{"id":2139,"date":"2022-11-07T17:27:39","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T22:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/?p=2139"},"modified":"2022-11-07T17:27:39","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T22:27:39","slug":"inside-vs-outside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/2022\/11\/07\/inside-vs-outside\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside vs. Outside"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf the body is not a \u201cbeing,\u201d but a variable boundary, a surface whose permeability is politically regulated, a signifying practice within a cultural field of gender hierarchy and compulsory heterosexuality, then what language is left for understanding this corporeal enactment, gender, that constitutes its \u201cinterior\u201d signification on its surface?\u201d (Butler, 139)<\/span><\/p>\n

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In Judith Butler\u2019s \u201cGender Trouble,\u201d they explore the idea that our bodies are constantly being perceived by others in our society. It\u2019s impossible to escape the way our bodies signify gender to others because of the stylizations we have built over time surrounding sex and gender. In this sense, we almost lose control over our physical bodies. Once they are put out into the world, they are no longer ours. We may have our interior identity, but nonetheless we are expected to behave according to our perceived gender. Furthermore, Butler brings forth the concept of an interior gender and how this interior is connected to the exterior gender that we express, if it is at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The concept of interior vs. exterior gender relates to Anne Carson\u2019s <\/span>Autobiography of Red<\/span><\/i> in that Geryon is a winged red monster who is very much aware of how he is seen because of it. He hides his wings in an overcoat because his external body will alter how people treat him in the world \u201cIt was not the fear of ridicule, to which everyday life as a winged red person had accommodated Geryon early in life\u2026\u201d (Carson 83). When I first read this it felt like a metaphor for queerness. The idea that a queer person is seen as a monster by others is definitely relevant. However, I think this has more to do with the ways in which our bodies perform. Without us asking them to, our bodies perform for each other through the significance we give them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This bodily performance is subconscious, as it\u2019s ingrained into us from birth, with the speech act of a doctor declaring a gender (as we discussed in class). The doctor looks at the sex of the baby and says either \u201cboy\u201d or \u201cgirl.\u201d From that moment on, the baby is categorized into certain expected behavioral patterns in relation to their exterior. Their bodies therefore <\/span>are<\/span><\/i> their gender, as the two are assumed to coincide. Thus, we rarely give thought to the idea that maybe the interior and exterior are separate. Geryon is a \u201cmonster\u201d on the outside and is thus perceived to <\/span>be<\/span><\/i> a monster. Once his wings are revealed, he can\u2019t change the way they are perceived. They don\u2019t belong to him anymore, their meaning is created by others. People have made up their minds. Like Butler wrote, there is no language often used to define the inside. \u201c…He thought about the difference between outside and inside. Inside is mine, he thought\u201d (Carson 29). Interestingly, Geryon seems to believe that the inside belongs to him while the outside does not. He cannot control how his outside is perceived, but <\/span>only<\/span><\/i> he can control his inside. His wings may make him a monster to others on the outside, but the inside does not have to follow suit. He has the power to create his interior despite what the exterior signifies, a distinct separation between the body and the interior much like what Butler writes about.<\/span><\/p>\n

sources:<\/p>\n

Carson, Anne. Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse<\/i>. McClelland & Stewart, 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990).\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf the body is not a \u201cbeing,\u201d but a variable boundary, a surface whose permeability is politically regulated, a signifying practice within a cultural field of gender hierarchy and compulsory heterosexuality, then what language is left for understanding this corporeal enactment, gender, that constitutes its \u201cinterior\u201d signification on its surface?\u201d (Butler, 139)   In Judith … Continue reading Inside vs. Outside<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169404],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2022-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5022"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}