Staging Feminism: A dramaturgical approach to ‘intersectionality’, ‘body politics’ and ‘gender construction’ as working concepts in a feminist theatre and performance practice

(1)

Staging feminism

A dramaturgical approach to ‘intersectionality’, ‘body politics’ and ‘gender construction’ as

working concepts in a feminist theatre and performance practice.

MASTERTHESIS

Student Floor Cremers

Student number 10631291

Master’s programme Arts & Culture | International Dramaturgy University of Amsterdam

Supervisor Associate professor Dr. Sruti Bala Second reader Professor Dr. Kati Röttger

(2)

1

Introduction

Feminism is hot. Every day you can read about it in the newspapers1, hear about it on talk shows on TV2 or join debate groups in real life and on social media.3 In the major stores you can get T-shirts with popular feminist slogans like “the Future is Female”, “We Should All be Feminists” or “Radical Feminist”. You can listen to Beyoncé, and buy a fake gold necklace with “feminist” to make it apparent to the world what you are: a smart, sexy, happy feminist woman. Once every few weeks a new public debate emerges on topics like gender equality, masculinity and LGBTQ rights not seldom resulting in a full blown moral panic, for example when it came to discussing gender neutral toilets in public places, or when the municipality of Amsterdam decided to address its citizens as ‘dear citizens’ instead of using a gender indication when addressing the people of Amsterdam – just like the largest Dutch railway organisation changed the start of its announcements from ‘ladies and gentlemen’ to ‘dear passengers –. It is against this current backdrop that I have become increasingly interested in the origins of feminism and gender studies, in order to better understand the operations and efficacy of gender inequality within society at large, and in how it affected me personally. Especially in relation to dramaturgy, my current field of study. In working with theatre makers, the dramaturg both promotes a general awareness of the world we live in today and at the same time he or she attempt to grow a form of consciousness in the development of the theatre makers core concepts for a particular performance. In order to do so, the dramaturg needs to understand the structures that shape the world now and that have shaped the world in the past. Using feminism as a lens through which to analyse disparities in the real world, in everyday life, so to say, made me wonder. How can I apply feminism as an analytical tool to analyse theatrical performances today? This resulted in the following research question:

1 _{https://www.volkskrant.nl/alle-nieuws-over-feminisme/}_{Volkskrant, applying the search term}

‘Feminisme’. Last accessed on 10-04-2018

2 _{https://www.vpro.nl/speel~POMS_AT_13002826~de-emancipatie-van-de-man~.html}_{TV show}

called Buitenhof. Episode dedicated to the emancipation of men. Or check https://evajinek.kro-ncrv.nl/onderwerpen/feminisme-voor-vrouwen-en-mannen the web channel dedicated to feminism by Eva Jinek, a popular Dutch talk show host. Last Accessed on 10-04-2018

3_{For example, at debate centre De Rode Hoed, there is a full series dedicated to young feminists}

waging battle against beauty ideals and imaging of women called “De Schoonheidssalon” and there is an essayclub called “Fast Feminsim” in which feminist literature and major influential ideas are being discussed. http://www.rodehoed.nl/nl/programma/Series/ Last accessed on 10-04-2018.

(5)

4

How can feminism be used as a lens to analyse contemporary performances in the Dutch performance context, both in terms of drawing meaning from a performance as well as understanding the influence of feminism on artistic strategies and performance methods of theatre makers today?

There is a saying that there are as many feminisms as there are feminists. To say you are a feminist thus calls for a dialogue. A historical understanding of the term ‘feminism’ seems essential for a dramaturg in the dialogue with the artistic team, in order for the performance to become more politically effective in that area.

The first part of this thesis will sketch the genealogy of contemporary western feminism, leading up to a number of newly manifested fields of study that have their origin in feminist thinking: Intersectionality, gender studies and body politics. The history of feminism can be delineated in different ways. One way is through following the sociological-historical line for analysis, using distinctive historical events and newly developed key concepts that have shaped the societal structures and academic discourse. Another line of thought can be traced back to categories of ideological affiliations with movements, like the liberal, radical and materialist feminist thought. This is more often used in analysing performance theory, for example in The feminist spectator as Critic (1988) by Jill Dolan and in Theatre and Feminism (1988) by Sue-Ellen Case. These two methods complement each and at the same time show us where developments take a different route. When coming to a performance strategy, we can learn from both methods of analysis; both the one based in sociology and the one in theatre and performance practice. Over the course of history, they have interlinked and influenced each other. Socio-political change has always been reflected in theatre practice and vice versa, performance practice has also been at the forefront of political change and activism. At times there is only little difference between feminism as a political and as an artistic practice. Combining both will create insight into developments in the course of feminist history and theatre practice accordingly.

Starting from the second wave of feminism, the first chapter will analyse the conflicting agendas and newly acquired insights causing segregation into different feminist movements and currents that eventually translated into a third wave of feminism. It will end with an attempt to grasp the zeitgeist of the current fourth wave of feminism. But this must be done with caution. Can we say that a fourth wave of feminism has already sprung from a

(6)

5

critique of the principal ideas of third wave feminism? And how do these concepts find their way into theatre practice? This will be the starting point for the rest of the thesis.

The second part of this thesis, consisting of three chapters, will delve deeper into the individual theoretical concepts that emerged from the third wave of feminism, focussing on intersectionality, body politics and gender construction. It will explore how some of these specific lines of thought have manifested in performances that were recently shown in the Netherlands. Taking the historical developments towards contemporary feminism as a starting point I will thus create a framework through which to analyse how these working concepts that come from contemporary feminism manifest in a number of current performances. What these performances have in common is that to me they all testify to this feminist zeitgeist, that I will explicate further on, in the first chapter.

In chapter two, an attempt will be made to use intersectionality for critical inquiry into the mixture of two genres: Hip hop and opera in the performance We shall not be moved [2018].4 In what ways can meaning be drawn from the creational process of a performance? In this performance multiple layers of social injustice are exposed, throughout the storyline and in the various characters, but also in the combining of two different genres; hip-hop and opera. Feminist thinking in this case is both present in what we see on stage, but also in the creation process and in the extensive context programming around the performance.

In the following chapter, the performance Cock… Cock… Who’s there? [2017]5 by Samira Elagoz is used as a case study. The influence of feminism is clearly visible in her performance strategies, for example in her use of sharing groups to overcome the trauma of rape, and using biographical material as a starting point for a lecture like performance. Through her use of film, she reclaims control over the male gaze, exposing patriarchal prejudice with regards to the representation of women and female sexuality.

Finally, in the fourth chapter, androgyny in the character Hamlet in Hamlet vs. Hamlet [2014]6 will serve as the main focal point of analysis. The chapter will investigate how this gender swap testifies to a feminist zeitgeist, based on the history of gender swapping in repertoire theatre, while at the same time critically questioning the motives that underlie this

4_{Created by: Opera Philadelphia. We shall not be moved. Viewed on 15-03-2018 at Stadsschouwburg}

Amsterdam, as part of the Opera Forward Festival. http://operaforwardfestival.nl/programma/we-shall-not-be-moved/ Last visited on 05-06-2018. Web.

5_{Created by: Samira Elagoz. Cock…Cock…Who’s there?. Viewed on 26-10-2017 at Theater Bellevue}

Amsterdam. http://www.samiraelagoz.com/cock-cock-whos-there/ Last visited on 05-06-2018. Web.

6_{Created by: Toneelgroep Amsterdam & Toneelhuis. Hamlet vs. Hamlet. Viewed in march 2014 at De}

Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam. http://www.samiraelagoz.com/cock-cock-whos-there/ Last visited on 05-06-2018. Web.https://tga.nl/voorstellingen/hamlet-vs-hamlet

(7)

6

gender swap in this particular performance. The manufacturability of gender as a trait of third wave feminism will take centre stage here.

In order to understand feminism today, we need to understand the choices that were made in previous movements and the inadequacies and criticism that led to these sometimes radical shifts in feminist perspectives. We then learn that thinking about feminism has been different in the past, and that it can change in the future. What motivates these makers to make exactly this performance at this given moment in time? If one can understand that, as a dramaturg, one can help improve the language of performance, so that it conveys more exact what the makers want to communicate to the audience. You can control how meaning is transferred through the language of the performance more accurately if you can conduct the right dialogue with the creators of this performance.

(8)

7

CHAPTER 1 History of Feminism – from a sociological and

performance theory perspective

Throughout the history of humankind women have suffered repression in many different ways. This chapter will give an analysis of feminism, starting from the second wave of feminism, from about 1960, ending its analysis in the present day, somewhere in 2018, with a specific focus on those moments where conflicts within the movement led to a newly added discourse on feminism. The struggle for emancipation and a call for political action characterized the second wave. Then out of a critique of the inadequacies of the second wave later sprung the third wave of feminism, in which a new discourse or paradigm rose for framing and understanding gender relations. The goal of this new feminist wave was to make feminism more diverse and inclusive.7 Whether or not we are already in the midst of a fourth wave of feminism will then later be discussed. What follows is an attempt to draw up an intermediate position: where do we stand now with regards to the mainstream feminist agenda’s and what are the main issues the different feminisms today are facing? Throughout this first chapter the connections between feminism, theatre and performance theory will be made.

For my historical analysis I will mostly draw from the article “The decentering of Second Wave Feminism and the Rise of the Third Wave” (2005) written by Susan Archer Mann and Douglas J. Huffman. They describe extensively the transition from the second wave toward the third wave of feminism. Developments and segregations into different movements often stem from inadequacies in the main ideological current. In the article they indicate how historical developments in social movements like feminism oftentimes follow from conflicting political agendas and set priorities. When relating feminism to performance art, a lot of the information can be traced down to Feminism and Theatre by Sue-Ellen Case (1988). This book is generally regarded as an iconic work in telling the story of feminist performance theory and criticism, both from a historical perspective and incorporating concrete examples from various performance practices. Throughout this chapter I will draw knowledge from scholarly work produced within sociology and gender studies as well as performance studies.

(9)

8

§ 1.1 Strategies for analysing feminism

§ 1.1.1 Analysing Feminism socio-historically – The wave analogy

In general, in describing feminist movements in the nineteenth and twentieth century, it is common to find the metaphor of the wave. During the first wave (from about 1880 until about 1920) women successfully fought for women’s suffrage, the right to education and a better legal status for women in family law, like ownerships rights. During the second wave (from about 1950 until 1990) the focus came to lie more on legal equality, birth control, analysis of sexism and patriarchy and around questions about how gender difference structures society and upholds power structures. Around the start of the new millennium a new wave of feminism has developed, focussing more on the inadequacies of the second wave, elaborating more on how women are different from each other and how this should effect the cause and consequential political actions.

Over the past there has been critique on the analogy of the wave in describing distinctive chapters in feminist history. To determine that there is a wave requires a form of mass mobilization, but when does a crowd count as a mass, on whose authority? When talking about the waves in feminism, it must be emphasized that this is a western Eurocentric way of historically analysing feminist movements. Also, there is an obscure homogeneity in place with regards to each wave. Where does the wave end? What movements are part of the wave and what movements fall outside of its grid? During each wave in time there were many different feminist movements active, some had more impact on society then others, some operated on a smaller or larger scale, some were more visible or less visible, and there is not necessarily a causality between the above mentioned criteria. In a way it forces one to see many different movements that happened at the same time through a narrow lens. It obscures activism and change that did not fit in that particular wave, for example because it involved a smaller scale protest or it involved activism that took place in between the different waves. However, since it has historically been described as such, and the analogy of the wave remains to be dominant in feminist discourse in describing mass feminist movements, this thesis will hold onto its use, addressing those critiques when necessary.

(10)

9

§ 1.1.2 Analysis through performance theory

Over the course of history, we can also find different feminisms present in the arts, both reflecting on and shaping the feminist movements. Within feminist performance theory a distinction can be made between different ideological currents within feminist movements; namely radical, liberal and materialist feminism. They represent different distinct feminist positions and a different focus on theatre practice accordingly. This helps in relating concrete feminist theatre practices to different feminist standpoints. A central question was about the distinction between those interested in ‘women in theatre’ and those interested in ‘feminism and theatre’.8 The first one focussing on (the position of) women in theatre institutions, for example in the division of labour, the latter focussing on feminist politics in theatre practice. The main positions will be briefly highlighted here.

Liberal Feminism

Liberal Feminism, as Jill Dolan wrote in The Feminist Spectator as Critic, is “radically individualistic. It relies on values claimed to be universally human, and in essence, it demands that everyone should receive equal consideration with no discrimination based on sex.”9 Their fight for equality between men and women took place within the dominant socio-economic structures. In the context of theatre and the art world, this means seeking a broader representation of women in art institutions, art history and scholarship, better pay for women’s labour in theatre and a better recognition of women in roles traditionally occupied by men, such as the director, the playwright, the technician. For example, Mieke Kolk wrote about women’s theatre in the Netherlands in the seventies and eighties in her book Hoe vrouwen op het toneel uit hun gestolde vormen vloeien [1987]. Here she described how on the one hand, feminist art is also art,10 and that it should adhere to the same demands and expectations that the medium requires and art that is not explicitly made by women should also adhere to, testifying to liberal feminist thought. However, in practice, most of the feminist theatre in those days stemmed from activism and a sense of readiness to combat inequality, roughly leading towards two currents in feminist theatre: On the one hand there was the political feminist realism, demanding examples of strong women, from the past and the present to be shown on stage in the institutions. Positive inspiration and identification for women in the audience was the main goal of this more liberal feminist current in feminist

8_{Case 1988, p. 63.} 9_{Dolan 1988, p. 3.} 10_{Kolk 1987, p. 12.}

(11)

10

theatre practice. On the other side, a different genre developed in reaction to this predictable positive message that was offered space in the established theatre houses: a more radical group of women, using their own female creativity and woman’s culture, bringing their stories based on personal lived experience. This also paved the way for what Kolk called ‘positive amateurism’. Here women who were denied the chance to develop their stagecraft to a level of perceived professionality in the schools, found their own different way towards the stage, often making use of improvisations and biographical material. This would attest more to radical feminism, the next of these ideological currents we can distinguish.

Radical Feminism

In the study Feminism and Theatre (1988) Sue Ellen Case defines radical feminism as distinguished by an emphasis on patriarchy. “Radical feminism is based on the belief that the patriarchy is the primary cause of the oppression of women.[…] The patriarchy represents all systems of male dominance and is regarded as the root of most social problems.”11 Consequently, radical feminism, separating itself from the culture of men, produced categories of analysis and practice based on women’s culture. Gender distinctions are an essential part of radical feminism, with a focus on identifying male-gender oppressions and female-gender strengths. Focus in radical feminist performance studies would be exclusively on the experiences, forms and practices of women, with the single task of providing women with a voice of their own.12_{This also lead to an upswing of lesbian theatre. In the eyes of} some radical feminists, heterosexuality was part of patriarchy, for it forces women to compete with each other for men and therefor separates women from each other. Lesbianism empowers the movement through independence from patriarchal structures (like legal and economic dependencies on marriage). “Feminism is the theory, Lesbianism is the practice” was a slogan attributed to Ti-Grace Atkinson.13 This lead to a separatist movement within theatre: In the United States, several lesbian theatres were founded in the 1970’s; theatre organised by and specifically for lesbians. In the Netherlands, there were also performances organised specifically around women’s culture; performance exclusively made by and for women. For example, by the theatre-working-group Proloog [1977]. They created performances for which they exclusively invited women, addressing topics like marriage, the

11_{Case 1988, p. 64.} 12_{Ibid. 65.}

(12)

11

labour market and unwanted pregnancies.14_{The main focus lay on a critique on patriarchy} and that being a binding factor for women to unite and stand together in solidarity.

Materialist Feminism

A third category drawn by Sue Ellen Case is termed ‘Materialist feminism’, which is rooted in Marxist and socialist feminism. According to Case materialist feminism focuses on the collective status of groups, but not necessarily within the category of ‘woman’.

“The materialist position underscores the role of class and history in creating oppressions of women. […] Derived from Marxism, materialist feminism posits that class determines the situation of all people within capitalism.”15

Class is a social structure in which the owners of the means of production within a society hold privilege over the (oppressed) workers. The gender oppression of women is based on a class analysis of exploitation. Women have been paid lower wages and have had less access to upward mobility. Labour in the domestic sphere is unpaid work. According to materialist feminists, not all experiences of women are the same. There is a difference in the lived experience of working-class, middle-class and upper-class women. Women are not all sisters. Women of the upper-class can oppress women of the working-class. In performance analysis and theatre practice, materialist feminism focuses on exposing the ideological nature of all cultural products, because “through cultural production the ideas of the ruling class become normative for the culture at large.”16_{Through cultural production, the ideology of the ruling} class (men in patriarchy) becomes the norm for that society. This ideology can contain a bias hierarchy in gender norms, but it can also focus on more differentiated aspects of cultural production, like class, race, education or language. Therefore, materialist feminism takes on a broader scope on feminist politics then for example liberal and radical feminism do.

The influence of materialist feminism has opened up new areas of investigating social injustice through a feminist lens. Adding class-consciousness was a big step towards broadening the critical inquiry into patriarchal structures. In a broader sense, materialist feminism “attempts to denaturalize the dominant ideology that demands and maintains

14_{A link to the program of the performance, containing a summary and explicit invite for the focus}

group of the performance: Women. https://www.vrouwennuvoorlater.nl/toneelwerkgroep/ Last visited on 07-06-2018. Web.

15_{Case 1988, p. 82.} 16_{Dolan 1988, p. 15.}

(13)

12

oppressive social arrangements.”17_{In the context of western societies, material feminism} made visible the predominance of upper-class white women in the feminist movement and the relatively low visibility of poor women and women of colour.18 This created a dialogue of difference within the movement, and through this, it might have laid the foundations for what eventually led to intersectional theory.

§ 1.2 Second wave feminism

Generally, the second wave started from the 1960’s and lasted until the late 1980’s. The second wave of feminism is a Western centred concept, that was mostly focussed on a notion of a unitary category of ‘woman’ as having common or essential experiences.19 The struggle of the first wave focussed mostly on the right to vote and the right to schooling and participation in the labour market. The struggle of the second wave expanded the debate on inequality between men and women on issues like sexuality, family and reproductive rights. It was still a struggle existing mostly within the discourse of the binary gender norms. The starting point that united women was that firstly, inequalities based on one’s sex were not natural, but cultural (not biologically determined, but gender based), secondly that they could be changed and thirdly that they should be changed. Women should stand united in their struggle. It was a critique of how gender difference structured society and how patriarchy dominated societal structures. There were marches for women’s right to birth control and abortion, protest marches against sexism and patriarchy and against the gender bias evoked by heteronormativity. Simone de Beauvoir laid the foundations for this struggle in her book The Second Sex (1948) in which she introduces the notion that one isn’t born a woman, one becomes a woman, and that womanhood is acquired by socialisation, instead of it being biologically determined. To change the position of women, society had to change.

By the end of the second wave this essentialist view on ‘womanhood’ was called into question and the focus came to lie more on difference instead of commonality between women. Development in feminist theory over the past several decades might be seen as a development towards increasingly strong forms of constructionism, and the rejection of stable sex or gender roles that were still in place at the time of the second wave feminist movement.

17_{Dolan, 1988, p. 6.} 18_{Case 1988, p. 84.}

(14)

13

1.2.1 Key concepts for second wave feminism

Through the emergence of some of the key concepts used in the second wave, feminism can be further analysed. These concepts earned their place in several encyclopaedias and feminist readers, contributing to a growing discourse of feminist scholarly work.

The Sex/Gender distinction

Starting from the 1970’s feminist scholars started using the terms sex and gender to explain and counter the inequalities between men and women in society.20 The distinction between sex and gender originated within the field of sociology: Sex being used to describe biological differences between men and women and gender being used to describe cultural differences to classify into masculine and feminine. However, it must be noted that these distinctions in terms of gender were also used to give cultural meaning to the differences between the biological sexes, again essentialising the sexes. In these developments we do see a shift in thinking about sex as something that is biologically determined toward thinking about sex as something that is socially constructed, resulting in the further development of the concept of gender. Already then [West, Zimmerman 1987] it was said that gender was something that was done, acted out by an individual, within society and for societal approval.

In one sense, of course, it is individuals who "do" gender. But it is a situated doing, carried out in the virtual or real presence of others who are presumed to be oriented to its production. Rather than as a property of individuals, we conceive of gender as an emergent feature of social situations: both as an outcome of and a rationale for various social arrangements and as a means of legitimating one of the most fundamental divisions of society.21 (My emphasis added)

Gender was seen as both an outcome of and as a rationale for social arrangements. This way, the construction of gender maintains itself. It is both the outcome of certain societal expectations, as well as fundamental to the construction of this societal division. The display of gendered behaviour is the outcome as well as the origin of a societal division in the binary sex categories of male and female. In order to fight this binary distinction within society, as was deemed necessary within feminism, instead of looking at the biological differences between men and women, suddenly it was apparent that one had to look critically at the

20_{West & Zimmerman 1987, p. 125.} 21_{Ibid. 126.}

(15)

14

cultural distinction between what was seen as masculine and feminine and combat normative thinking in that area. This new insight, leading from biological determinism towards social constructivism, was one of the mayor insights within the discourse of second wave feminism. If categories of masculinity and femininity are not fixed, and if these criteria are socially constructed, that means they can be altered. Suddenly the question of agency was more relevant then ever and this fuelled the belief that change was possible in the fight against cultural oppression of women. Examples can be found in the drag art scene, in which drag kings and queens play with the notion of an original gender. 22

The personal is political

In the United States a big part of the feminist movements of the seventies was about making the personal political. Up until the second wave of feminism, politics was regarded as belonging to the public domain, which used to belong to men. (As opposed to the private domain, to which women were traditionally allocated.) The hegemonic way of thinking was the notion that there is the public sphere, where politics happened and there is the ‘private sphere’, that consist of love and intimacy and privacy that is not political. Within society, this division was also visible in who controlled material resources and in what counted as labour. The work of men in the public sphere counted as labour and was rewarded compensation, whereas the labour of women within the households was not regarded as work in any sense, but maybe in that of the production of children. Think about how labour for women is associated with the birthing of a child. In 1968 Carol Hanisch is said to have coined the slogan: “The Personal is Political.”23 This meant that any choice you made in your personal life could also be seen as a political choice. The role patterns within the family life, who does the dishes and how people make love to each other becomes about societal structures. “The personal is political” became a well-known slogan within the feminist movement. Everything is personal, and everything is political. Consequence of politicizing the personal sphere, was that women started meeting each other in their homes, to explore the political aspects of their personal lives in “consciousness-raising-groups.”24 The role these groups played in the emancipation of women was at that moment crucial. Women grew an identity, independent of their husbands. The idea of what power is, and how it was exercised was now discussed

22_{A contemporary example of this is the New York based artist Taylor Mac.}

http://www.taylormac.org/work/ Last visited on 07-06-2018. Web.

23_{Man Ling Lee 2007, p. 164.} 24_{Ibid. 165.}

(16)

15

among women. Women were challenging each other intellectually through discussing politics and in feminist reading groups. The idea of women as a ‘second sex’ was critically reviewed. Also, these meetings provided therapeutic relief in sharing their experiences.25 Personal problems are political problems and this idea of consciousness raising spoke to the idea that there are personal problems, but there are no personal solutions. There is only collective action for a collective solution. Personal issues are societal issues and they needed to be addressed at a collective level. More elaborate reflections about the relationship between personal storytelling and artistic practice will follow in the upcoming paragraphs. Using sharing groups as well as incorporating biographical material as a strategy for consciousness raising has been used extensively as a performance strategy over the course of history.

As we will see in chapter three, it is still a very effective artistic strategy today. In the case study of Cock… Cock… Who’s there? by Samira Elagoz, we will come back to an example of how sharing as a performance strategy can raise personal issues to the level of societal issues. Firstly, through sharing amongst women of three different generations, secondly through both the use of documentary theatre and lecturing as a form for transferring a message towards an audience and finally, in reclaiming the representation of her sexualised female body from patriarchal colonisation, through her handling of the camera.

Patriarchy

In 1969 Kate Millet wrote the book Sexual Politics in which she reflects on the consequences of politicizing the personal sphere for women’s sexuality. She defines politics as follows: “The term politics shall refer to power-structured relations, arrangements whereby one group of persons is controlled by another.”26 In her book Millet refers to the term ‘patriarchy’ as a key concept in understanding sexual politics. At that time, racism was a political issue high on the agenda. The political relation between races was one that involved the general control of one collective, defined by birth, over another collective, also defined by birth.27 Millet compares this scheme to the area of sex as another example of one group ruling another, both groups defined by birth right. The study of racism had already resulted in the visibility of oppressive circumstances that this political scheme perpetuates. “Quite in the same manner, a disinterested examination of our system of sexual relationship must point out that the situation between the sexes now, and throughout history, is a case of that phenomenon Max Weber

25_{Man Ling Lee 2007, p. 165} 26_{Millet 1970, p. 23.}

(17)

16

defined as ‘Herrschaft’: a relationship of dominance and subordinance.”28_{Herrschaft literally} means dominance, or subordination. The birth right control of one group by another: in Millets view: the male to rule and the female to be ruled. In her book Sexual Politics Millet refers to the term Patriarchy as a key concept in understanding sexual politics. She uses the term to look critically at what power is and how and where it is exercised. The essence of politics is power and at the time she provided insight in how the society was structured as a patriarchy: all essential lines of power, the military, universities, science, political office, ea. were all entirely in male hands. One half of the population dominated the other half. The ideology of patriarchy is internalized and that is how patriarchy is conserved. “Sexual politics obtains consent through the “socialization” of both sexes to basic patriarchal polities with regard to temperament, role, and status. As to status, a pervasive assent to the prejudice of male superiority guarantees superior status in the male, inferior in the female.”29 Patriarchy works amongst others on the levels of ideology, biology, sociology, class, education, on a psychological level and on the levels of myth and religion, all extensively described in the first chapter of her book. According to Millet, on all these levels the lives of women are in various ways restrained and women positioned as less than men.

Summarizing what was said in the previous three paragraphs, the distinction between sex and gender translated into a legitimation for differentiating between men and women. Thinking through how men and women differ from each other and what attributes (whether they are socially constructed or not) constitute male and/or female, only emphasised and explained this division into binary gender categories. Through patriarchal structures – a system built on dominance and subordinance – this expressed itself into the division into a public and a private domain, where men controlled material resources and labour production and allocated women to the private sphere. This inequality also leaped through in the theatre performances that pursued a form of realism on the stage, for example familial dramas or historical plays. And of course these developments evoked a counter-reaction of more progressive theatre, that was less illustrative. Breaking with the illusion of reality was seen as an important strategy in order to expose the social constructions underlying society, like for example Brechtian theatre did through the alienation effect.

28_{Millet 1970, p. 25.} 29_{Ibid. 26.}

(18)

17

Sisterhood (and its limitations)

Again, as typical for the second wave, the struggle against patriarchy was viewed as something that could unite women. A common enemy that would bring solidarity to the movement and it did. However, not all women could identify as a ‘sister’ in this sisterhood of white middle-class feminists who were at the forefront of the movement. For example; women of colour, of different ethnic backgrounds, women who didn’t fit the heteronormative matrix, trans women often did not feel part of the same sisterhood. “Sisterhood is generally understood as a nurturant, supportive feeling of attachment and loyalty to other women that grows out of a shared experience of oppression.”30 It is these commonalities of personal experience of oppression that differs for different groups of women. Sisterhood served as a means for mobilizing women to undertake political and economic action based on shared needs. However, this limits the understanding of racial and class differences among women. This critique on the second wave was part of the counter-movement that later became a major part of the third wave.

Obviously, there is not enough space here to do justice to the rich variety of movements, theories and practices that came from the second wave of feminism. The concepts presented here have a link to the critique of the second wave that the third wave sprung from and that still has a profound effect on how feminism is viewed today. They laid out the foundations for the working concepts that will form the foundation for the second part of this thesis. These critiques that have shaped a following wave have also been shaped through artistic practice: In the kinds of plays that were written, in the division of labour within the theatre institutions and in the representation of gender on stage for example. Again, both art and activism have a mutual effect on each other when it comes to developing and sharpening political agendas and articulating criticism.

§ 1.2.2 Feminist practice: The personal became aesthetic

Historically, because women were oftentimes and in many ways denied access to the public domain, their performance space of choice was usually not situated in the public arena, but in the private domain, as in the case of the culture of salon performances in the 19th century. The focus of the feminist theatre practice was rooted in personal dialogue and in everyday life, rather than in a mimetic dialogue aimed at lasting repetition.31 This means that there was a lively theatre scene of biographical and at times improvised performances, playing out in the

30_{Thornton Dill 1994, p. 43.} 31_{Case 1988, p. 46.}

(19)

18

margins and outside of the institutions, where realism and forth wall based theatre was still very much the norm. These feminist performances were created and shaped with partners, rather than by an absent author. An elimination of formal distance characterizes the work of female theatre makers, as well as dialogue built on mutuality and intersubjectivity.32 This is reflected for example in salon performances (around 1800) in which social and the political life came together. Topics were fathomed through improvisation and play. A Theatre without assumed characters. The personal thus became aesthetic.33 Mostly, women’s’ theatre – that is, theatre created and performed by women – played out in the margins of society. Standing disconnected from the canonical works, women’s theatre was more related to the domestic, social service-sphere that they were confined to.

Sharing as a performance strategy

The previously addressed consciousness-raising groups also provided the first steps toward a feminist theatre practice based on celebrating the voices of women in public performances, without questioning their condition, class or colour. I already briefly mentioned theatre-working-group Proloog, but there were others who united in theatre working groups to create theatre for and with women. In the Anglo-Saxon context feminist theatre groups like It’s All Right to be Woman Theatre – founded in 1970 – also used their theatre space to validate the experience of the category ‘called woman’.34 Consciousness-raising techniques were used in combination with acting. The productions became a sort of public group experience, with women sharing their experience in front of an audience. This public exposure made the performances often an intense and intimate experience, lacking aesthetic distance and breaking with the traditional concept of the ‘fourth wall’. “This produced a new dramaturgical dynamic that matched the feminist sense that the personal is political.”35 There was a personal connection to the work and there were political consequences at stake in making and attending these performances. Another famous example of where artistic practice met feminist activism is the ritualistic burning of bras, a performative act of women, reclaiming their female bodies from sexualised patriarchal culture. This is representative for the creativity that was present throughout all feminist struggles during all the waves in feminism. 32_{Case 1988, p. 46.} 33_{Ibid. 48.} 34_{Ibid. 65.} 35_{Ibid. 65.}

(20)

19

Performance art

A new more radical genre that also emerged from a critique to the limitations of women in theatre and performance practice was performance art. Women perform within the parameters of their own unique experience, with a central focus on their bodies, creating an aesthetic experience that involves both performer and spectator. Performance art started around the 1960’s and took flight during the 1970’s.

Performance art takes place outside the dominant tradition of stages, characters, plots, written texts and even audiences. Women performance artists choose personal sites for their performances, often without audiences. They explore new relationships to their own bodies and voices in performance and they develop new kinds of plays.36

It involved installations and performances that drew on personal experiences of women, giving them the opportunity to voice and express their beliefs as women. It was often based on challenging the notion of gender, on a plea for sexual liberation or a critique on the (re)presentation of the (sexualised) female body in public space. What was seen as ‘natural’, as typical attributes for the female gender, was contested and made controversial in sometimes violent performances. Famous among these first female performance artists were Judy Chicago (The Dinner Party (1979)37 and Menstruation Bathroom (1972)38) Carolee Schneeman (Interior Scroll (1975)39_{) and Marina Abramovic.}

According to Erin Striff [1997], who wrote an article about the practice of feminist performance art; “Feminist performance artists attempt to disrupt the cultural associations with the female body. They extend their bodily capabilities […]; they practice body modification; and they enact the abjection of the female body.”40 To understand the way these bodies were perceived during the time they were performed related to concepts like fetishizing, the grotesque, abjection and sexual liberation, one has to go back to the social and cultural climate of the time in which the work was performed. Still today the female body is present within performance art practice, however it is no longer only confined to the margins. For example, on the tenth of January 2018, I’ve witnessed the performance Apollon Musagète

36_{Case 1988, p. 56.}

37_{https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/genesis/}_{Last visited on 18-05-2018. Web.} 38_{https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/2403}_{Last visited on 18-05-2018. Web.}

39_{https://fineartmultiple.com/blog/carolee-schneemann-interior-scroll-masterpiece/}_{Last visited on}

18-05-2018. Web.

(21)

20

by Florentina Holzinger as it was performed at the main hall of Theater Rotterdam, a theatre that can hold almost nine hundred people. In this performance, patriarchy is held under scrutiny.41 The performance is inspired by a type of carnivalesque freak show in which one of the performers places her body under physical duress, thereby criticizing the male dominant gaze over the female body. Masochism and passivity are two strategies that are used to analyse female suffering in a society dominated by men.

Also the level of shock and controversy involved in these performances, for example surrounding nudity of the female body, has changed over the last five decades, however as an art form, performance art is still very much alive and some of the same motives from the past (for example, the violence in the representation of the sexualised female body in Apollon Musagète (2018) still appear in contemporary practice.42

Both performance art and performances based on consciousness-raising strategies were rooted in radical feminism, focusing on a distinguished women culture. For comparison, a liberal feminist approach of historical analysis could, for example, focus on the role of – and advocate for more – women playwrights in the theatre practice and critically analyse the division of labour in the established theatre institutions. A more materialistic feminist approach would maybe expand the research to representations of gender oppression on stage, focussing among other things on socio-economic oppressions, based on class and skin colour.

§ 1.3 Third wave feminism

What was the start of third wave feminism? When was the unitary category of ‘woman’ called into question? When did post-Colonial discourse enter the feminist discourse? When did the focus come to rely more on deconstructing normative ideas of gender? Did it start when feminists reclaimed their femininity in a reaction against the sober, hair-under-armpit-feminism that was part of the second wave? It was all of the above and more. First we look at how the third wave formed in reaction to the second wave and then we look at the different movements and new theoretical discourse this resulted in. Here we see a struggle within the feminist movements between on the one hand an effort to retain collective categories, while at the same time avoiding essentialism.

41_{Van der Putt 2017, Theaterkrant. (2017).}

https://www.theaterkrant.nl/recensie/apollon-musagete/campo-florentina-holzinger/ Last visited on 23-05-2018. Web.

42_{A review of the performance can be found here:}

(22)

21

§ 1.3.1 Difference-thinking in reaction to the second wave’s unification. How and when the third wave came to be is in many ways contested. Whether it came after the second wave, or was formed out of a critique of the second wave is not fully agreed upon. In their article (2005), Archer Mann and Huffman argue that “the initial challenges to second wave feminism shared a focus on difference, but resulted in two opposing political camps: one that embraced identity politics as the key to liberation; and a second that saw freedom in resistance to identity”.43 This led to an essential divide in mainstream feminist discourse. Amongst other movements, the first camp led to a postcolonial feminist discourse and the development of intersectional theory in an attempt to grasp and theorize the multiple, simultaneous oppressions feminists of colour were experiencing. Exposing the complex web of politics that is in play would be the key to feminist liberation. Through finding different multiple oppressive societal structures to oppose, and recognising these oppressions were simultaneous, inseparable, interlocking and non-hierarchical, women (specifically of colour and of lower class) could unite. From this stance intersectional theory was developed.

The other camp upheld a different line of argumentation in reaction to the second wave: that of resisting all forms of identity politics and questioning the notion of coherent identities itself. This is a postmodernist, poststructuralist approach: “The latter is exemplified by postmodernist and poststructuralist feminists who viewed freedom as resistance to categorization or identity.”44 Consequential to this line of thinking among other things, queer theory and critical thinking with regards to gender norms was developed.

§ 1.3.2 What this resulted in: Intersectionality

One of the key words that distinguishes third wave feminism is the concept of intersectionality. One of the major critiques of the second wave feminist movement was the essentialist view on womanhood or the “essentialist woman”.45 There was an emphasis on what united women under the false pretence of womanhood, resulting in a blind spot regarding the discriminative differences between women active in the second wave. It was not possible to have a unitary single voice or vision representing the heterogeneous experiences of all women. Was there no attention to differences within the feminist movements during the second wave? Were race and class not at all of feminist interest until the 1980’s? Here a legitimate critique of the wave analogy would be in place. During the 1960’s and 1970’s in

43_{Archer Mann & Huffman 2005, p. 58.} 44_{Ibid. 58.}

(23)

22

some places and forms race and class were part of the political feminist agenda, but it was not a part of the mass movements in feminism within the second wave.46_{There was some} attention paid to it, however it was deemed of greater importance for women to unite under an “all-inclusive-sisterhood”47, as was explained in a previous paragraph(s).

Towards the end of the second wave, from the notion of conflicting interests and priorities within feminist movements, identity politics took a more prominent place on the feminist agenda. The following definition by Linda Alcoff is used here for describing identity politics: “The idea here is that one’s identity is taken (and defined) as a political point of departure, as a motivation for action, and as a delineation of one’s politics.”48 The negative potential with identity politics is that, on the one hand it presupposes one’s political agenda, based on one’s identity and on the other that it places boundaries on political participation or involvement in the form of a group membership based on your identity. These risks linked to identity politics remain in place until this very day. It not only had its consequences in the way political action was organised from then on, but also in the way feminism was henceforth theorised. This shift from distinguishing feminist perspectives in terms of politics towards assigning them based on individual identity is again misleading and a form of essentializing.

In 1989 Kimberlé Crenshaw introduced the term ‘intersectionality’.49 Crenshaw was a human rights advocate and scholar. The term originated in Critical Law studies to solve a legal problem. Although Crenshaw introduced the term, there was already a field of black feminist thought that build up the perspective that became ‘intersectionality’. Later, during the nineties, this theory was developed by scholars such as Patricia Hill Collins around a key concept called intersectionality, a theory that revolved around multiple and simultaneous oppressions.50 “Intersectionality is a social constructivist view that links identities, standpoints and social locations in a matrix of domination.”51 It is not focussed on one aspect of one’s identity, but it centres around the idea that there are many different aspects that form ones identity and that all those aspects, or qualities together form a web of power relations. The core insight of intersectionality is: “that major axes of social divisions in a given society at a given time, for example race, class, gender, sexuality, dis/ability, and age operate not as

46_{Archer Mann & Huffman 2005, p. 60.} 47_{Thornton Dill 1994, p. 42}

48_{Alcoff 1988, p. 412.} 49_{Yuval-Davis 2006, p. 193}

50_{Archer Mann & Huffman 2005, p. 61.} 51_{Ibid. 62.}

(24)

23

discrete and mutually exclusive entities, but build on each other and work together.”52 Intersectionality looks at the relations between those social divisions that one’s identity exists of, and links this to the various (structural) power relations present in the world at large, as opposed to having a singular view on the identity of an individual and dealing with unambiguous categories of social oppressions in the world.

According to some the development of intersectional theory was a distinctive feature that separated the third from the second wave of feminism. There is something to be said for this point of view. The second wave feminism was largely based on rejecting oppositional thinking within the movement in order to stand united as women, where the third wave focussed more on deconstructing group-categorical thinking, focussing more on how different social groups and their struggles intersected. Chapter twowill zoom in on intersectionality as a theoretical framework and tool for analysis and an attempt will be made to apply it as a tool for performance analysis, using the case study of of the Hip Hop-opera We shall not be Moved, created by Opera Philadelphia (2017). We will see how intersectional thinking is present throughout the creational process of the performance and how it shaped both the content of the performance in terms of characters and storyline, but also the form, in the sense of combining two genres, namely hip-hop and opera.

§ 1.3.3 The poststructuralist-turn

As was said before, within the third wave the unitary notion of ‘woman’ was questioned through identity politics. However, with the rise of identity politics and intersectionality also came the critique against concepts like race, ethnicity, class, gender and sexual orientation as being unitary categories. The feminists following the postmodernist turn, pivoted from identity politics to its total opposite: a politics based on non-identity and a resistance against all forms of labelling and categorizing of women. It was a movement against all forms of binary thinking.

The central idea is that identity is simply a construct of language, discourse and cultural practices. The goal is to dismantle these fictions and, thereby, to undermine hegemonic regimes of discourse. To affirm identities, as identity politics does, merely reproduces and sustains dominant discourses and regulatory power.53

52_{Collins & Bilge 2016, p. 4.}

(25)

24

This consequently led to the idea that identities can be multiple, fluid and unstable, which created other possibilities for investigating and theorizing power relations and social differences.54 In a way one can say that both intersectionality and poststructuralist feminism use ‘difference’ as a starting point to question the dominant feminist discourse of the second wave and both depart from the conviction that all forms of knowledge are socially constructed and socially situated. However, the poststructuralist feminists, like Butler, Case, Doland et al. in the wake of a Foucauldian analysis rejected any form of categorization or homogeneity in experiences and identities of women.

Performativity

Already in the second wave, the distinction between sex and gender was formulated, resulting in a shift from biological determinism toward social constructivism. Judith Butler continued to theorize gender and wrote perhaps the most influential book about gender theory: Gender Trouble [1990]. However, Butler first published her ground-breaking work in a journal for theatre and performance theories. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution” [1988] was published in The Theatre Journal. Here she introduces the concept of performativity, linked to gender construction. Foucault’s idea that identity is a construct of language, discourse and cultural practices is something that Judith Butler incorporated in her theory on performativity. Central in her theory on gender and performativity is the exposing of gender as a social construct. There is no original gender, but the construction of gender is implemented through a “stylized repetition of acts”.55_{What Butler did with her theory, was deconstructing the} notion of woman, creating a non-binary form of living gender. Chapter four will contain a more in depth analysis of Butler’s theory on performativity.

§ 1.4 Fourth wave?

Elizabeth Kelly, author of the article “Review Essay: A New Generation of Feminism? Reflections on the Third Wave” [2005] endorses the idea that the third wave sprung from a rebelling against the second wave. She writes: “Young feminist scholars of the third generation generally define themselves as outside or against the academy; differentiating the Third Wave from, and often sharply rejecting, the work of the second wave. This literature – frequently autobiographical, self-consciously “theoretical,” and diverse- forwards an argument for feminism based on an interesting, if somewhat odd, combination of anarchism,

54_{Archer Mann & Huffman 2005, p. 63.} 55_{Butler 1988, p. 519.}

(26)

25

individual empowerment, and generational solidarity (my emphasis added).”56_{Third wave} feminism has risen out of a revolt against what was. Are we currently living in a new revolt phase, resulting in a fourth wave of feminism? By now, most scholars agree that the wave analogy no longer suffices in analysing contemporary feminist movements. I would say that we are still in the phase of critically revolting against the idea of a unitary category of women that characterized the second wave. However, we might be in a post-third-wave phase, in the sense that already new critiques have formed on the main theory and literature that has been produced early on in the third wave due to the “lack of vibrant energy in academic theory, the anger, the gross generalizations and the historical misrepresentations”.57

Recently women have mass mobilized in different places and forms. There is the #metoo debate, that consequently led to a debate on white washing feminist struggles.58 (#MeToo, was initiated by Tarana Burke, but it only gained widespread support and incited a public debate after the white actress Alyssa Milano coined the hashtag on Twitter.) There are slutwalks organized against rape culture, victim blaming and slut-shaming of young women. All around the world there are women’s marches, protesting against sexism and advocating the protection of women and human rights calling for concrete political action.

How can one be a ‘good’ feminist? That is, taking into account all the many inequalities, promoting nuance, and still effectively speak up. Many books have recently been written about this topic, addressing feminism, intersectionality, gender, privilege and the effects these topics have on our everyday lives.59_{How do we incorporate all these newly} acquired insights into our own personal and/or political lives?

§ 1.4.1 Critique of the third wave: divisive, competitive and individualistic What are the major criticisms on the newly developed theoretical concepts of the third wave that are central in this thesis; Intersectionality, gender theory and body politics? The following commentaries shed a light on why it is often hard for contemporary feminist movements to mobilize in broad scale social or political activism.

56_{Kelly 2005, p. 234.} 57_{Ibid. 234.}

58_{Garcia, Sandra E. “The Woman Who Created #MeToo Long Before Hashtags.” The New York}

Times. www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/us/me-too-movement-tarana-burke.html Last accessed on 15-04-2018.

59_{Some out of many examples: Bad Feminist: Essays (2014) by Roxane Gay, Why I Am Not a}

Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto (2017) by Jessa Crispin, We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement (2017) by Andi Zeisler.

(27)

26

“I am a woman; on this truth must be based all further discussion.”60_{Simone de} Beauvoir wrote this down in her book the second sex in 1949. The book laid the foundation for the second wave and for uniting all women in the fight for social and political equality. The quote selling on a T-shirt today would probably be: ‘I am a young-white-Cis-gender- middle-class-of-Dutch-origin-and-decent-living-in-Amsterdam-with-a-university-degree-woman; on this truth must be based all further discussion.’ Creating awareness on one’s position ultimately leads to more nuance and context in any debate. It emphasises the importance of diversity. However, it can also be interpreted as exclusive and limiting. It suggests that one cannot represent the standpoint or view of a minority, when that is not a part of your identity or lived experience. Productively used in the fight against social injustice, this critique calls for more diversity in discussion panels and public debate. As a drawback, this could lead back to an essentialist notion of identity politics, leaving the voices of some women, who cannot speak out, because they don’t have the means, the resources, the platform, to be unheard, because nobody is allowed to speak for them. It could also lead to hierarchical thinking about minorities and competing feminisms in defining what should be on the agenda. Who is more subordinated? The more categories one falls under, the more right one has to speak. It becomes a race to the bottom competing for space.

All these are similar critiques on a type of feminism that is essentialist, divisive and individualist (striving toward individual empowerment) and there for standing in the way of mass mobilization. Everyone is an individual with a unique mix of subordinations. This makes it hard to mobilize women for social or political activism. However, Identity politics have in the past also proven to be a strong basis for community building, based on shared lived experience in the struggle for justice. “One of the Third Wave’s great strengths is the refusal to define identity – or identity politics – in simple or uncomplicated terms.”61 So, individual empowerment yes, but also a systematic analysis and interrogation of structures of power, privilege and oppression characterizes the (post?) third wave of feminism.

§ 1.4.2 Commodification of feminism

Consciousness-raising was an important part of second wave feminism. Raising awareness for the feminist agenda nowadays is a popular goal. Famous popstars, like Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, promote feminism and portray themselves as frontiers in contemporary

60_{De Beauvoir, Simone. Second Sex. 13.} 61_{Kelly 2005, p. 236.}

(28)

27

feminism, promoting free sexuality and ‘girlie’ ethic, but at the same time also commercialising feminism in the mainstream media. It is okay to enjoy your physicality, grow confident in your body and strive for self-improvement. In order to call yourself a feminist however, it should be accompanied by a certain awareness of how this relates to the political, economic, ecological and social power relations in our western patriarchal capitalist society. “Without a body of politics, the nail polish is really going to waste.”62 One reason for feminism to become a more low brow, consumerist occupation could be found in the resistance of the ‘always discussing-always looking for more nuance-never satisfied with an answer-highbrow-intellectual feminism. Underlying this commercialisation of feminism could be according to Kelly that “the third wave, […] can only define itself in opposition – and through the display of an anti-intellectualism that mirrors, in a disturbing way, more mainstream cultural discourse and norms.”63 This post-third wave feminist movement might not be generated within the academy, and be rooted more in autobiographical writing and knowledge production with feminist icons not being rooted in the academy, but in popular culture.

What is the downside to this commercialisation? Popular culture offers an escape from social injustice, contradictions, conflict and compromise in everyday life. Pop diva’s sell phantasies and most of all, sell their music. There is a paradox to the radical label that Feminism still has while, at the same time, these radical ideas, this radical label, is commodified for profit. The effect of commodification of feminism is that, if you want feminism to be accessible for everyone, it will not accurately represent anyone. It will not bring about fundamental social change, and it does not do justice to the history of feminism and the women’s rights predecessors fought so hard for to be attained.

On the one hand, the commercial aim is to make profit, not to critically address social injustice and rework power relations. On the other, within this ethos of the market, one could also celebrate his or her individual empowerment through identity construction. See identity as a commodity. Be something one day and be someone else entirely the next. As long as ‘radical feminism’ sells, why not make use of the momentum and use these endless possibilities of commercial expressions as the start for a proper dialogue?

In conclusion, we have seen how historical developments in feminism have sprung from inadequacies and conflict within the mainstream feminist movement. Feminism can be as unifying as it can be divisive. However, new developments are contributing to an ever

62_{Baumgardner & Richards 2000, p. 152.} 63_{Kelly 2005, p. 239.}

(29)

28

broadening discourse on feminism and sexuality studies. So far, combining a sociological perspective with a performance theory perspective had thought us how representation runs like a red thread through feminist theatre practice as well as through activism in society. In the following chapters three core concepts will be further elaborated on; Intersectionality, body politics and gender construction. I will approach these concepts form a dramaturgs perspective as working concepts. An analysis will be made on how they operate throughout the entire process from forming an idea and translating that into a performance.

Staging Feminism: A dramaturgical approach to ‘intersectionality’, ‘body politics’ and ‘gender construction’ as working concepts in a feminist theatre and performance practice