Embodiment and Gender Performance

 

Embodiment and Gender Performance: The Cinematic Body

Introduction

This theory examines how cinema constructs, performs, and politicizes the body through gender, identity, and movement. Drawing on Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble (1990), it views gender as performative — enacted through gestures, costume, and gaze.

Core Concepts

• The cinematic body is a site of meaning, power, and resistance.

• Gender identity is performed, not fixed.

• The camera both objectifies and reveals agency.

Key Points

• Performative Identity: Characters construct gender through visual codes.

• Body as Text: Movement, costume, and framing communicate ideology.

• Subversive Performance: Queer and feminist cinema reclaims representation.

Examples

• The Crying Game (1992) — challenges binary gender expectations.

• Orlando (1992) — explores gender fluidity across time and history.

• Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013) — represents intimacy and identity through physical embodiment.