Tootsie and Performative Gender

Judith Butler writes "gender is instituted through the stylization of the body and, hence, must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements, and enactments of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gender" while paraphrasing Beauvoir (519). This definition of gender as temporal and reliant in its entirety on the perception of the individual and society is addressed by the film Tootsie. For Butler, and for Michael Dorsey, gender is performative – cobbled together from cultural expectations and traits learned over time. Dorsey chooses to inherit those characteristics rapidly, redefining his gender in order to prove to his agent that he is a capable actor while also desperate for the economic means to produce his friend’s play.  

 

He becomes a woman. He becomes Dorothy, at first stumbling in heels with his aggression in a high pitched tone. However, the film goes on to follow him as he adopts the persona of Dorothy, defining her background as modest, kind, empathetic – expectations of women at the time. His image becomes vastly more important when he is Dorothy, buying a dress just so he is not seen in another more than once. He still considers himself a male, yet the movie makes the curious observation that he grows more “human” or kind and empathetic, a “better man” when he becomes a woman.  

 

As he performs a gender “opposite” his own, his personality is assumed to be opposite. Yet, this film could be called and has been criticized for being sexist as Dustin Hoffman playing Dorsey claims he understands the problems of being a woman just by performing as a woman. Yet, he still subscribes to the stereotypes in order to be successful while subverting others, standing up to the men in the industry for women. This seems to suggest women are not naturally aggressive enough to do so, that they will continually be victimized because they are afraid of the unknown as seen with Julie Nichols.   

 

 

The film then could be seen as instead of criticizing how performative gender is, instead it promotes certain performances over others when looking at gender as Dorsey is seen as a better person. If this film were produced in modern day, what changes could be made to be a better critique about gender and less a romantic ideal about women being better yet still damsels in need of a man to save them?