Heteronormativity is the discourse about gender performance,
gender is disciplinary production one which in most societies follows which is
normal what butler calls “compulsory” and “normative” heterosexuality.
Heteronormativity is the belief
that people fall into distinct and complementary genders (man and woman) with
natural roles in life. Butler argues that gender is a cultural meaning that is
ascribed to human bodies not an inherent. Social reality is not a given but it
continually created as an illusion through language, gesture and all manner of
symbolic social sign. The performativity of gender is a discourse which is not
a single act; it’s a long repetitive process that name as “man” and “woman”.
The performativity of gender is the process of gendering
which is never complete. Butler argues that “the production of gender is the
matter of performativity. When applied to neonate, the utterance “It’s a girl”
inaugurates a process of girlling that is constantly re-iterated through the
rituals and interpellations that install the norms of the female gender define
by at tags homosexuality.” And that installed norms helps to continue the
discourse of heteronormativity reproductivity. This discourse gives lots problem
to us. Yes, having the gender is a
matter of identification but it also implies the loss of the other potential
gender or identification. Gender performativity also give the character
according to their sex; “masculinity” and “feminity” to constitute the strategy
of masculinist domination.
The discourse of gender performativity is involved in the
film “The Whale Rider” and “Girlfight”. Through these films we know that what
kind of problems created by the discourse of gender performativity. In the film
“The Whale Rider”, plot follows the story of Paikea Apirana "Pai",
the main character, a 12-year-old girl who is the only living child after the
death of her twin brother and mother when she was born.
The mother’s last words were to name the surviving girl "Paikea”. Traditionally the
first-born grandson step into the role of chief, after the tribe's ancient
ancestor, the Whale Rider who rode on top of
a whale. But, Pai is “female” and technically cannot inherit the leadership.
The film was beginning with gender performativity discourse where leader must
be “male” not “female” which is traditionally continued.
Pai's koro Apirana, or Old Paka as his wife Nanny Flowers
calls him, the leader of the tribe, is initially angry at losing his grandson and
being left with a "worthless female” Pai because Koro’s
hope of finding a new leader was vanishes. For Koro this is the start of the
tribe’s misfortunes. Pai is raised by her grandparents Koro and Flowers. While he does later loving and bond with his
granddaughter Pai, carrying her to school every day on his bicycle, he also dislikes
her and blames her for many of the troubles facing the tribe. Her grandfather
is mistreating her because only she was “female”. While Koro still
searches for the one leader, Flowers sees many outstanding qualities in her
granddaughter which Koro is unaware to. Pai
herself is interested in the leadership, and she feels that she can become the
leader, although there's no practice for a woman to do so.
Koro start a secret cultural school for the community boys, with
hopes of finding a new leader. He teaches “the boys” to use a taiaha (fighting
stick) which is traditionally reserved for “males” not for “women”. While
opening of that cultural school, Pai leading the boys
onto the Marae and sits in the front row, Koro tells her to sit at the back
because she is a “girl”, but she refuses to sit behind and went away from the
Marae. Pai secretly learns from her uncle, who
had won a taiaha tournament in his youth. She also secretly follows Koro's
lessons. One of the students, Hemi, is also sympathetic towards her, but Koro
becomes angry when he finds out, particularly when she wins her taiaha fight
against Hemi. Koro's relationship is breakdowns with Pai further when none of
the boys succeed at the traditional task of recovering the rei puta (whale
tooth) that he threw into the ocean this mission would prove one of them worthy
of becoming leader. Pai succeed to recovering the rei puta (whale tooth) and gives
it to Nanny Flowers. But she doesn’t think Koro is ready for it yet.
Pai’s touching speech to Koro her grandfather and the
traditions of the community where she suggests that there
should not be a single leader, but many leaders.
While Koro was walking to the school, he notices that many whales are beached
near Pai's home. The entire village attempts to coax and drag them back into
the water, but all efforts prove unsuccessful; even a tractor doesn't help
because the rope breaks. Koro warns Pai against touching the largest whale
because Koro thinks that "she was ‘female’ and she has done enough
damage" with her presumption. Also, the largest whale traditionally
belongs to the legendary Paikea. But when Koro walks away, she climbs onto the
back of the largest whale and coaxes it to re-enter the ocean. The whale leads
the entire pod back into the sea; Paikea nearly drowns in the process. When she
goes out to sea, Nanny Flowers shows Koro the whale tooth which Pai had
previously recovered. When Pai is found and brought to the hospital, Koro
declares her the leader and asks her forgiveness. The film ends with the
village, including Pai's father, uncle, and grandparents, celebrating her
status as leader, as the finished waka is hauled into the sea.
Now, with the
film “Girlfight” is also comes with gender performativity
discourse. While the film also takes great pains to show us the difficult school and
family life of its female protagonist, Diana as Pai in “The Whale Rider”. It is
a boxing movie. In the movie Diana was
shown as aggressive character. Because of her aggressiveness she gets last
warning from the school. She thinks that boxing is suitable for her
aggressiveness. And decided to boxing and went to coach Hector. At
first, he refused to train her because she was a “girl” and said you did not
able to pay fee for boxing training.
Another day she
comes with money and again asked to train her. And couch unwillingly agrees to
teach her and soon clear to him that Diana has talent; he push her further
more. She work hard and she gets succeed. Diana was growing as star in the new
territory of amateur female boxing without
her father knowing it. When her father knows all about it, he forced to stop it
because she was “female”. Her father was belief in patriarchal norms. He wants
her daughter doing feminity character not masculinity. But she wasn’t agreeing
with him and she became angry and beat father.
She spends time with another young fighter, Adrian, who has
a girlfriend, but Diana loved him and shares both her heart and her real feelings.
When they know that are the two finalists for the ‘Intergender’ featherweight
title, Adrian did not want to fight with him only because of she is “female”.
He ignored fighting with her due to dominant idea of masculinity. But she wants
to fight with her and wants to victory, the victory of female. She fights with
him and own him. At last, Diana and Adian are reunited after romantic fight.
Though
in both films protagonists’ individual who overcomes obstacles and achieves
success through determination, self-reliance, and hard work is most often male.
Both films provide a useful site for the analysis of dominant ideas of
masculinity, yet they also show how it has been refigured over time in response
to changes in society. The competitive opportunities offered to male in both
films justify patriarchal authority by naturalizing the idea of men as more
assertive and determining, while women generally appear in the secondary roles. Both films have suitable qualities to associate with masculinity
to perform, and a narrative that drives them toward compromise with traditional
ideas of gender.
