Philosophers do not contemplate about acting using a theatrical perspective. According to Judith Butler’s article “Performing Arts and Gender Constitution”, the scholars utilize a discourse that surrounds the “arts” that adopts associative semantic definition with the approaches of acting and performance. The arts are dictated by the phenomenology tradition that portrays the social agents of reality such as symbols, gestures, and language. Under the phenomenological tradition, gender also emerges as a factor that characterizes the arts. The identity constitutes of a stylized consistence in the arts. The sex is actualized through body stylization; therefore, it should be understood in terms of the bodily enactments, movements, and gestures to create an illusion of conforming to the gendered self enhancing the effectiveness of performing arts (Butler, 399). This paper articulates a comparison of the ideas given by Judith Butler and Marina Abramovic in “The Artist is Present: Time, Vulnerability, and Gender in Performance Arts.
Marina suggests that the utilization of gender in performing arts affects the perspectives of the audience. She draws on the ideas given by Judith Butler that sex is a social construction that sheds light on the listeners’ opinions since it indicates the presence of the artist. Abramovic focuses more on womanhood and its effects on the audience because it generates a form of emotional response (Abramovic, The Artist is Present). She says that when the artist puts himself in the position of his listeners, he should picture sitting across a lady to mimic the extent of the sexuality present in the piece or script. Society perceives women as compassionate and caring creatures. Butler in her article also supports the concept of womanhood as a cultural sign that seeks the emotional response of the audience. The concept of sex as portrayed by the two writers seems like a popular imagination or a substantial core of performing arts that provide the identity the artist aims to provide to the listeners.
Works Cited
Butler, Judith. Performing Arts and Gender Constitution. Theatre Journal, Vol. 40, No. 4. 1988.
Abramovic, Marina. The Artist is Present: Time, Vulnerability, and Gender in Performance Arts. Musuem of Modern Art, 2012.
