Gender Performativity - Trumpet by Jackie Kay

Here is another feminist Scottish writer. The links between Carol Ann Duffy and Jackie Kay go even further as the pair were in a relationship for fifteen years. Though no longer together Kay says the pair are still good friends. Both authors explore topics of related to feminism nd gender which are the areas I am most interested in. I'll be looking at the gender performativity in Jackie Kay's novel "Trumpet" published in 1998.

Mary Klages describes gender stating: “Gender is a kind of performance, a show we put on, a set of signs we wear, as costume or disguise” (Klages). Similarly, Judith Butler describes gender performativity as the “stylized repetition of acts through time” (Butler). A text in which these elements are imporant is Trumpet by Jackie Kay, which explores the life

Jackie Kay - Image from bloodaxebooks.com

and death of the protagonist Joss Moody, a transgender man. Joss was assigned female at birth but transitioned into a man, a fact that only comes to light following his death. The shock of the reveal is exacerbated due to Joss Moody’s fame as a jazz trumpeter. I think it is easy to understand gender performativity from a cis-gendered perspective; however, alternative narratives can be overlooked. Dennis Schep argues that in her writing, Butler creates a "hegemonic system", and her theory of gender performativity "harbours potentially exclusionary elements" (Schep).

While gender can certainly be performative, the theory of gender performativity poses both positive and negative aspects, especially for marginalized individuals such as the transgender community. Schep points out that the idea of performativity “fails to accommodate the reasons that serve to ground this desire" (Schep). This desire being an individual's desire for gender reassignment surgery. Schep says that you cannot reconcile Butler's theory with transgender individuals' goal to validate their desire and identities. In Trumpet, I found that the idea of gender as being a "costume" or "disguise", as Klages put it, could be seen as damaging to transgender individuals such as Joss' character. Joss Moody’s supposed “gender performance” is his most authentic self, and suggesting he is in "disguise" detracts from his lived experience and life as a transgender man. The emphasis on gender as a “disguise” also perpetuates the duplicitous and deceitful narrative that is often attached to trans people, as seen in the real-life example of Billy Tipton whom the novel is based. Moreover, simplifying gender performativity and reducing the concept to a "costume" emphasizes external appearance and ignores the internal aspects of performing gender.

Gender identity and performativity are complex themes of the text. An example of how gender performativity as a theory cannot be so easily applied to trans narratives can be seen in the symbolism of Joss’s trumpet. Joss’s wife Millie’s personification of the instrument highlights the importance of the instrument concerning Joss's identity:

“When I open the trumpet in its box, it stares out at me, using its dumb keys for eyes…I put my lips to its gold mouth. But I can't make a sound. I put it back, lying it down in its furry case. It is lifeless” (Kay, p. 239).

The overall phallic shape of the instrument, Millie's lips on its "gold mouth", and the fact you have to blow the instrument to use it also conjures an image of male genitalia. However, the trumpet bell, which is almost like a large flower, and the instruments "furry case" allude to female genitalia. The fact that both aspects coexist in the one instrument, the instrument Joss's life was built around, reflects the interwoven feminine and masculine parts of Joss's identity. These aspects coexist, and we can see how these elements are inherent to his gender identity and subsequent performance. In fact, they are entirely essential to his overall performance, given that the trumpet is how Joss performs, and it is when he performs that he is most authentically himself when he is genuinely Joss Moody.

While Schep states that Butler's theory makes some genders an impossibility, Butler does criticizes the strict gender binary that would limit such genders, commenting; "my point is simply that one way in which the system of compulsory heterosexuality is reproduced and concealed through the cultivation of bodies into discrete sexes with “natural” appearances “natural” heterosexual positions” (Butler). Mary Klages's comment that gender is "a kind of performance, a show we put on, a set of signs we wear, as costume or disguise" reveals an apparent disconnect between her understanding of gender performativity as defined by Judith Butler. Butler writes that "gender cannot be understood as a rule which either expresses or disguises an interior "self" whether that "self" is conceived as sexed or not" (Butler). Though Butler's theory applies to Joss and his experience in Trumpet, nuances are attached to the trans experience that are overlooked or ignored. Wenjuan Xie critiques Butler's theory of performativity, writing that "her [Butler's] queer response to the gender trouble runs the risk of being disconnected from real struggles that gender minorities confront on a day-to-day base and concrete social, economical, political dimensions of gender doing" (Xie). Both Klages and Butler's concepts of gender performativity seem to overlook Joss's experience in some capacity.

I agree that Joss Moody does indeed perform his gender as that of a man in accordance with societal expectations. However, due to his position as a transgender man, there are complexities and nuances that are essential to his gender identity that neither Mary Klages nor Judith Butler address or consider in their approaches to gender. Mary Klages's statement does hold some truth but presents a trivialized idea of what gender performativity is or can be, especially for transgender people. To suggest their gender identity is a "disguise" or "costume" belittles their experiences and aids in the reinforcement of negative stereotypes projected onto the trans community, as depicted in Trumpet. Butler is correct in her statements on gender performativity but also overlooks the intricacies of trans identities and how they relate to this theory. Ultimately, gender as a whole can be and often is performative. In Trumpet, we see how this performative aspect is both essential in establishing Joss's identity but also how it does not solely define him. The intricacies of gender identity and gender performativity are significant, and it is crucial to consider both these ideologies' positive and negative implications. Jackie Kay’s Trumpet highlights this while also emphasizing the importance of incorporating minority groups into gender theories.

Works Cited

Klages, Mary. “Literary Theory: A Guide for the Perplexed”. Bloomsbury, 2006.

Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory". Theatre Journal, vol 40, no. 4, 1988, pp. 519-531. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3207893.

Schep, Dennis. “The Limits of Performativity: A Critique of Hegemony in Gender Theory.” Hypatia, vol. 27, no. 4, 2012, pp. 864–80. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23352299.

Kay, Jackie. Trumpet. Picador, 1998.

Xie, Wenjuan. "Queer [Ing] Performativity, Queer [Ing] Subversions: A Critique of Judith Butler’s Theory of Performativity". Comparative Literature: East &Amp; West, vol 20, no. 1, 2014, pp. 18-39. Informa UK Limited, https://doi.org/10.1080/25723618.2014.12015486. Accessed 9 May 2022.