性别存在于重复的言语和行为中，言语和行为既塑造了真实的人类，又被人类所塑造。
性别已死，性别万岁：只不过什么是“性别操演论”？
作者：Will Fraker
译者：李林治&尹子梦
校对：徐唱&尹子梦
编辑：尹子梦
Gender is dead, long live gender: just what is ‘performativity’?
性别已死，性别万岁：只不过什么是‘性别操演论’？
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Gender is burdened by a lot of adjectives these days. It’s non-
binary
, it’s fluid, it’s ‘over’. According to the American rapper Young Thug, an artist at the
helm
of hip-hop who is known to occasionally wear dresses, ‘there’s no such thing as gender’ at all.
近来，性别担负了很多形容词——非
二元的
，流动的，‘过去的’。人们熟知美国说唱歌手YoungThug说的“根本没有性别这回事”，他是个偶尔穿裙子的嘻哈艺人。
helm
|helm| n. in charge of an organization, project, etc. 负责；掌管
These descriptions share the common assumption that gender is
mutable
, not fixed. Most contemporary public conversations about what it means to be men and women will engage with some version of this thesis – a development that’s due, in large part, to the work of the American philosopher Judith Butler. Her theory of ‘performativity’ upended ideas about gender by
shedding light on
the many processes that produce it, and the theory’s
far-reaching
consequences are still widely misunderstood.
这些描述符合人们对性别的假设，即性别是
易变化的
而非固定的。大部分关于作为男人或女人意味着什么的当代公共交流，都会涉及这个理论的某个版本——该理论的发展很大程度上受到美国哲学家朱迪斯·巴特勒的影响。通过
阐明
很多得出该理论的过程，她的‘操演论’颠覆了关于性别的概念，但该理论
广泛深远的
影响却依旧受到普遍误解。
mutable
|ˈmju:təbl| adj. liable to change; likely to change 可变的；易变的；不定的
shed light on
to make a problem, etc. easier to understand 使（问题等）较容易理解
It’s unfortunate that popular culture often reduces performativity to the idea that ‘gender is a social construct’. This
catchphrase
sets the ‘social’ against the ‘natural’, and implies that gender is merely an artificial layer, encrusted by choice onto the supposedly more fundamental reality of sex. But Butler was careful to avoid arguing for a simple split between nature and culture, or sex and gender. For her, gender wasn’t predetermined by nature or biology, nor was it simply ‘made up’ by culture. Rather, Butler insisted that gender
resides in
repeated words and actions, words and actions that both shape and are shaped by the bodies of real, flesh-and-blood human beings. And crucially, such repetitions are rarely performed freely.
遗憾的是，流行文化经常将操演论简化为“性别是一个社会建构的产物”。这一
说法
把“社会”放在了“天性”的对立面，暗示了性别只不过是一个人为的产物——人类可以对更根本的生理性别有所选择。但是巴特勒小心地避免着对天性和文化、生理性别和社会性别的简单区别的论调。对她来说，性别并非由天性或生理决定，也并非由文化所‘创造’。相反，巴特勒坚信性别
存在于
重复的言语和行为中，言语和行为既塑造了真实且有血有肉的人类，又被人类所塑造。最关键的是，这样的重复是受到束缚的。
catchphrase
|ˈkætʃfreɪz| n. well-known phrase first used by, and later associated with, an entertainer, political leader, etc 名言；警语
reside in
to be in sb/sth; to be caused by sth 在于；由…造成（或引起）
What’s
at stake
in performativity stretches into the
minutiae
of the everyday. I was recently on a road trip with a group of friends, and one woman observed that she always lets her partner, a man, drive her car instead of doing so herself. Such an
acquiescence
feels feminine, she said. The question Butler would want us to ask is: does my friend do this because she is a woman, or does the act itself contribute to making her so?
操演论的
重要
之处在于，它会延伸到生活的各个
细节
。最近，我和一群朋友一起公路旅行，其中一名女性发现她总是让她的男性同伴帮她开车。她说这种
默许感
很女性化。巴特勒想让我们问的问题是：我朋友这么做是因为她是女人，还是这样的行为让她像女人？
at stake
to be won or lost; being risked, depending on the outcome of an event 在胜败关头；冒风险
Although Butler is its most famous advocate, the concept of performativity is rooted in earlier observations about how language works. In the mid-1950s, the English philosopher J L Austin pointed out that language is often a way of accomplishing things in the world, not only a means of describing it. To
make a promise, for example, is to do the promising, not just to say something about it. In How to Do Things with Words (1962), Austin described these types of statements, which
entailed
performing actions, as (you guessed it) ‘performatives’. This focus on the functionality of statements, not their truth or falsity, proved to be revolutionary, and the
interdisciplinary
enterprise of ‘speech act theory’ was born in its wake. In a wonderful way, the neologism did exactly what it was describing – it made things happen in the world.
尽管巴特勒是操演论最有名的拥护者，但操演论的概念起源于早期对语言功能的观察。在上世纪50年代中期，英国哲学家J·L·奥斯汀指出，语言不仅用于描述问题，也往往是世上解决问题的方式。比如，做出承诺就代表要履行承诺，而不仅仅只是说说。在《论言有所为》（1962）中，奥斯汀把这种
涉及
执行行动的表述为（你所猜测的）‘操演论’。关注表述的功能性，而非表述内容的真假，这是具有革命性的，而不久后，出现了‘言语行为理论’这一
复合型
概念。新词汇以一种精彩的方式完成了它所描述的——它使事情真正发生。
entail
|ɪnˈteɪl| v. necessary; involve 使（某事物）必要；牵涉
Roughly 30 years later, Butler linked performativity to gender, making explicit reference to the American philosopher John Searle’s work on speech act theory. Butler was interested in Searle’s analysis of the way that performatives don’t simply do things, they also commit the people involved to future actions. For example, when a judge declares a case closed, she’s not simply ending the trial, she’s setting off a chain of events –
plaintiffs
will be
acquitted
or
indicted
, and the courtroom
adjourned
. What Searle noted is that, in order for a performative (the judge’s
proclamation
) to have any impact on the future, it has to
adhere to
certain conventions that have already been established. Society needs to accept the authority of the judge and the form of her declaration. A performative, then, is as much a repetition or re-creation of what’s expected as it is an act of individual agency.
大约30年后，巴特勒把操演论和性别联系起来，并明确提到了美国哲学家约翰·赛尔对于言语行为理论的成果。巴特勒对赛尔的分析很感兴趣，赛尔认为操演论并不只是完成事情，还保证人们未来的行为。比如，一个法官宣布结案，她不仅结束了审判，还划分了一系列事件——
原告
将
被判无罪
或被
控诉
，法庭会
休庭
。赛尔发现，为了使操演论（法官的
判决
）在未来发挥作用，它必须
遵守
某些已经制定的协议。社会必须接受法官的权威和她宣判的形式。那么，操演行为就好像人们期待的那样，作为个体能动性的重复或者再创造。
acquit
|əˈkwɪt| v. declare sb to be not guilty (of a crime, etc); free or clear sb (of blame, responsibility, etc) 宣告某人无罪；给某人平反, 免除责任
indict
|ɪnˈdaɪt| v. accuse sb officially (of sth); charge sb （就某事）控告、起诉或告发某人
adjourn
| əˈdʒɜ:rn| v. (of people at a meeting, in court, etc) stop proceedings and separate （指会议、法庭等的人）休会、休庭
It’s against this background that Butler provides her definition in Gender Trouble (1990): ‘gender proves to be performative – that is, constituting the identity it is
purported
to be’. The basic idea is that gender is created by the very words and actions that appear, superficially, to be simply describing it after the fact. Earlier, in a 1988 essay, Butler had likened gender to ‘an act [in a play] which has been
rehearsed
, much as a script survives the particular actors who make use of it, but which requires individual actors in order to be actualised and reproduced as reality once again’. Gender is not a thing so much as a process by which patterns of language and action come to repeat themselves.
就是在这样的背景下，巴特勒在《性别烦恼》（1990）中提供了她的定义：‘事实证明性别是表述行为的，即构成它
自称
的身份’。基本理念是，性别，是由表面上看起来在事实发生后简单描述它的语言和行为，所创造的。早在1988年的一篇论文中，巴特勒认为性别像是‘一出戏剧中的动作，被不断重复
排演
，就和剧本一样，经过不同演员的演绎而得以长久流传下来。但不同的是，性别需要独立的个体演员来使其具体化，并再生为现实。’性别与其说是一个东西，不如说是一个过程，在这个过程中不断重复语言和行为模式。
purport
|pərˈpɔ:rt| v. be meant to seem (to be); claim or pretend 意思似乎是；声称；伪称
Embedded within Butler’s concept are two key expansions upon ‘performative’ as Austin or Searle used it. For one, gender does not occur with language only: it’s very much about bodies doing things, such as shaking hands or wearing clothes. Secondly, performing gender is not something that is done by a pre-existing,
unfettered
individual. Here Butler is re-appropriating Friedrich Nietzsche’s argument in On the Genealogy of Morals (1887), that ‘there is no “being” behind doing … the deed is everything’. That is, gender is not a role that someone simply chooses whether or not to step into, a decision made by a
detached
, pre-social, conscious mind. Instead, the very identity of the actor is fashioned via the actions themselves – and these actions are often unconscious and at least partly coerced.
巴特勒关于操演论的概念还有两个重要的延伸，如同奥斯汀或者赛尔运用的一样。其一，性别不止和语言一同出现：性别大多关于肢体动作，比如握手或者穿衣。其二，性别操演并非是由一个已存在的、
不受常规约束的
个体所完成的。这里巴特勒借鉴了弗里德里希·尼采《论道德的系谱》（1887）中的观点——‘行为背后没有“存在”…行为就是一切’。性别不是人可以选择的角色，也不是一个
独立的
、预先社会化的、有意识的思想可以决定的。相反，演员的身份是由行为所塑造的，而这些行为通常是无意识的且有一部分是被强迫的。
detached
|dɪˈtætʃt| adj. not influenced by others; impartial 不受他人影响的；不偏不倚的；公正的
Take shaking hands, for example. A ‘masculine’ handshake between two male-identifying individuals is not really a choice, but rather a compulsion rooted in previous actions – both their physical performances (the firm clasp, the
decisive
shake) and the way they’re spoken or thought about as ‘masculine’ (‘Don’t trust a man with a
limp
handshake’; ‘He has a good,
assertive
grip’). There’s an unspoken choreography that moulds the encounter between two men – and indeed, the less it is thought about, the smoother it operates. The moment the performance is brought to the level of awareness is precisely when it comes to feel
clunky
and unnatural, because this reveals the fact that the sequence could have been executed differently. So, while gender is performed, Butler argues, it is not a truly voluntary performance. Rather, it is made to feel ‘natural’ by virtue of its
banality
and repetition. The handshake makes the man, not the other way around.
比如握手。两个男性个体之间‘男人般’的握手并非是一种选择，而是源自先前行为的强迫行为——他们的肢体表现（坚决的攥紧，
果断的
摇晃）以及人们谈及或者认为他们‘很男人’（‘不要相信一个握手
无力的
男人’；‘他握得很好很
有力
’）。有一种关于两个男人心照不宣的礼仪，诚然，越少想，进行得越顺利。行为被意识到的时候，就是变得
笨拙
和不自然的时候，因为这表明行为顺序可以不同。所以，巴特勒表示，虽然性别被表现出来，但它并非是真正自愿的行为。反之，你感觉它很“自然”是由于它的重复以及所表现出的
平淡性
。握手的行为让一个人像男人，而不是相反。握手的行为塑造了男人的形象，而并不是男人创造了握手。
assertive
|əˈsɜ:rtɪv| adj. showing a strong and confident personality; asserting oneself 表现出刚毅与自信性格的；坚定而自信的
banality
|bəˈnæləti| n. the quality of being banal ; things, remarks, etc. that are banal 平庸；平淡乏味；陈腐的事物；陈词滥调
Butler’s claim that performativity precedes identity
goes against the grain
of Western metaphysics, which clings to the sovereignty of the free, rational individual. This idea is largely due to the 17th-century French philosopher René Descartes, who conceived of the mind as a stable foundation, an internal space that’s
ontologically
distinct from the body and the world. Butler’s conception of gender, however, suggests that we aren’t pre-existing Cartesian egos ‘constructing’ our gender through acts of will; nor do we ‘inhabit’ some biologically predetermined role. Rather, we’re embodied individuals, propagating particular ways of doing gender, often unthinkingly.
巴特勒的操演性先于自我的主张违反西方形而上学，后者坚持自由理性的个体主权。西方形而上学主要源自17世纪法国哲学家勒内·笛卡尔，他认为意识是种稳定的基础，从
本体论
讲是区别于身体和世界的内部空间。然而，巴特勒的性别构想认为，我们并非像笛卡尔以为的个体那样通过意志行为决定自己的性别，也并非扮演着一些生物学上预先决定了的角色。相反，我们是有着不同具体表现形式的个体，常常无意识地从特定的方面操演性别。
go against the grain
to be or do sth different from what is normal or natural 违反常理；不正常；不合常情；与…格格不入
Intriguingly
, there’s now the potential for performativity to be
taken up
in a modified form by
cognitive
scientists – especially those concerned with how the body and society affect the way we think. Take the relationship between poverty and brain
plasticity
, for example. The stress of living in poverty can alter physical brain structures in significant ways, such as shrinking the hippocampus. This can affect memory, emotion and other qualities that one might be otherwise tempted to attribute to individual ‘identity’. By adopting a more performative perspective, however, we can see how these neural, bodily structures at once produce and are produced by certain social and circumstantial scripts. Much like performativity does for gender, this approach suggests that the mind is not a pre-existing thing, but an ongoing achievement of an embodied organism, mutable and
moulded
by a broader context.
有趣的是
，操演性在经过修改后目前有可能为
认知
科学家所
接受
，尤其是那些关注身体和社会如何影响我们思考方式的科学家。以贫穷和大脑的
可塑性
关系为例。生活贫困的压力能够极大改变大脑的物理结构，比如造成海马体萎缩。海马体萎缩会影响记忆、情绪和其他被认为能塑造个人“自我”的特质。然而，通过吸纳性别操演的观点，我们就能知道这些神经和身体结构是如何立即产生，以及在受到某些社会和间接条件影响下如何产生的。就像操演性对性别的影响一样，这一方法表明，意识不是预先存在的，而是实现具体化的机体不间断的产物，意识易变化，并受更广泛背景的
影响
。
intriguing
|ɪnˈtri:gɪŋ| adj. full of interest, esp because unusual; fascinating 饶有兴味的（尤指因稀奇）；迷人的
take up
accept sth 接受某事物
mould
|moʊld| v. guide or control the development of sb/sth; shape or influence sb/sth 指导或控制某人/某事物的发展；塑造或影响某人/某事物
Performativity has become a catchword in the humanities, the social sciences and popular culture. In 2016, New York magazine went so far as to declare: ‘It’s Judith Butler’s World’. But while performativity has been developed in the context of gender, it has much deeper implications. It’s a way of making strange that which feels
intuitive
, of challenging us to take a second look at what appears self-evident. Performativity encourages us not only to see the world differently, but to imagine how we might do it differently. As the philosopher Alva Nöe puts it in Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature (2015): ‘it is our nature to acquire second natures’.
操演性已成了人类、社会科学和通俗文化的流行语。2016年，《纽约》杂志甚至宣布：“这是朱迪斯·巴特勒的世界”。虽然操演性在性别领域取得进展，但它还蕴含着更深层的含义。它使我们不再依赖
直觉
，重新审视看上去显而易见的事。操演性不仅使我们以不同视角看世界，还使我们想象如何以不同方式操演。正如阿尔瓦·诺埃在《奇怪的工具：艺术与人性》（2015）中提到的那样：“我们的天性就是获得第二天性。”
intuitive
|ɪnˈtju:ɪtɪv| adj. obtained by using your feelings rather than by considering the facts 凭直觉得到的；直觉的
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