Cardenas 1

Jaasai Cardenas
English 113B
Professor Ditch
31 March 2015
Gender Performance
Gender Performance are gender roles that are cultural and personal. They are defined by
how a person thinks, speaks, dresses, and interacts within the context in society. In other words,
gender performance can be something that society itself wants it to be. Gender performance can
also be the gender roles of a male and a female. The difference of these two definition is that,
society gives the word gender performance a different meaning. In The Guernsey Literary and
Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, gender performance is used
throughout this epistolary novel. This article is set in January 1946 as London emerges from the
Second World War. During this time period women where mostly known as house wives with
feminine traits and men where known as hard working men with masculine traits. Also, women
didnt have that much liberty, especially because it was the time of war where one could not
really go out. By a certain of time they all had to be in their houses or else the German soldiers
would questioned them and send them to a concentration camp. These gender performances are
mostly seen in Elizabeth McKenna and Juliet Ashton because they demonstrated masculine traits
that motivated other women to be brave.
In the article Gender Performance by Suzanne Pennington the author gives us a more
broad definition of the meaning of Gender Performance. In the article the author says The
concept of gender performance has developed within debates concerning sex, gender, and
sexuality in sociology and feminism. Though conceptualized somewhat differently by various
scholars, gender performance can be broadly defined as the act of engaging in a set of behaviors

Cardenas 2
that display an individuals gender identity as female or male and that cause the individual to be
so perceived during social interaction.(366) This quote is telling us that sometimes our own
behavior is the way society categorize us and defined our gender roles. Also, sex is defined as
biological femaleness or maleness. Gender is a social construction, or set of ideas and
expectations about femininity and masculinity. In the article we see that the bravery of a woman
can change the prospective of the other women that where around her. Because of that it gave
them a positivite feeling about themselves.
Gender roles are traits that each person has depending on their gender. For example, if
they are male they are going to have masculine traits, if they are a female they would be having
feminism traits. In the eyes of society those are traditional traits that we see in everyday life. In
the epistolary novel we see that those gender roles are mixed between females and males. It is
mostly seen in Elizabeth and Juliet. In the epistolary novel, Miss Adelaide Addison sent a letter
to Juliet saying Elizabeth was a wild thingNo household chores, no gloves, no shoes, no
stocking. Going out on fishing boats with rude men. (Shaffer & Barrow 66) She was telling us
that Elizabeth wasnt a women that would be considered a house wife. A house wife would do
the chores, clean the house, and stock the clothes. In the eyes of the community, this was
something abnormal for a woman, because of gender roles are supposed to do house wife duties.
Elizabeth would also leave with other men that where rude and werent really nice. That
would indicate she would also behave rude with them and not be kind with them, I see thats not
a feminine trait. In the article, Dawsey sent a letter to Juliet saying Then Elizabeth drew in her
breath and stepped forward. Elizabeth isnt tall, so those pistols were lined up at her eyes but she
didnt blinkShe walked up to the officer in charge and starting talking.(29) We see the
bravery in her, even though they are officer with authority she didnt showed fear. She showed

Cardenas 3
the opposite of that which is something abnormal for a woman to do. In addition, Elizabeth also
gave something that for most of us would be something hard to do she gave her life in the
concentration camp which should her bravery in her. Everyone that knew Elizabeth couldnt
believe that she died and everyone from the society respected her death because she was a very
special woman that showed courage, braveness, and power. In other words, she was a model for
those woman that were still in the concentration camp to stay strong and be brave. Elizabeth
stayed like a hero to them.
Juliet is another woman that shows masculine traits. Juliet decides to visit her friends and
she realizes that her old life in London is no longer hold appeal. Most importantly she grows
closer to Kit, which is Elizabeth McKennas daughter. Eventually she applies for her adoption
and over her several months on the island, Juliet falls in love with Dawsey and proposes
marriage. Juliet played a role as a mother and as a father taking care of Kit. She had to show
discipline, show love, teach her how to work, and she taught her how to read and write. In other
words Juliet was being a father to Kit by teaching her basic things. She had to take a big role to
teach this kid strategies, which is something not easy. Juliet started to get attached to her because
she was spending a lot of time with her. Then she fell in love with Dawsey and Juliet was the one
that proposed to him. Its abnormal for a woman to propose to a man because in society the
traditionally way of proposing, is the man is the one that has to propose not the woman. Juliet
was showing masculine traits that werent feminine traits. She went and created a nonconformity movement by not following traditional gender roles.
In addition, there is an article that speaks how Anzaldua had trouble speaking English
and there were times that some words in Spanish would mean something else in English. In the
article How to Tame a Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua. The author says The first time I heard

Cardenas 4
two woman, a Puerto Rican and a Cuban, say the word nosotras, I was shocked. I had not
known the word existed. Chicanas use nosotros whether were male or female.(Anzaldua 35)
This quote is telling us that in Spanish we use words that are used for a male and the word
nosotros is a masculine plural but for us the Latinos it falls in the category of a female and male.
For example, nostros is usually for a male or dominant but women say it as well for example y
nosotros vamos a ir a los centros comerciales. This article also tells us that shes a mexciana
and she tells us the different gender roles that a Mexican or Chicano person has in him.
In the epistolary novel there are characters that are male with masculine traits and that are
female with feminim traits. Markham Reynolds was an American publisher visiting London to
win over British writers for his publishing house in New York. Mr. Reynolds was a nice looking
man. He was tall, white, with blue eyes, and wealthy. We see that those traits are proper for a
male because they are masculine traits, because in the times of WWII women werent wealthy
and couldnt work. On the other hand, men were the ones who worked and they were the ones
with more power because they would provide everything.
In the Guernsey Society, gender performance wasnt the only thing that motivated other
women to be brave and to stand up for them self. It wasnt the only thing that would helped them
get through the time they were living. The time that they were living through was a harsh time
because it was in the Second World War. The Guernsey Society book store was something that
was helping them get distracted and get through the difficult they were phasing. The Guernsey
Society says that gender performances wasnt the only thing that encourage bravery but I say it
did by Elizabeth and Juliet.
Gender roles are a way of being able to identify yourself. Knowing the kind of traits you
have, whether they are masculine traits or feminine traits. If you are a male with feminine traits

Cardenas 5
or the opposite around, society judges you by telling you negative things. They see you as a
different person because its abnormal from the traditional. In addition, there are traits that
society think they are either masculine or feminine but in reality they are what they are. In the
society that Elizabeth and Juliet lived in, it was a society that masculine traits were power,
bravery, and strength and feminine traits where house wife, chores, like washing, and cooking.
In the novel, it is shown that things are far more different from the normality of societys roles.

Work Cited:
Gloria Anzaldua. How to Tame a Wild Tongue. 33-45
Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. 1-279
Pennington, Suzanne. "Gender Performance."Encyclopedia of Gender and Society, (2009): 366369.