Performative Acts and Gender Constitution - Admission/Application Essay Example

?Chengyao Yang C. Morando ENG 106 6 February In writing her essay on ‘Performative Acts and Gender Constitution’, Judith Butler relied heavily on Simone de Beauvoir’s claims that, “one is not born, but rather, becomes a woman” (Butler 120). It is from this trajectory of ideas that Butler postulates that, “gender is no way a stable identity or locus of agency from which various acts proceed; rather…it is an identity, instituted through a stylized repetition of acts in the society we live” (Butler 120). Therefore, this perspective inspires this paper’s attempt to show how Butler’s performance theory can be used to analyze David Bowie’s song, ‘The Hearts Filthy Lesson’. The Hearts Filthy Lesson is a song by David Bowie from his 1995 album by name Outside, and has been deemed number one hit of the album. The musician laments for a tyrannical futurist Ramona for whom he holds strong sexual feeling as he says, “Oh, Ramona, if there was only something between us/If there was only something between us” (Bowie 1). The repetition of phrases in the song represents a repetition of acts in the realm of life which shapes identities like gender and sexuality (Wilshire 42). There is a notable mortage of art-style mutilations and glory object d’art displayed by the song performers and their costumes. The costumes and body decorations of the performers represent gender in the wake of the new cults of tattooing, scarification and piercing among other gender identity life representations. This is evident in the song performance that is set around the idea of ritual art and most on the present options to this kind of quasi-sacrificial blood obsessed art form (Wilshire 44). The song represents gender as a volatile entity especially when it comes to love. The song implies that one cannot control his or her heart when it comes to love, for example, the speaker in this song loves Romana. There is, however, a dilemma as love is being forced to a person who has had bitter experiences with another woman and in particular his former lover Miranda. It is the speaker’s experience with Miranda which is being referred to as the heart’s filthy lesson, and which is falling upon deaf ears and this is stated by the song in no unclear terms thus, “It's the heart's filthy lesson/Heart's filthy lesson/Heart's filthy lesson/Falls upon deaf ears” (Bowie 1). This way sexuality in the song cannot be taken lightly especially when the speaker seeks advice from Paddy because he believes that this romantic affection for Romana waylays him. Paddy has been wearing Miranda’s clothes, and this makes the speaker of the song to have memories of his sexual feelings for Miranda, whose identity is closely attached to her clothes (Wilshire 44). Being a man, he thinks that a woman attracts a man in a way that can be destructive but inevitable. This is illustrated by his love for Romana which, though a “…fantastic death abyss”, is the ultimate option he should have (Bowie 1). This ultimate end emphasizes the influence of gender on the identity and, more so, the way gender is performed in real life to bring out sexuality. Moreover, the speaker had suffered a loss as a man when he lost his lover and feels that by giving in to Romana he will be doing a filthy act of cheating. For the song; Gender, sexuality and identity are tacked in the clothes Paddy wears, which are symbolic of the new generation embracing the old generation identities. In this case, paddy is a symbol of the new generation and Miranda is an illusion of the past generation. When the speaker sees Miranda’s clothes, he identifies them and has the sexual feeling he had for her aroused. However, it does not matter how far this goes, Miranda’s absence is irreversible and the speaker has to deal with the situations by accepting this fact at the end of the song as he says, “Paddy, oh, Paddy, I think I've lost my way/…I'm already in my grave/…Will you carry me?/…Oh Paddy, I think I've lost my way/…What a fantastic death abyss/…What a fantastic death abyss/It's the hearts filthy lesson” (Bowie 1). This is the last lament after the speaker gives in to the reality of things and embraces the inevitable new sexuality, gender and identity realities. This fits with Butler’s postulation that sexuality and identity are never stable or stagnant entities; they assert their impact radically (Butler 120). In whole, the song is a symbol of unstable performance which is not holding a particular position even in the way its instrumentation is orchestrated. The song’s video contains defiantly noncommercial sound and grimy visuals, which probably emphasizes the fluid nature of social identities. Watching this song in performance makes clear that a vacancy has been created by the way gender, sexuality and identity are expressed in the society by other artists, but Bowie is out to fill such gaps. Moreover, the song expresses sexuality through the infidelity evidenced by the act of the speaker when he feels guilty of loving Ramona. The fact that he sees Paddy wearing Miranda’s clothes is an illusion of the love he had for Miranda and the vacancy she left in his heart. The song challenges the narratives of authentic identity as it challenges the current death of art and emergency of ritual creation through some life performances like tattooing, scarification and piercing. This is the contest man has to take in trying to challenge what is inevitable. Since gender and sexuality are not stable identities, narratives of authentic identity are unstable, we see the song’s speaker accepting what he was initially against. He accepted Romana even though this acceptance was destructive, and this is seen when he writes, "What a fantastic death abyss" (Bowie 1). It is this getting hurt or being destroyed by Romana that will teach his him the filthy lesson. There is no way that the song tries to imply that gender is stable and readable category. As Butler notes, gender is no way a stable identity; the speaker is never stable in his decisions. The repetition of acts in the performance of this song is evident in the repetition of the idea of the ‘heart’s filthy lesson’ (Bowie 1). There is dark knowledge and awareness of the evil that human beings are capable of and this is a tragic destiny of gender. Unless one watches the performance on video, and probably the unedited one, Butler’s theory will not come out clearly. That gender is a repetition of culturally recognizable gestures is only evident from the writer’s or speaker’s perspective of reading. It is only by analyzing the text’s ‘physiology’ that one can link the theory with the song if not its symbolic representation. Bowie’s song is a classic read whose meaning is not in the surface, but in the deep meaning engraved within cultural symbols which are implied rather than mentioned. These implied symbols link culture and its performance to bring about gender interaction, influence for each other and impacts on the lives of individuals. Just like Judith Butler argues, David Bowie’s song, ‘The Hearts Filthy Lesson’ supports the fact that; gender performance inheres in real life frustrations, affections and embodiment of sexuality and behavioral patterns, all of which can never be stable. Works Cited Bowie, David. Hearts Filthy Lesson. n.d. 28 Feb. 2012. . Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution." Ed. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Literary Theory: An Anthology. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2004. 900-11. Print. Wilshire, Bruce. Role-Playing and Identity: The Limits of Theatre as Metaphor. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981.Print. Read More