GENDERING

A GAME IN FEW EPISODES, INTRODUCTION, RULES AND A QUOTE FOR A CONCLUSION

Are you really your gender? gender test from: http://www.gotoquiz.com/are_you_really_your_gender

This is a quiz to determine your mind gender, you may be really your own gender, or are you? Are you
a nancy boy, or are you a girl who acts like a bloke?
SO what is your true gender, hopefully this quiz will get you brain thinking about it, enjoy, and don't get
too upset if you didn't get your wanted result!

what gender are you really? gender test from:

http://quizfarm.com/quizzes/Sex/kelson2/what-gender-are-youreally/#

( the gender tests are the first two links proposed by safari browser )

EPISODE 1 WHY TO TALK ABOUT SEX IF WE HAVE GENDER?

gender. the magic word that brought many discourses to the ground.
gender. a space that regulates identity, desire and, especially power.
to possess gender is to enter into heterosexual relationships subordination.
to be possessed by gender is to be assigned to heterosexual relationships subordination.

first and foremost, gender represents itself as a binary. a binary is a space that contains only two
elements ( ! ). these elements are equal ( ! ) and opposite to each other in every aspect. and they are
the only two choices in that space ( ! ). in gender, the binary is male or female, in other words: man-andwoman, boy-and-girl, crone-and-curmudgeon, lady-and-gentelman, cinderella-and-price of charming,
the Pill-and-Viagra, romance-and-horror movies, cooking-and-gastronomy, breast cancer-and-prostate
cancer, small hands-and-dirty hands, love before sex-and-sex for the sexs sake, not knowing much or
knowing a lot but not being able to say it-and-encyclopedic knowledge, not making any noice-andknowing how to raise your voice, being left by your partner for a younger woman-and-leaving your
partner for a younger woman, letting yourself be fucked in the ass when iss needed-and-the desire and
fear to get fucked in the ass, gossips-and-the big narratives....the binary is clean like a rain water in the
spring pond with a whole family of ducklings swimming and quacking in yellow quack quack quack.
the binary elements are equal. indeed? is there anywhere in the world where men and women are
equal and opposite in all three spaces of identity, desire and power? really, can you name me a town
where thats the way life is.... where is the town where the small particular problems are equal to the
universal ones and where the manicure is equal to callused hands.
everything what is masculine is not masculine, but universal.
everything what is feminine is feminine or is nowhere.
not only that gender is a binary, it is a cultural construct, defining the boundries of imaginery meanings
and creating fantasmatic body. this fantasmatic body is compared to something that is real - a different
set of fantasy. the boundaries of what is real, are produced in the framework of the natural
heterosexuality, where the physical facts serve for the cause ( no none! one here does not appreciate a
huge variability of human anatomies ), and desires are a reflection of the inexorable effects of that
physicality.
the two heterosexual laws: gender is real and gender is an equal binary, regulated, still regulates social
power relations. feminism was one of the movements fighting against gender inequality ( even though in
60-ties the category was still not in use, one could speak about social roles ). when during 90-ties the
queer discourse manifests itself, homosexuality started to fight for its identities, trying to reject the
omnipresent perfect gender. a perfect gender, this powerful oppresive force: women call it MAN,
homosexual and bisexual call it STRAIGHT, transgender call it CISGENDER. and in this perfect gender
there are white men and black men, and because of the racial component, these are seen and treated
by the dominant culture as two different and unequal genders. a rich woman who owns everything, a
poor woman who works three job these are different unequal and natural genders in our society.
regarding these troubles that i am part of, sometimes in the unpriviledge position and certainly in the
priviledge as well. in the playfull way since there are too many wars in the world, i will think and

rethink my thinking how can i deal with the gender problems. i will try not to put myself in the victim
position that i used to do in uncomfortable situations and only because in western society i am
perceived as a woman category and as this category i can and i cannot take some positions ( explicitly
speaking ). am i a woman? totally, definitely, endlessly? being completely honest - i am not. i
discovered that few weeks ago ( ! ). i am not a woman. that is the secret that you know now. i am not a
woman and i am not a man, and i am a part of gender binarism. that is why i am a woman ( sometimes i
want it so much ) but i am not a woman and a woman. and surely i am a woman also because it is nice
to talk like everybody else, to say the run rises, when everybody knows it is only a matter of speaking.
what i can say about myself i am transgressing gender. i think anyone who wants to question or
study gender is transgressing gender. i think anyone who has either the desire or the courage to own
their transgressions against gender is transgender. i am trasgressing gender and i am trangendering
myself but only some days in a week.
my eagerness is not to put a blame on anybody and definitely not to blame men it is not their thought
to be socialized in a different way ( different towards who? ), it is not their thought they were tought to
have these strange desires and laugh at good-natured jokes ( little smile and again a little mischivous
sentiment and how can i claim not to be a woman ). i start from the main binarism: man-and-woman
because in my opinion this is the binarism that embraces every possible gender and every possible
identity ( all of them in different aspects and amount of percentage ). i am also not including ( at least
explicitly ) sexuality. there is a difference with sexual orientation and gender identity. sexual orientation
is ( in my opinion ) who am i atracted to not who i am that is why i dont want to concentrate on sexual
orientations at all i dont find it relevant at this point of my game to concentrate on sbs sexual
preferences, even these delicious. i am thinking now from the perspective of cultural categories ( yes
yes, sex is a product of it as well, as well as nature, instinct, desires, etc, i take it back what i have said
before ) and how our social relations are in their trap. the only claim is to bring simple awareness ( to
myself, i am not in the position of encyclopedic knowledge ) cause in this cruel world i have to question
myself in every minute of my life. i am naive and not naive enough to believe i can reach the point
where one no longer says i am a woman, i am a man, or where it is no longer of any importance
whether one says that. the game that i am proposing is very simple and it is my personal practice to
help me in these difficult moments when am i asked the question who are you?.
the failure is included. i failed under the heaviness of pronouns, i failed while using magic we and
one. many times i am using language against myself, that is certain.
criticize me! criticize me deeply and strongly! and be sure that i love you and i am glad that i know that.

2. EPISODE 2 ESCAPE FROM

you will be heterosexual / straight, or you will not be

monique wittigs lesbianism as a way of escaping the heterosexual structure.

a woman, as wittig claims, exists only as a stabilizing and strengthening category of binary relations, in
relations with man with a heterosexuality. to escape from the system, she proposes new category
lesbian. lesbian as a category, which wittig suggests, through rejecting of heterosexuality, stops being a
definition that invokes binarism. thus, a lesbian exceeds the binary oppositions between a woman and a
man: it/she/he ( the pronouns here are problematic ) is neither a woman nor a man. and in that case it
does not have a gender it/she/he ( again the pronouns are putting me into trouble ) is beyond these
categories.
rejecting these predicaments, a lesbian acknowledges that these categories were culturally established
but in a casual way as well as that a heterosexual matrix is silent, but no less by this the lasting
foundation. the only reason to divide the human body to the female and male, is the fact that this
operation corresponds to the economic needs of heterosexuality and adds to heterosexuality a sparkle
of naturalness. men and women are categories of political ( not given by the nature ), male and female
are categories of political, not given by the nature.
for wittig being a lesbian is not to know her/its ( pronouns problems ) own sex/gender, it is an action of
disturbing and multiplying categories, that makes gender/sex an impossible identity category.
what is problematic in wittigs claims is that she builds a lesbian identity with a help of the same
exclusive strategies, just like the-excluded just because of their exclusion, were not needed and, what is
more, not further required to construct identity. this kind of exclusion is paradoxically relation of radical
dependency, which supposed to be overcome here. thus heterosexuality becomes a requirement for
lesbianism. by defining itself in the radical separation from heterosexuality, lesbianism loses the
opportunity to modify the meanings of heterosexual constructs, which in unavoidable way partially
constitutes it. as a result of such a strategy a lesbian only strengthens oppressive forms of obligatory
heterosexuality.
The 3rd gender ( as we could think of wittigs assertion ) is structured in the same way as heterosexual
matrix, it does not allow to escape the binary system. one can neither pick nor reject the power, but one
can easily deploys it. the entire excess of power is a non-existing fantasy.

EPISODE 3 - IN THE GAP

This episode is dedicated to all the dragging practices, especially to artistic practice of Monica Vitti and
Anna Karina.

whatever i do, i always do drag. drag is about consciousness, of mindfulness. when i stop being
mindful, its no longer drag. when i do drag, i am always aware of how i am coming across. the question
is always what am i dragging, which spheres that are regulating my life i want to drag up better in that
sphere.
drag is an action of dragging. drag is not about dragging a man to woman or woman to man. dragging is
a body in action towards something we want to recognize as a woman or as a man or maybe both in the
same time but definitely the starting point is not important to stabilize here.
drag does not constitute a paradigm of subversive actions. it is about something completely different. if
we see a man dressed as a woman or a woman dressed as a man, we accept then that it is what we
notice at first - is the "reality" of gender ( example: this a man but dressed as a woman ), the second
part of the "reality" is lacking ( dressing as a woman but not being a woman ), it is for us only deluding
superficiality. making such observations, in whose alleged reality occurs in tandem with unreality, we
think that we ( who belongs to we? ) know what is the reality, and the secondary surface we take as
the artifact, game, falsehood, hypocrisy. but what is the point of "gender reality", which in this way
guides our perception? it may seem to us that we know ( and certainly we do not appreciate what
variety can be ripen in anatomy ), bringing our fantasies about learned optical ontology: the real is what
i think i can see. this knowledge is considered a natural and yet is therefore based on the cultural
meanings of the contract, not considering the particularity of the body.
an example of drag is here to show us that reality is not static, and solid how you might think. is not
therefore to wonder over the "natural gender" of drag - what's behind the costume. maybe nothing is
hidden there and maybe everything at once .... drag in this sense is not the identity, but the action of
creating the gap between cultural agreements and its own position towards them.
following butler and assuming gender as being performative, in this sense of understanding - a gender
is not a noun or not is a series of free-floating attributes, because, as we have seen, substantial effect of
gender is produced performatively. therefore - using the legacy handed down to us in the discourse of
metaphysics substances one can say this: gender turns out performative - that is, constituting the
identity. in the sense of "gender is always activity but not activity of the subject, which would precedes
his/her act. if you take the attempt of framing gender, exiting beyond the metaphysics of substance,
you have to take into account nietzsche's thesis the wording in "the genealogy of morality": "there is no
existence outside-doing, action, becoming; do-er is just a fabrication added to deal doing is
everything". nietzsche could not predict of course such use of his thoughts, and he would never forgive
us. we can tell the following: behind the expressions of gender lies not gender identity, identity is
performativity by only "expressions", which are supposedly its result.
with a practice of drag, i can bring my perception into dead end. still my perception and my language
will try to name everything what is seen and unseen in the woman-and-man assembling. dragging
brings the gap, the cut in between but doesnt erase binary.

since i have to live the gender i got from heaven, why not to do properly - a 120% of this given action.

EPISODE 4 TILL THE END OF THE WORLD AND A ONE DAY LONGER
amplifying the system of production
patrycja germans video performance 70 vs 3 as a strategy against the system, within the system.
"performativity is not a single act, but a repetition and a ritual that exceed effect thanks to body
naturalization, partly understood as sustained duration in time". such a strategy is the departure point of
the video performance of patricja german 70 vs 3, through repetition of the fairy tale: "princess in the
hands of the prince", in time in which extent a women's category owes its stability and cohesion within
the heterosexual matrix.
the scenario is very simple one naked 70 kilos weight long hair woman vs three well build men, in blue
jeans, without t-shirts. three of them standing in the circle have to carry naked patrycja. patrycja with the
face of princess first becomes simple object of mens exchange, a woman given from hands to hands,
completely passive. after a while she becomes a burden an action of carrying the whole heterosexual
system and all the obligations that hetersexual matrix demands from two gender positions she is
passive, he is active, she is a chase, he is a hunter, she is a princess, he is a prince, she needs to be
saved, he needs to save her. the representation fulfills the conditions of being established entity.
patrycja sets them very carefully and according to the existing policy. there is no rebellion. patrycja
represents all assumptions of heteronormative policy, she carries in every detail all heterosexual
hegemony, with grace and glory. when the 70 kilograms started to be too heavy for these muscles,
patrycja is not anymore a woman - she is a problem. she becomes an action that is not pleasant
anymore.
we become gender, but we are not ever the gender in itself - gender is a kind of action of becoming an
action. patrycja german is putting her gender into action. and while insisting on this action her gender
stops being a noun but repeatable verb. where its repetition may fail in deformities or in parodic
repetitions, which show that the phantasmatic effect of lasting identity is politically flaccid construct, here
one ( this holy one who is that? ) needs to look for possibilities of cultural transformations of gender.
the analogy to this type of action in the system of power can be found in the proposal of laurla mulvey
and her feminist critique of mainstream narrative cinema. cinema is a particular illusion of reality, where
the constitution of i has its source in the displayed picture, thereby engineering the concept of truth.
movements being viewed at normal speed seem natural. this is the illusion of normal speed - of 24
frames per second, which allows us to believe in the films image. this is how the image of a female
gender is constructed - a real illusion the eternal and of the unchangeable narrative that confirms the
dominant patriarchal ideology.

even if it resides in the psychoanalytic fear of castration, it doesnt change its position. silent images of a
woman are still tied to her place as bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning. the important fact is that
it is an image that constitutes the matrix of the imaginary, of recognition/mis-recognition and
identification, and hence of the first articulation of the i of subjectivity. it doesnt matter that we all
agree that cinema is an illusion and thus the image of a white heterosexual woman is also an illusion,
the truth becomes constructed, ready to be believed in. this is a moment when an older fascination with
viewing film collides with the initial inklings of self-awareness. when self-awareness appears, the white
heterosexual woman understands that she is in privileged position and how this privileged position is
not privileged at all.
woman is a spectacle, man is a story. woman is constructed out of movement, but the movement
belongs to man. woman inspires action in the hero, in herself the woman has not the slightest
importance other than to be desired. her appearance takes their breath away. she doesnt need to
move, she just has to appear with all her grace and sex appeal. for a moment the sexual impact of the
performing woman takes the film into a no-mans-land, outside its own time and space. every detail is
desired. every part of her fragmented body destroys the renaissance space, the illusion of depth
demanded by the narrative, it gives flatness, the quality of a cut-out, ICON or perfect FETISH rather
than verisimilitude to the screen. the star is born centering both the screen presence and the story on
screen.
a snapshot of women being stopped to contemplate, is delaying action (or she keeps it in this place of
delaying), thus the thrust of the narrative is stopped. a woman brings an illusion of eternity even though
she is mortal. a still frame shot in cinematic terms doesnt function like a photo, it is a movement of the
same frame repeated to create an illusion of eternity. thus a woman is not passive. and thus the woman
can insist on this position, insisting like patrycja german on the position given to her by the society. i am
doing exactly what you want from me and i will do it more than perfectly.
the look of the main hero, as well as the spectator is frozen fixating both of them and prevents them
from achieving any distance from the image in front of them. a heroine - exposed to the fetishistic eye
on the one hand is being subjected to violence and eternity (loops of single shots) and detains her own
frame, on the other hand she does not allow the male main character to move in the narrative act.
according to the principles of the ruling ideology and the psychical structures that back it up, the male
figure cannot bear the burden of sexual objectification. man is reluctant to gaze upon his own
exhibitionism. hence the split between the spectacle and narrative supports the mans role as the active
one of advancing the story, and making things happen. the man controls the film's fantasy and also
emerges as the representative of power in: as the receiver of the gaze of the spectator, transferring it
behind the screen to neutralize the extradiegetic tendencies represented by the woman as a spectacle.
when woman gives herself to sexual exposure, she becomes for a moment the center of the movie.
when she insists on the frame she was stopped in, she exposes herself, she is - an object (pause) an
image in its powerlessness continues being the center of a movie. bringing her frames in a loop, her no-

mans-land, her lack of linear time , she stops the narrative, she destroys its continuity and she doesnt
allow the main character to act, to realize his subjectivity. thereby the hero due to the lack of movement,
dies. the main super hero is dead. what a pity, he promised me to be immortal.!

EPISODE 5 - OMG, WHERE HAVE ALL MY GENDERS GONE?

gender looses its borders!
gender identity is an action!
not a woman! not a man! an action! ( and the action of known categories )
in both cases the borders of the gender become ridiculous. in germans video performance, the gender
first follows its position - she is a real woman, they are real men. after a while, when the kilograms of
her body still insist on her gender role, they become burden for men. they dont see in her a woman,
they dont see in her princess that due to the gender role they should take care of. they perceive her as
enormous operation, a duty, an action impossible to continue. while their gestures become transformed
and deformed by the action ( their arms dont have anymore masculine power, they dont embrace her
in protective and charming gesture ), the gender roles started to crack. the more two sides ( patrycja
with her face of princess and three polish torreros ) are insisting on the action, on the mechnism to
make it happen, the more ridiculous the situation become. their bodies struggle to keep their gender
role and they fail.
similarly to the proposition of mulvey if the woman in the cinema decides to stay in her role and insists
on it, she kills the narrative she kills the main character and she makes her desirable appearance for
the spectator a heavy burden. look at me look at me! i am exactly how you want me to be! forever!
deconstruction of identity is not the deconstruction of politics. rather, it gives the political nature of the
categories, thanks to which identity manifests itself. this kind of criticism questions the foundationalist
perspective that shaped feminism as a politics of identity.
it is safe having an identity its secure. its safe having a gender. but there is a price for this safety and
security within some hard shell. we cant grow any more. our identities are so hard and so restrictive
that we can no longer stretch and explore.

EPISODE 6 - I AM NOT, I AM DOING

my personal -ING form.
grammar and style are not politically indifferent/neutral. following wittigs thoughts, gender gains
naturalness by grammatical rule earlier, then subverting the grammar, you can enter in the field of

gender changes at the most fundamental epistemic level. i do not know if we want to achieve
naturalness, i do not want to concentrate of this category, but by constructing gender as -ING action
and speaking forth of myself not as an "i" but "i am doing" with the accent on doing, certainly it
changes the perception of gender.
judith butler, already in the 90s tdoubted whether feminism has still the need to construct the subject of
feminism appeareance. from the viewpoint of feminist political practice seems necessary new approach
to ontological constructs of identity - to find such formulas of politics of representation, which would
reinvigorate feminism, built on other grounds to which extend women's category owes its stability and
cohesion within the heterosexual matrix. if a stable notion of gender ceases to be a fundamental
premise of feminist politics, it can to undermine the cultural reification of gender and identity, the need
for a new kind of feminist politics: its methodological and normative starting point - if not political goal would then be variable construction of identity.
this is a departure from the humanist concept of entity based primarily on the assumption that there is a
substatial person, which has a number of relevant and irrelevant attributes.
foucault, writing diaries of herkulina barbin and consider that gender links together functions and
meaning of the body that doesnt need to or even shouldnt be linked, comes to the conclusion that the
disappearance of "sex/gender" would entail positive effects of dispersion of these different functions,
meanings, tools, somatic and physiological processes, and also multiply the pleasures, which will come
out beyond the framework set by gender intelligibility considered unambiguous and remaining in a
binary relation. the physical pleasures will not be automatically relate to "gender" as their first cause and
ultimate meaning. this would be a world, in which "smiles wander without a cat".
to understand identity as a practice, and this as a grammatic practice, one should look at the culturally
intelligible entities as a result of the discourse, the discourse with established rules, which penetrates
the universal and the most ordinary acts of meaning in the linguistic life.

EPISODE 7 - JOYFUL DEPTHS OF NO-IDENTITY

project proposition: the practice of languages i as an action
all the attempts to create a new language belong to the second wave of feminism, which in its
assumptions tried to overcome symbolic order. some french feminists went out with a proposal of an
alternative language in relation to this, which is ruled as a paternal phallus law, appearing against the
symbolic order/father figure.
kristeva suggests "semiotics" as a specifically maternal dimension of language, and helene cixous and
lucy irigaray are associated with ecriture feminine. wittig however always stood out from that direction,
claiming that in its structure language is neither misogynistic nor feminist, but is merely a tool used for
specified political purposes. if language is a tool, which is misogynistic just because of the way in which

it is used, but in any case not because of its structure, i dont need to create new language ( what an
impossible task ) but i can change it usage.
talking about myself "i" leads to the establishment of a sovereign entity, the absolute center of plenitude
and power. to talk about myself i am doing takes away the question who am i really?.
THE GAME
RULES:
from the chosen date of your life, from now on, everyday you apply -ING forms to answer every
question regarding your being, identity, gender identity and social position.
example:
who are you? i am drinking coffee.
sub-rules:
1. try to avoid nouns if you want to say I love my cat, be more concentrated on action of loving than
a cat.
2. forget also about adjectives ( ex. I am beautiful no, that doesnt work here )
3. try to use verbs that bring action than state
4. take as much time as you need, dont feel oblige to answer fast
example:
who are you? i was doing jewellery, then I was doing......now I am taking care of my dog....etc.
The answer can take you whole evening.
5. NEVER EVER CONCLUDE YOURSELF AND DONT ALLOW OTHERS TO DO SO.
example:
- who are you?
- i play football
- so you are a football player?
- no, i play football / even insisting and saying in continuous tense / I am playing football / not necessary
doing this physically in the moment of speaking but imagine doing that / - important: answer that even if
your name is cristiano ronaldo
hey dear lovers of liquid identities, of rizome structures, ambiguity, of lack of borders.
hey dear lovers of strong rooted trees, monuments and strong hair. lets stay in peace, lets stay
together! lets leave the noun structured identities behind us, lets leave all the possible genders that
bother us, lets leave it all what is hard to solve and this impossible to solve and even this that is sure in
us like sun waking us up every morning. lets play the GAME!!! "there is not one or two sexes, but there
are as many as individuals" such immense multiplication of gender logically entails the negation of
gender as such. if the number of gender correspond to the number of existing units, then gender as a
concept would lose its universal usage. gender would become radically particular property and lost the

utility of descriptive, it will allow generalizations to none. -ing actions is a good practice to try so, at least
once. lets play the GAME!!!
WRITE HERE YOUR OBSERVATIONS:

EPISODE 8 - GOODBYE , AND A BETTER JOURNEY...

this text is supported by many texts, among them: texts by judith butler, monique wittig, laura mulvey,
kate bornstein, beatriz preciado, virginie despentes, many artistic practices, among them the ones of:
patrycja germnan, anna karina, tilda swinton, as well as monica vitti and a solo work death 24 frames
per second or do it to me like in a real movie with przemek kaminski, anna nowak, roni katz, xenia
taniko dwertmann, katarzyna wolinska.
conclusion with kate borstein words: if there will be still gender? of course, of course there will be
gender! just be conscious that we have a choice in this matter