journal by philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler (who uses they/them pronouns). It is a foundational work for Butler’s idea of “performative gender,” which they went on to develop and complicate in later work. This article draws from phenomenology, theater studies, anthropology, and linguistics to show how gender can be understood as performative in both a theatrical and philosophical sense. Theatrically, gender functions as a script that members of the culture perform and, through performing, bring to life. Philosophically, gender is created through a series of “performative acts”—a type of ritualized action that serves to create many elements of society.

Butler opens with an exploration of the term “act,” which encompasses phenomena as varied as an actor performing a role and a performative speech act—such as promising, where the act of speaking a promise brings the promise into existence. Another kind of act creates and reinforces a social reality. Gender identity is one such created social reality. Many theorists have noted that gender roles are not completely determined by physiological sex characteristics, and they differ across individuals, cultures, and periods.