Undoing gender through performing the other

ABSTRACT

Following the perspective of gender as a socially constructed performance, consumer research has given light to how individuals take on, negotiate, and express a variety of gender roles. Yet the focus of research has remained on gender roles themselves, largely overlooking the underlying process of gender performativity and consumers’ engagement with it in the context of their everyday lives. Set within a performance methodology and the context of crossplay in live action role-playing games, this paper explores how individuals undo gender on a subjective level, thus becoming conscious and reflexive of gender performativity. The study suggests that individuals become active in undoing gender through engaging in direct, bodily performance of the gender other. Such performance does not challenge or ridicule norms, but pushes individuals to actively figure out for themselves how gender is performed. As a result, individuals become aware of gender performativity and become capable of actively recombining everyday performance.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender performativity
• gender norms
• performance
• agency
• crossplay
• live action role-playing
• LARP

Notes on contributor

Anastasia Seregina is an interdisciplinary researcher, with her work encompassing such fields as consumer research, sociology, anthropology, performance studies, art education, and media studies. Anastasia is also a practicing visual artist. In both her artistic and academic work, she explores the role and meaning of consumption in contemporary culture, specifically focusing on topics of fantasy, imagination, and aesthetics. As part of her practice, Anastasia is developing performance-based and art-based research methodologies.