"Facing Gender Performativity"

This is a prime example of an academic approach to subjects which we might know better from the writings of Judith Butler or Kate Bornstein (both quoted here) or may just encounter in our daily lives as "outing" or conflict or prejudice. And that idea of "performing gender" which both writers focus on. There are times when, reading such pieces, you - well, I - want to cry out for some plain speech, some vivid examples and lively case-studies, and an end to academic jargon. Please. For your information "face-work", as referred to here, is about "face" as self-image and those moments when, my Google-search tells me, "one's face is threatened; and thus the person tends to save or restore his or her face. This set of communicative behaviours, according to the theory, is called "facework"." And maybe the message of all this is that gender "performance" makes face-work more difficult. In which case I'd say, in the spirit of St Ru - work that face! Now that would be something to write about.