“Queer Performances”

Early in Little Women, Jo March’s “queer performances” scandalize her sister Meg (47). ¹ Alcott often uses the word queer to describe Jo’s (and her own) nonconformist behavior, but the adjective provides the twentieth-century reader with a punning metaphor that aptly sums up one of the most subversive elements of the novel, and the noun prefigures Judith Butler’s arguments about the performative nature of gender. As Butler puts it, “That the gendered body is performative suggests that it has no ontological status apart from the various acts which constitute its reality.” ² Later, she advises her reader to think of gender “as a corporeal style, an ‘act,’ as it were, which is both intentional and performative, where ‘performative’ suggests a dramatic and contingent construction of meaning.” ³ Thus, Butler argues, gender is not a biological construct; it is a social one. Jo’s most blatant act of non-conformism is her rejection of socially inscribed heterosexual gender roles; the text often describes her “performances” in masculine terms to express her androgynous nonconformity. ⁴ In Jo’s refusal to perform her prescribed gender role lies a critique of heterosexuality that can be read as a strong affirmation of lesbian politics.