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Representation (the theoretical framework)
Quick questions on Gender performativity (Judith Butler) - Eduqas A-Level Media Studies representation
5short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
how does their repetition make the gender feel natural?Show answer
A character coded as conventionally masculine is built from a repeated set of signs (stance, voice, dress, behaviour); the repetition, not nature, produces the effect. This lets you read media gender as staged.
What is the repetition that produces a stable gender?Show answer
Because gender is made by repetition, the analytical question for a media product is: which acts are repeated to construct this gender, and how does their repetition make the gender feel natural? A character coded as conventionally masculine is built from a repeated set of signs (stance, voice, dress, behaviour); the repetition, not nature, produces the effect. This lets you read media gender as staged.
What is gender trouble?Show answer
Because gender is performed, it can be performed differently. Butler's idea of gender trouble describes products that expose, exaggerate or subvert the performance: drag, androgyny, parody, or characters who refuse the binary. These denaturalise gender by making visible that it was a performance all along. The analytical move is to ask whether a product re-naturalises the binary (making conventional gender feel given) or troubles it (revealing gender as constructed and changeable).
What is q1?Show answer
Explain what Butler means by gender as performative. [5 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Analyse how one set product constructs gender as a performance, and whether it troubles the binary. [10 marks]
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