Jack Migdalek - The Embodied Performance of Gender

Norms of embodied behavior for males and females, as promoted in mainstream Western public arenas of popular culture and the everyday, continue to work, overtly and covertly, as definitive and restrictive barriers to the realm of possibilities of embodied gender expression and appreciation. They serve to disempower and marginalize those not inclined to embody according to such dichotomous models. This book explores the ramifications of the way our gendered, sexed, and culturally constructed bodies are situated toward notions of difference and highlights the need to safeguard the social and emotional well-being of those who do not fit comfortably with dominant norms of masculine/feminine behavior as deemed appropriate according to biological sex. The book interrogates gender inequitable machinations of education and performance arts disciplines by which educators and arts practitioners train, teach, choreograph, and direct those with whom they work, and theorizes ways of broadening personal and social notions of possible, aesthetic, and acceptable embodiment for all persons, regardless of biological sex or sexual orientation. The authors own struggles as a performance artist, educator, and person in the everyday, as well as the findings of empirical fieldwork with educators, performance arts practitioners, and high school students, are employed to illustrate and advocate the need for self-reflexive scrutiny of existing and hidden inequities regarding the embodiment of gender within ones own habitual perspectives, taste, and practices.

Jack Migdalek is a drama lecturer at Trinity College (Melbourne University) and Education Materials writer for the Arts Centre, Victoria, and has worked as a performer, writer, choreographer, director, and educator in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

Routledge Research in Gender and Society

For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com

12 The Gender of Democracy
Citizenship and Gendered Subjectivity
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13 Female Homosexuality in the Middle East
Histories and Representations
Samar Habib

14 Global Empowerment of Women
Responses to Globalization and Politicized Religions
Edited by Carolyn M. Elliott

15 Child Abuse, Gender and Society
Jackie Turton

16 Gendering Global Transformations
Gender, Culture, Race, and Identity
Edited by Chima J Korieh and Philomina Ihejirika-Okeke

17 Gender, Race and National Identity
Nations of Flesh and Blood
Jackie Hogan

18 Intimate Citizenships
Gender, Sexualities, Politics
Elbieta H. Oleksy

19 A Philosophical Investigation of Rape
The Making and Unmaking of the Feminine Self
Louise du Toit

20 Migrant Men
Critical Studies of Masculinities and the Migration Experience
Edited by Mike Donaldson, Raymond Hibbins, Richard Howson and Bob Pease

21 Theorizing Sexual Violence
Edited by Rene J. Heberle and Victoria Grace

22 Inclusive Masculinity
The Changing Nature of Masculinities
Eric Anderson

23 Understanding Non-Monogamies
Edited by Meg Barker and Darren Langdridge

24 Transgender Identities
Towards a Social Analysis of Gender Diversity
Edited by Sally Hines and Tam Sanger

25 The Cultural Politics of Female Sexuality in South Africa
Henriette Gunkel

26 Migration, Domestic Work and Affect
A Decolonial Approach on Value
and the Feminization of Labor Encarnacin Gutirr ez-Rodrguez

27 Overcoming Objectification
A Carnal Ethics
Ann J. Cahill

28 Intimate Partner Violence in LGBTQ Lives
Edited by Janice L. Ristock

29 Contesting the Politics of Genocidal Rape
Affirming the Dignity of the Vulnerable Body
Debra B. Bergoffen

30 Transnational Migration, Media and Identity of Asian Women
Diasporic Daughters
Youna Kim

31 Feminist Solidarity at the Crossroads
Intersectional Womens Studies for Transracial Alliance
Edited by Kim Marie Vaz and Gary L. Lemons

32 Victims, Gender and Jouissance
Victoria Grace

33 Gender, Development and Environmental Governance
Theorizing Connections
Seema Arora-Jonsson

34 Street Sex Workers Discourse
Realizing Material Change Through Agential Choice
Jill McCracken

35 Gender, Ethnicity, and Political Agency
South Asian Women Organizing
Shaminder Takhar

36 Ecofeminism and Systems Thinking
Anne Stephens

37 Queer Women in Urban China
An Ethnography
Elisabeth L. Engebretsen

38 Gender and Rural Migration
Realities, Conflict and Change
Edited by Glenda Tibe Bonifacio

39 Gender and Neoliberalism
The All India Democratic Womens Association and Globalization Politics
Elisabeth Armstrong

40 Asexualities
Feminist and Queer Perspectives
Edited by Karli June Cerankowski and Megan Milks

41 Cross-Cultural Women Scholars in Academe
Intergenerational Voices
Edited by Lorri J. Santamara, Gatane Jean-Marie, and Cosette M. Grant

42 Muslim Women, Transnational Feminism and the Ethics of Pedagogy
Contested Imaginaries in Post-9/11 Cultural Practice
Edited by Lisa K. Taylor and Jasmin Zine

43 The Embodied Performance of Gender
Jack Migdalek

Jack Migdalek

First published 2015
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2015 Taylor & Francis

The right of Jack Migdalek to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Migdalek Jack

The embodied perfomance of gender / by Jack Migdalek.

pages cm. (Routledge research in gender and society; 43)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Sex differences. 2. Sex role. 3. Femininity. 4. Masculinity. 5. Human beingsAttitude and movement. I. Title.

HQ1075.M545 2015
305.3dc23
2014025043

ISBN: 978-1-138-80983-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-74978-5 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC

This book emanates from my PhD undertaken through Deakin Universitys School of Health and Social Development. I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to my then supervisor, Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, for her inspiration, insights, support, and cherished friendship.

I wish to express my appreciation to Miriam Sofer, Faye Bendrups, Bob Pease, Laurel Richardson, Michael Gard, Carl Leggo, Martin Mills, Wayne Martino, Shirley McKechnie, and Lynda Smerdon for their various academic, artistic, and/or technical inspiration, feedback, and support. Also to Deakin Universitys School of Communication and Creative Arts, the Arts Centre Melbourne, and Trinity College, Melbourne University.