Becoming a Woman in Man into Woman

Abstract

This study explores gender performativity in Lili Elbe’s Man into Woman to show the possibilities of reconstruction and transformation through the process of performing a woman. Man into Woman has been criticized as conventional text in representing transgender women due to its conventional transsexual life writing and the reinforcement of sexual binary. This study applies Judith Butler’s theory of performativity in exploring Lili’s performance of femininity through pronouns, clothing, activities, behaviors, identity, and sex reassignment surgery. I argue that the doctors’ diagnosis of Andreas/Lili’s desire to become a woman as an illness or abnormality can be revised through the lens of gender performativity. Although the reliance on technology in sex reassignment surgery has been criticized as reinforcing the sexist society and dehumanizing people, I argue that the use of technology in sex reassignment surgery can be helpful in performing a woman and creates new possibilities to go beyond the heteronormative limits.