Analysis Of The Play Latins Of La De Land By Migdalia...

Judith Butler argues in Performative Acts and Gender Constitution that gender is created by the act of performance and is constructed through the body. She states â€Å"gender identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo† (Butler 416).The concept of the display of gender through the act of performance is perpetuated within the play Latins in La-La Land by Migdalia Cruz specifically through the characters Sid/Rita and Lorenzo. Both of these characters put on gender and take it off throughout the play, through persona and through representative dress. Gender is a historical space and construction which argues that bodies become gendered through a â€Å"legacy of sedimented acts† (Butler 523). The legacy of sedimented acts consists of the habitual performative acts of a person and the build-up of gender norms that produce the outcome of a natural sex. Through this legacy of sedimented acts, gender is reworked within Latins of La-La Land through subversive performing acts by the characters Sid/Rita and Lorenzo. Performance exists first, then gender. Gender does not occur from an internal essence. We as a society, are unable to acknowledge that we’re performing our gender, we believe it’s inherent. Performance is learned by what is already historically dictated as gender and is acted out by the individual through performance of the body. The act of doing one s body comes from history that is shared and developed over time. Butler argues that gender is