Aretha

In the essay, “Imitation and Gender Insubordination,” Judith Butler notes the supposed “continuity” of desire, gender, and sex within heteronormativity. As a memorable explanation, Butler provides the reader with the example of Aretha Franklin’s words: “you make me feel like a natural woman.” By using the word “like,” heteronormativity comes as metaphorical, almost unachievable. Also, Butler notes that by being confirmed as a “natural woman” through objectivity, the woman’s “sex” would be expressed in her “gender.” However, because gender is not necessarily biological, gender is a “performance that produces the illusion of an inner sex.” This made me think of Winston James’ “Uncle” in which the six-year-old boy has trouble reconciling his own sex, desire and gender. To what extent Jake’s gender a performance, something that he must maintain, in order to be a “normal” child? According to the story, he feels innate shame as show by the secrecy for his curiosity and attraction to males, as well as feeling shame from other people’s reactions to his own sexuality.