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Head: IS ALL THE WORLD A STAGE?

Blog Commentary: Is All the World A Stage? Nicole Ponticorvo Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

IS ALL THE WORLD A STAGE?

Is All The World A Stage?

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts - William Shakespeare

Renns (2003) Understanding the Identities of Mixed-Race College Students Through a Developmental Ecology Lens and Bilodeaus (2008) Beyond the Gender Binary: A Case Study of Two Transgender Students at a Midwestern Research University use the mixed race and transgender communities to challenge the binary attached these social constructions. In doing so, they deconstruct traditional theoretical frameworks and rework theory in order to capture the complex experiences of their participants. Just as some think of race and gender as performances, so too can one interpret identity as a socially constructed performance. Considering an individuals multiple dimensions of identity, one can choose to perform certain aspects of identity. In order to attempt to explain the complexity of identity as it pertains to gender and race, Renn and Bilodeau employ the social construct of theory as a performance. By applying two different theoretical frameworks, not initially intended to explain the mixed race or transgendered experience, Renn and Bilodeau figuratively put theory in costume and ask it to perform a new function. While Renn applies Bronfenbrenners ecology model to bi-and multiracial student identity formation, Bilodeau adapts DAugellis lifespan model of sexual

IS ALL THE WORLD A STAGE? orientation identity development to transgender identity. In both instances, theory crosses boundaries and performs different actions. In employing DAugellis lifespan model, Bilodeau introduces gender as a performance.

Since gender, unlike biological sex, is a social construction, individuals perform it. While gender and sex align for some people, they do not for others. Societys conception of gender compels, oftentimes subconsciously, individuals to perform the gender to which they have been assigned at birth. For those whose sex and gender align with societys expectations, gender may not feel like a performance; yet, however subconscious this performance may seem, it exists. For the transgender participants in Bilodeaus study, gender has been a lifelong performance. Nick says: I found I loved dressing as a man. I started wearing a tie in 9th grade. At the same time, one day I would dress really slutty. Like a different costume every day. I loved transgressing gender (Bilodeau, 2008, p. 33). The gender Nick presents to the world is determined by her costume, not her female sex. Nevertheless, Nick affirms, I still feel like my expression of my gender feels like a performance, not to mean that is isnt something thats deep within me. . .it is (Bilodeau, 2008, p. 34). Since Jordan experiences conflict between her feminist and transgender identities, she finds it difficult to reconcile her two different roles. She admits, I feel like there are two different realities for me (Bilodeau, 2008, p. 34). Both Nick and Jordan credit their decision not to have surgery to the goal of breaking the gender binary. Jordan asserts, The only option is, if youre male, to become female, or vice versa. We want to increase the number of genders (Bilodeau, 2008, p. 34). Nick and Jordan suggest that undergoing surgery perpetuates societys gender binary. Looking to pop culture, one sees Chaz Bono, who has become the poster child for the transgender community; yet, one can

IS ALL THE WORLD A STAGE? perceive Chazs sex transformation as ascribing to the gender binary in that he chose to biologically transform into the sex that matches his performed gender. Dissimilarly, someone like Lady Gaga, that continuously challenges the gender binary, epitomizes gender as a performance, particularly when she performs a male identity, Joe Calderone. Philosopher Judith Butler, who coined the term gender performativity, writes, [g]ender reality is performative

which means. . .that it is real only to the extent that it is performed (1988, p. 527). According to Butler (1988), the acts by which gender is constituted bear similarities to performative acts within theatrical contexts (p. 521). While Lady Gagas shows are theatrical acts, her gender boundary crossing is a performance expressed outwardly in her identity. Examining Bilodeaus participants within the context of Butlers gender performativity theory, the situational and contextual nature of gender performance emerges. Nick affirms, I identify as transgender because I transgress gender and I refuse to be limited by gender; even though she identifies as FTM (female to male), she asserts, I still really strongly value my identity as a woman and womens spaces (Renn, 2008, p. 33). In certain spaces, Nick embraces her femininity, while in other contexts, she identifies more as a man. As a result, it can be argued that Nick is performing gender based upon the situation and context in which she feels comfortable doing so. Just as gender is a social construction that can be performed, so too is race. Using Bronfrenbrenners ecology model to explain biracial and multiracial identity development, Renn illuminates race as a performance. One of Renns participants, Kayla, suggests, if you accept race as a social construction, that gives us even more legitimacy in the freedom to choose what you want to identity as, because theres no, like, biological thing tying you to one or the other background (Renn, 2003, p. 393). Another participant, Alexandra, opted out of performing race

IS ALL THE WORLD A STAGE? at all, asserting that [i]f I checked the boxes I would be checking all of them. And thats just ridiculous to me. . . .So I dont check anything. I leave it blank (Renn, 2003, p. 395). For students of mixed-racial or ethnic backgrounds, different environmental settings may influence them to perform one race or ethnicity. When Kira admits that [b]ecause I dont have any easily identifiable Filipino traits, such as speaking a Filipino dialects, eating Filipino food at home, or simply having a Filipino name, I often feel unsure that I share in [a common] Filipino experience (Renn, 2003, p. 393), she suggests that in order to be considered Filipino she must outwardly perform that ethnicity in order to be embraced by her campus Filipino community. For multiracial or multiethnic individuals, the question arises as to whether or not one can simultaneously perform both identities or if only one identity can be performed at a time within the appropriate environmental context. One of societys most prominent bi-racial individuals,

Barack Obama, reflects race as a performance. It can be argued that Obama downplays his White identity is, while emphasizing his Black identity. Beyond race and gender as performances, Bilodeau and Renns work suggests the possibility that theory is performance in itselfa concept that deconstructs the traditional understanding of theory as concrete. Both DAugellis lifespan model and Bronfrenbrenners ecology model were developed for populations other than the transgender and bi/multiracial communities; however, Bilodeau and Renn apply these models directly to these communities without significant modification. In this sense, theory can be performed to explain multiple populations with vastly different characteristics.

Questions to consider

IS ALL THE WORLD A STAGE? Like puzzles, individuals possess a myriad of different identities that they can perform based on context. Reflecting on your own figurative self-puzzle, it is worth asking: Is it possible to choose one piece of your identity without sacrificing your

completeness? Or, is it possible to embrace multiple or all pieces of your identity, even those that may conflict, and, in turn, perform particular pieces within certain situational contexts? Do Bilodeau and Renns performance of theory effectively explain how the transgender and mixed race communities can develop and reconcile their multiple, often-conflicting identities? To what extent are we all performers acting multiple parts and performing multiple identities? Is, as Shakespeare puts it, all the world really a stage?

IS ALL THE WORLD A STAGE? References Bilodeau, B. (2005). Beyond the gender binary: A case study of two transgender students at a

Midwestern research university. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Issues in Education, 3(1), 2944. Butler, J. (1988). Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory. Theatre Journal. (40)4. 519-531. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3207893 Renn, K. A. (2004). Understanding the identities of mixed-race college students through a developmental ecology lens. Journal of College Student Development, 44(3), 383-403.