I chose Judith Butler and her idea regarding performing sexuality. Performing sexuality can easily be related to the past season of the Real World: Denver. One of the guys living in the house is gay, Davis, but he hides this information from the rest of the group in the beginning. I think Butler would agree that he is putting on a show for everyone by pretending to be someone he’s not. Everyone believes that he is a frat-boy because of his college stories and his immediate appearance (The “All-American Boy” dressed in Abercrombie and Fitch). Davis doesn’t want everyone knowing he his homosexual right away because he wants people to like hi for who he is as a person, and if everyone know his “secret” he’s afraid they’ll jump to conclusions and judge him. The only question is, how would they truly know what kind of person Davis really is when he’s not being true to himself, or honest to the entire group?

Butler feels as though everyone performs their sexuality since everyone winds up conforming to society. We are conditioned from the moment we are born, so it may be difficult being yourself in such a “people-pleasing” society. In the Real World: Denver, Davis conforms to societies standards, pretending to be a straight man. In Butler’s piece she talks about the performativity of gender versus its expression. She says, “Hence, as a strategy of survival within compulsory systems, gender is a performance with clearly punitive consequences. Discrete genders are part of what “humanizes” individuals within contemporary culture; indeed we regularly punish those who fail to do their gender right. Because there is neither an “essence” that gender expresses or externalizes nor an objective ideal to which gender aspires, and because gender is not a fact, the various acts of gender create the idea of gender, and without those acts, there would be no gender at all” (2500). Because our society is so obsessed with gender, Davis is having difficulties revealing who he really is.

Interestingly enough, it may seem as thought Denver is scared to be himself, but soon enough, he digs deep and stands up for his beliefs.

In Gender Trouble, Butler says “The soul is precisely what the body lacks; hence, the body presents itself as a signifying lack. That lack which is the body signifies the soul as that which cannot show.” I chose this particular quote because I completely disagree with Butler here. From what I understand, Butler doesn’t believe that people have souls (regarding their gender or even in general!) — She believes that every little detail is performed. Even though the soul cannot show itself through the body, it is still something deep within. The soul is hidden but it is the most important thing in any person. Outer appearance obviously can’t show the soul, but the soul is exactly what the righteous body needs.

In Davis’ case, one would first think that Butler was right because Davis was acting out who he is in order to fit in society. He is disregarding his feelings to please others. Later, we see Davis standing up for himself by saying, “I didn’t wake up one day and decide to be a gay man.” Here he is further proving that who he is comes from deep within, he can’t help or change who he is. He’s conscious of how he needs to act, which can be related to drag shows. Drag Queens are conscious of what they need to do, they need to wear make-up and fancy dresses to play the part. For example, you don’t just wake up in the morning and say “OK, I’m going to be very girlie today..” You just do it because it comes natural and because you are aware and conscious of what others expect without even thinking twice about it.

As far as conforming goes, Davis admits that he knew he was gay since he was in Middle School. He didn’t tell anyone for years; he recently came out and told his friends, family and frat brothers whom he attends college with. When he recently told his mother about his sexuality, Davis said “My relationship with my mom was great until I told her I was gay. She said that I was filled with demons and Jesus commanded many times in the bible that I’m going to hell for this, this is a sin.” He also said “She even refuses to pick up my phone calls.” Due to such extremes, he pretended to be straight for years, conforming to a society that only finds heterosexuality appropriate. He conformed by dating girls, talking a little deeper, and dressing preppy.

*As a side note, I have watched the Real World before this class, so I never picked up on the things that I do now. I focused in on the episodes and tried to relate it as much as I could, and because the Real World is a “theorist’s wonderland” (thanks Professor Middleton!), I had no problem relating theory to this type of entertainment. I wrote down a million quotes that I just couldn’t believe came out of some of the cast member’s mouths..

“The majority of the black community is homophobic, that’s just something that’s been passed all of a sudden, it’s not really discusses in our community, but I try to be open and tolerant as I can be.” First off his statement barely made any sense and second of all, “tolerant as I can be?” How ridiculous.

“You seem like such a cool person, are you sure you’re gay?” -Stephen (member of the Real World)

“You know how I feel about homosexuality. I just think there’s something wrong with it. I think it’s wrong that you’re gay, I do.” -Stephen

“I think that homosexuality is gross and it is gross. There’s no place for it in the church.” -Stephen

Towards the end of the episode Davis says “Gay is a sin? So the rest of Christianity can’t accept me because of some word in the bible?” He said it perfectly, people won’t accept him based on notions of what/who gay people are. Because people won’t accept him and give him such a hard time like Stephen does, he always has to hide his true identity when first meeting new people.