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Judith Butler relates performativity to gender in their book, Sexual Politics, Social Change and the Power of the Performative, that we often perform our gender. Being born male or female does not determine how one will act they argue. Rather, gender is something we act out based off of societal expectations and norms. Thus, based off of every individual, gender is something we act out based on how we dress, speak, and where a person’s interest lies.

Outside of the topic of gender, performativity occurs in the sphere of culture and language. When looking up the word performativity we are greeted with the definition that it is, “the concept that language can function as a form of social action and have the effect of change.” In regards to culture and language, one can use their culture or language in order to convey deeper meanings. A great example of this is Dictee. The themes in the late Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s famous novel are vast as she speaks on transgenerational trauma, the Japanese occupation in Korea, her mother and mother figures, and many other thematic elements. What’s unique is that she uses translanguaging in her piece: English, French, Chinese, and Korean. It can be argued that her use of translanguaging is in itself performative. Performative in a sense that she is using multiple languages as a way to bring to light historical and societal themes in order to bring awareness. She does so effectively by unapologetically serving her book to different language communities; much like she is unapologetic about the themes she illustrates in her novel.

When encountering the word performative, I will say I had a negative connotation with it. Performative to me meant: fake, ingenuine, attention-seeking. Thus to me, when using performative to describe works like Dictee came off as jarring. But from my time in class, I’ve noticed that performativity is something we do daily. We perform gender, our culture, our roles as a student, our roles as employees, our roles as siblings – we are consistently. performing. This makes sense as our relationships with people differ from person to person. Especially with translanguaging, we are performing different languages that signifies dialects and culture. To perform, thus, is not always a negative connotation.

I’ve thought further as to how performativity looks in my life. In my own life, I’ve experienced code-switching and translanguaing either from me or others. I still have questions, however.

Is it a part of the human condition to always perform?

When are ever not performing?

Can we ever turn it off?

What does it mean to be authentic?