| Description |
What is gender? Is it a noun or verb? Where does one 'get' it? How is it formed? These questions have been asked time and time again over years of study and societal changes. Conceptions of gender have been and continue to be created from a variety of different perspectives. Among these theories is biological determinism, equating sex to gender; social constructionism, placing behaviors and characteristics in culturally defined masculine and feminine binaries; and gender performativity, supporting the concept of gender as fluid, continually evolving performances. Much of the contemporary academic literature in the communication and gender field focuses on the performativity theory, exploring performances of genders and the societal constructions that influence such performances. Using this theory and the concept of androgynous gender performance as its base, this paper explores gender performances in the youth population (approx. 18-25 years of age) of the Netherlands. This is done through a combination of participant observation and rhetorical analysis of the performances observed. Observations suggest that while traditional aspects of gender performances occur in certain contexts, the Dutch youth population is predisposed to blended gender performances and thus exhibits a potential for androgynous gender performances. Analysis also suggests there appear to be cultural limits to androgyny, specifically in terms of context. |
