(SHIRLEY TO SHIRLEY)
According to Judith Butler, gender only becomes real through the `stylised repetition of acts', (p.140); we are all implicated in a performance of drag whether we are a man-performing-a-woman or a woman-performing-a-woman. We literally act in the way that society has deemed appropriate and society polices the enforcement of such behaviour. Feminists argue that what has been socially constructed as feminine has historically either been damaging (eg beauty) or devalued (eg caring) and as such gender is the site of women's oppression. Against this background one might think that women would be relieved to experience the anonymity of the internet and a freedom from such tyranny of judgement.
Despite this potential some women and young girls perform a highly gendered, highly heteronormative role in ‘provocative’ profile pictures on MySpace and Bebo, and a disproportionate amount of young women allow hundreds of photographs of themselves on to be tagged on Facebook. These people are courting attention and styling themselves in order 'to-be-looked-at'. As Laura Mulvey wrote in her seminal essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,
‘In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness’ (p.373)
We may know that this is the site of our objectification but equally we know that it is the site of our worth. The potential to be invisible when we are valued in terms of our appearance may be frightening. and as Naomi Wolf suggests in The Beauty Myth, it may be that we are not quite convinced that we are anything more than attractive.
‘Women’s sense of unpardonable inadequacy has been widely documented by feminist scholars of gender (Bartky 1993, Bordo 1993, Butler 1989, 1990, 1993a, and 1993b, Davis 1993), who posit that the strength of dominant femininities lies in the fact that they are impossible to master or perfect. But precisely because dominant femininities require the subject’s constant and active renewal for their survival and consolidation, they also require rigid male supremacist sanctions in order for such renewal to appear imperative and inevitable.’
Not only are you meant to be attractive, you should want to be attractive and as such unwanted sexual attention can become confused in the murkey waters of flattery. The strength of such patriarchal regimes lie in their internalisation; even feminists may battle with what we may call the ‘tee hee/FUCK OFF’ conundrum with regards unsolicited 'compliments' from strange men. As my friend says, ‘I can laugh about it, but it’s more with my teeth than my eyes.’
