Majeed 1

Abdulrazzaq Majeed
Professor C. Ditch
English 113B
25 March 2015
Gender Performance
In the book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society the reader can witness a
lot of gender performance from the characters. Gender performance is acting out of the
traditional gender norms and being different. In the article Some of the Most Unforgettable
Women in the World . . . Are Men": Re-presenting the Self through Gender Performance the
author states that, gender performance idea in understanding the process of constructing and
representing the self. (1). In other words a person learns who they are by performing different
acts even outside of their traditional gender norms, this shapes their identity. The setting of
GLPPPS is in World War II and in the past people view things differently, if someone acted in
an unusually way they would view him as a weird person. So when a person does not conform to
the socially constructed gender norms people view them differently. Women are expected to do
things like cooking and taking care of the house and on the other hand the men are expected to
fight in the war. If a women or a man performs in a different way they are breaking the norms of
their society. Nowadays it is different in a lot of places around the planet, although many people
still discriminate and judge others who do not conform. There are still people like Juliet and
Elizabeth who demonstrate gender performance, they do not conform to the socially constructed
gender norms. This makes a person interesting and more likeable.

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Juliet the main character in GLPPPS breaks the gender norms in the book many times by
not conforming to the traditional gender norms. Juliet is an independent women who likes to be
responsible for her own values and she demonstrates that in the book. One of her acts of gender
performance is when she proposes to Dawsey. That breaks the norm because it is known that the
man is the one that propose for marriage. Dawsey is another character in the book who portrays
Gender performance, as a man it is known that one should be masculine, be physical and not
emotionally invested. Dawsey on the other hard is very sensitive and quit not like Mark who was
set to be Juliets husband but she rejected him because of Kit. Juliet doesnt want to be like the
other women who once they are married only serve the purpose of a housewife. This makes
Juliet very interesting and it makes her stand out as a character. Elizabeth another one of the
characters in the book who does not conform to the traditional gender norm. Elizabeth is very
well known by a lot of people in the book as she was a strong women who had her own opinion.
Elizabeth helped people in need and was a key part of the story. She falls for a German soldier
and just that shows her courage at that time as the world was at war with Germany.
In the traditional gender norms women should never act like these characters, although
this is what makes these characters special. They are independent, spontaneous and rash these are
not things people would normally expect from a women at that time. This is what gender
performance is. These characters exhibit their own identity and do not conform to the norms and
thats what makes them different and significant in the book. In the book Rhetoric for Radicals,
the author Jason Del Gandio states an important fact, Gender and sexuality are commonly
grouped together for historical reasons. For instance, second wave feminism and gay liberation
both emerged during the 1960s and 1970s. Feminism was soon addressing same-sex relations,
particularly lesbianism, and the gay liberation movement was soon addressing gender equality,

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particularly male bias toward women. These early beginnings helped set the stage for todays
affiliation between gender and sexuality. But gender and sexuality are commonly grouped
together for another reason: because our society linguistically divides people into dichotomous
categories of biological sex, gender and sexuality. (113). These are two different things
sexuality is what a person is born with and gender is what a person chooses to be, although as the
author states people think they are the same thing. Truly though they are different.
Characters in the book relate to each other like Juliet and Elizabeth they are both women
who do not conform to the traditional gender norms in the same ways. Juliet discovers that later
in the book. Juliet and Elizabeth are both women who are independent and are not scared to stay
alone but are stronger that way. On the other hand Dawsey and Marks are two different people.
Marks is the perfect image of a man who conforms to the traditional gender norms, he shows his
masculinity he is rich, handsome and smooth just what society would expect from the perfect
man. That is one of the reasons Juliet rejected his marriage proposal. Dawsey is the complete
opposite of Marks as he his quiet and peaceful not what society would expect a man to be like.
During a time when certain things were expected from men and women people like
Juliet, Dawsey and Elizabeth who do not conform to the socially constructed gender norms they
are view in a different perspective. People despise them for how they act and how the few who
do not care treat them. If the characters in the book were to conform to the traditional norms of
gender the sparkle of the book would be gone. Although as characters in the eyes of the people at
that time they would be viewed as the rest of the conformist, regular people. It would make them
likeable by the people in the book. One of the things that make this book interesting is the fact
that these characters show gender performance and it is clear to the reader.

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In the book Rhetoric for Radicals the author Jason Del Gandio says that, our language
contributes to this situation because our gender and sexual identities are constructed through
divisive and non-symmetrical language. Changing that language would change the categories,
and changing those categories would change our gender and sexuality identities. (114).
Language plays a huge part in how we as humans define gender and sexuality as the same thing.
In fact they are not the same thing but our language allows us to understand the two words as
one. If the language were to change the two words the people viewed as one would be two words
with two different meanings. Gender is what a person chooses to be and sexuality is what a
person is born with, genitals. In the article Performing and defying gender. An exploration of the
lived experiences of women higher education administrators in sub-Saharan Africa the author
Ane Turner Johnson, says Gender is in no way a stable identity or locus of agency from which
various acts proceed; rather, it is an identity tenuously constituted in time an identity instituted
through a stylized repetition of acts. This quote explains what gender is and points to the fact
that gender and sexuality are two different words in definition. Although changing a language is
an extremely difficult task it is better for people to understand the meanings of the words gender
and sexuality and how they differ.
People like Juliet and Elizabeth who are non-conformists in the book GLPPPS are
viewed in a different perspective as people who do not fit in. There are many people like that in
this world who are viewed that way because of their gender performance, but why does that have
to be a bad thing for the others who view them differently. People like Juliet are ones a person
can rely on because they are strong and have a very confident vibe around them. Some people
expect women to act as housewives and nothing more, but some of the best people to ever walk
this earth are women. Those women made drastic changes and helped humanity advance further.

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So why is it that when a women steps out of the traditional gender norm many people see that as
an act of defiance. It is wrong! People get to be whom they want to be and that what makes
everyone different and special in their own way. Men are expected to be masculine and not
emotional invested, but men like Dawsey are caring and kind that does not take their sexuality
from them. They do not become feminine and their sexuality does not changes, they are just
more emotionally invested in these kinds of things that people view as feminine behavior. Many
people have to understand that it is none of their business how others act whether it was privately
or publically, each person choose who he wants to be. Other people do not have the right to
judge anyone they are not familiar with, Do not judge a book by its cover as the saying goes.
Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion but they do not have to judge a person and worse
publicize their opinion, people should learn to keep their opinions to their selves.
These characters are important to the story as they play a huge part in it. If their
characteristics are taken away from them the book would not be as good. Juliet, Elizabeth,
Dawsey are fictional characters but there are people in our world who perform gender whether it
was for the sake of a job or just because they like the way they are. Gender performance is an
important part of everyones life as it shapes their identity and makes them special. No one
person can be the exact same as the other everyone has something that separates them from the
rest.

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Works Cited
Gandio, Jason. Rhetoric for Radicals a Handbook for 21st Century Activists. Vol. 2. Gabriola
Island, B.C.: New Society, 2008. 113. Print.
Gandio, Jason. Rhetoric for Radicals a Handbook for 21st Century Activists. Vol. 2.
Gabriola Island, B.C.: New Society, 2008. 114. Print.
"Some of the most unforgettable women in the world . . . are men": Re-presenting the self
through gender performance. (1998).Women and Language, 21(1), 61.
Johnson, Ane Turner. "Performing and Defying Gender: An Exploration Of The Lived
Experiences Of Women Higher Education Administrators In Sub-Saharan
Africa." Educational Management Administration & Leadership 42.6 (2014):
835-850. Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 Apr. 2015.