Orlando (1992): A Visualisation of the Performativity of Gender
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Course
Cultural studies (GENDER&SEXUALITY)
Institution
Amsterdam University College (AUC)
The film Orlando creates a simplified version of Virginia Woolf’s story by focusing predominantly on how the main character, Orlando, is positioned in society in relation to other people as a man and how that changes once he transitions to woman. The film is a visual representation of how gender...
Orlando (1992): A Visualisation of the Performativity of Gender
“Gender reality is performative which means, quite simply, that it is real only to the
extent that it is performed” – Judith Butler
“Same person. No difference at all. Just a different sex” is what Orlando (Tilda Swinton),
in the film adaptation (Orlando, 1992) of the Virginia Woolf text of the same name says when
‘transitioning’ from man to woman. The transition is visualized by showing Tilda Swinton’s
naked body through the mirror she is looking at while saying those words. It soon becomes clear,
however, that this statement is not as clear-cut and easy in the practice of real life, because
identifying as woman in society comes with certain ramifications that differ significantly from
that of the identification as man. The film Orlando creates a simplified version of Virginia
Woolf’s story by focusing predominantly on how the main character, Orlando, is positioned in
society in relation to other people as a man and how that changes once he1 transitions to woman.
The film is a visual representation of how gender is a ‘role’ one can take on and ‘perform’
accordingly while simultaneously being critical of the implications that come with ‘doing’ a
certain established gender. There is a theatrical aspect to the way the character Orlando is
presented, which essentializes and dramatizes the notion of gender performativity while at the
1
For the sake of clarity, I will refer to the main character as ‘he’ before the transition and as ‘she’ after the
transition.
, Berge, van den 2
same time creating a playing field for a conversation about how gender can be perceived as
performative. The contextualisation of this in the framework of transgender studies and gender
studies, with a specific focus on Judith Butler’s concept of gender performativity, will be the
groundwork for this analysis of the film Orlando.
Butler argues that “gender is a repeated stylization of the body”, which is a useful
approach to understand the positionality of Orlando as he goes through time and space
identifying as a man and later as a woman (33). The film blurs the boundaries between what is
conceived as ‘natural’ while at the same time staying within the repetition of heteronormativity
in terms of representation, until arguably the last few scenes where Orlando travels through time
and finds herself in the 20th century as an androgynous single mom not conforming to
expectations. The first part of the film plays out in the 17th century, Orlando is a well-liked poet
and well acknowledged man in Britain. He is admired by Queen Elizabeth and inherits parts of
land from her when she dies, which leaves him in a considerably powerful position.
Consequently, as comes with power, there is a ‘natural’ position of superiority tied to his
prosperity, which is portrayed throughout the first hour of the film as Orlando goes about life not
caring much about others except for this one woman that he can not have but claims to be his.
This description, however, is not accurate without mentioning that there is an ironic, feminist
undertone throughout this representation as Orlando keeps breaking the fourth wall and making
comments about masculinity that have a tendency to undermine it. This playfulness again
dismantles and destabilizes the idea of gender as a set of binary oppositions, while still staying
within the visible boundaries of heteronormative presentation.
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