Media Studies A-Level
Gender as Performance
What Gender as Performance means in Media Studies A-Level, as defined for AQA.
Definition of Gender as Performance
The post-structuralist perspective, associated with Judith Butler and Liesbet van Zoonen, which posits that gender is a socially constructed 'act' rather than a biological essentialism, reinforced through media repetition.
Topics that use Gender as Performance
- Media representation (AQA A-Level)
Related terms
- Colonial Discourses
- Constructionism and Mediation
- Fluidity of Identity
- Gender and Identity
- Identity and Subjectivity
- Ideology and Hegemony
- Intersectionality
- Patriarchy and Structural Power
Using Gender as Performance in the exam
Definition questions usually carry one or two marks, and examiners look for the precise wording. Write the definition from memory, check it against the version above, and then use the term in a longer answer on the same topic so it sticks.
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