Gender as performative or natural: Butler's performative gender in Wojtyła and John Paul II

This article examines the compatibility between Judith Butler's early understanding of performative gender and Karol Wojtyła's performative personhood, as developed in Person and Act . Perhaps surprisingly, Wojtyła and Butler are found to be ideological allies regarding 1) the performative character of aspects of the person, 2) the need for the person to act in community, 3) the possibility for gender to have a depersonalising effect, and 4) a shared concern for morality. Considering the authors’ aligning understanding of performativity/act, I claim that gender can be regarded as a property of the person established through acts in Wojtyła's Person and Act rather than as an expression of an underlying nature. Considering gender as a performative part of the person is found to be helpful for understanding the depersonalising effects of gender norms and for the moral evaluation of gender performances. The article thereafter compares Person and Act with Wojtyła/Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body ( TOB ). It finds that since TOB relies on the personalistic thought of Person and Act , it might be fruitful to reflect on the performativity of gender from a theological perspective as well.