FTV1010 Assignment 2
Gender Performativity in Princeton-Plainsboro:
Conformity, compensation, and chastisement in House, M.D.
Dr. Gregory House is a disabled diagnostician with an extremely caustic personality. His boss, Dr. Lisa Cuddy, usually dresses in cleavage-revealing tops. One of House’s assistants is sometimes mistaken for being gay and consequently ridiculed for it. These are just some of the characters of the award-winning medical drama, House, M.D. Such interesting personalities present on the grounds of the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital certainly justify the writing of a textual analysis of the television show. With that in mind, the works of Judith Butler is deemed pertinent for this study.
Butler introduced the theory of gender performativity in her book, Gender Trouble (1999), suggesting that gender is merely a person’s body language that is specifically coordinated in order to fit within clearly defined parameters of healthy and normal identification (Mansfield, 2000:76). She also proposed that a gender system does not exist naturally but fabricated and sustained by discursion instead, i.e. through our own repetitive performance of what we assume is the ‘right’ gender for us, eventually perpetuating the myth that a naturally-occurring gender system exists. Thus, the characters in House, M.D. are found to be merely performing their genders to give the impression that their lives are organised around the culturally acceptable poles of gendered being. Using this core concept, it is possible to evaluate why the show’s characters act in the way they do. This paper will therefore attempt to explain their characteristics and personalities as concerted efforts to conform to the aforementioned parameters, and in the event that they fail, how they attempt to compensate for the deviations or become chastised for it.
Nevertheless, a reduction of Butler’s work to the above ideas is an oversimplification of the complex and multifaceted theory of gender performativity. As such, this paper does not purport to reflect the full breadth of the theory but rather an appreciation of the theory’s essence as a basis upon which a textual analysis of House, M.D. as well as its characters and their personalities could be made.
First of all, we have the show’s namesake, Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), a medical genius who suffered a thigh infarction several years prior to the events of the show, rendering him crippled. This could be viewed as an obstacle which prevents him from completely ‘performing’ his masculinity through traditional means, such as displays of strength, control, and independence (Barker, 2003:301). Butler (1999) also suggests that those who do not constantly perform and represent themselves according to such standards may face social isolation, mockery, stigma, or even violence and death. Ultimately, House’s disability emasculates the character, causing him to compensate through his trademark acerbic personality. House also demonstrates unnecessary violence on occasion as an outlet for his suppressed masculinity; in the second season episode Hunting, he attacks the father of a patient in an attempt to prove a diagnosis. Hence, it is concluded that the pressures of conforming to society’s definitions of the male gender have forced House to, in the words of performance, ‘overact’ in such a way that observers continue to see in him the traits generally associated with men.
Another aspect of House’s character is his dependence on Vicodin to relieve the chronic pain in his leg. Although this habit is justified, the amount he consumes daily betrays a heavy addiction to the painkillers. It has been suggested that low self-esteem could arise from a self-perceived failure to meet society’s expectations (McLean et al., Rowe in Barker, 2003:303), leading men to resort to violence, gambling, alcohol and drugs as forms of self-medication against “covert depression stemming from shame and ‘toxic’ family relationships” (Real in Barker, 2003:303). House’s heavy Vicodin use – above and far beyond that of the usual dosage taken by most people – may have resulted from being abused as a child (revealed in the season three episode One Day, One Room), the breaking straw being the thigh infarction that crippled him. Therefore, his drug abuse is not so much a method of compensating for his emasculation, but more for assuaging the emotional trauma of his childhood as well as the depression caused by his self-perceived failure to perform his gender correctly.
Like House, his boss Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) is someone who endeavours to correctly perform the female gender. Traditionally, an ideal woman is “caring and maternal”, “anxious to please” as well as “subordinate” to men (Barker, 2003:308). As the Dean of Medicine of the hospital, Cuddy is in a position of high power typically associated with male doctors. Thus, she attempts to compensate for her apparent masculinity by putting on a façade of femininity; Joan Rivière, an influence on Butler’s writings, suggested that womanliness is nothing but pretence in her 1929 essay “Womanliness as Masquerade” (in Mansfield, 2000:75). Rivière speaks of a highly successful woman professional that would act in a highly flirtatious manner to her male counterparts so as to return ownership of the phallus, a symbol of power, back to them. This reflects the relationship between House and Cuddy; she constantly empowers him by submitting to his requests to conduct dangerous tests on his patients as well as subjecting herself to his misogynistic comments that border on sexual harassment. In the season one episode, Kids:
Moving on, the character of Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) represents many of the traditionally desired traits in a woman. Kind, caring, emotional and sentimental, she often becomes attached to the patients she treats. Her compassion seemed limitless; she once married a man dying from cancer despite knowing his condition, as well as agreeing to watch a homeless man suffer his final hours in the episode One Day, One Room simply because he wished to punish himself for living a wasted life by experiencing a meaningful (and painful) death. Assertive in her beliefs, Cameron passes as a person who very routinely exhibits the most desirable female traits throughout the series. Regardless, when she underwent an abrupt change in personality during an episode of the show, she is demonised (in the eyes of the audience, based on the series’ portrayal of her in that episode) for not conforming to the typical cultural definitions of the female gender.
In the episode Hunting, Cameron was exposed to the HIV-positive blood of a patient, creating fears that she may have been infected with the virus. Although her test results have yet to return, she expected the worst; discarding all her inhibitions, she became high on the patient’s methamphetamines and seduced a colleague. Her character’s personality almost completely inversed, she now becomes subversive to society’s expectations of a woman which, according to Butler (1999), draws an appropriate punishment. Hence, the episode thereafter depicts her as a sexual predator, appearing shaggy and haggard, as well as losing the ability to do her job properly. Overall, this impression of undesirability is Cameron’s punishment for her failure to conform.
This analysis now proceeds to another one of House’s fellows, Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer), and the aforementioned HIV-positive patient named Kalvin (guest star Matthew John Armstrong) as their characters provide an interesting insight into the treatment of homosexuals in House, M.D.. This is then consolidated with Butler’s appraisal of homosexuals, within the realm of gender performativity.
Firstly, Butler had always viewed the binaries ‘heterosexual’ and ‘homosexual’ with visible contempt. She uses drag as an example of putting on of a gender that does not properly belong to any sex, that ‘masculine’ does not necessarily belong to ‘male’ and ‘feminine’ does not belong to ‘female’ (Butler & Salih, 2004:127). Instead, it is an impersonation of any possible gender, resisting the traditionally held idea that there is such a thing as a ‘proper’ gender. Thus, she reasons, how could there possibly be a ‘reality’ of the heterosexual and the ‘imitation’ of the homosexual when both terms themselves are merely “an imitation of an imitation, a copy of a copy, for which there is no original” (Butler & Salih, 2004:129)?
This brings the argument back to Butler’s own suggestion that gender is a form of performance; heterosexuality is only produced by the repeated signifying practices of the traditionally-held representations of gender, that masculine is to male as feminine is to female. It is a problem when these age-old representations are challenged, as people are generally hostile to supposed ‘deviations’ from the norm. Consequently, when the character of Chase was thought by Kalvin to have been homosexual (“Nobody can be that pretty and not be gay.”) in the episode Hunting, the former was very quick to reject that notion, as though he were being accused of committing a crime.
Nevertheless, despite the series’ favourable portrayal of non-heterosexual characters, homosexuality in House, M.D. is dogged by stereotypes which lend credit to the suggestion that those who do not perform their gender correctly are chastised for their queer behaviour. For example, although Kalvin is depicted as being happy with his life (“Playing by the rules makes everyone else happy. Now I’m happy.”), he has AIDS, indulges in casual sex and uses recreational drugs; negative characteristics that are typically associated with as well as demonises gay culture. Furthermore, he has a difficult relationship with his father, who blames him for his mother’s death; being HIV-positive, Kalvin could not donate a kidney to save her life. All of these are interpreted as punishments that he receives for performing his gender wrongly, for being homosexual. Like how several of the characters have stated in that episode, it seemed like he deserved it.
Having analysed several relevant characters from House, M.D., it can thus be concluded that Butler’s theory of gender performativity allows for an interesting textual appreciation of the show. The treatment of these characters by the series’ writers demonstrates the effects of one’s choice of performance. Firstly, one could attempt to choose to fit within the bounds of traditionally-held definitions of gender. Failing to do so, one could compensate for that failure by the ‘overacting’ of other aspects of one’s character; for example, Dr. House and his rudeness. However, if one goes so far as to completely challenge the myth that a naturally-occurring gender system exists by deviating from the aforementioned bounds, he or she may face repercussions for that choice. In other words, an interpretation of Butler’s theories could very well be simplified into this: When performing a gender, we must attempt to conform to the status quo or compensate for any flaws that impede our attempts, lest we be chastised for our queer behaviour.
Conformity, compensation, and chastisement in House, M.D.
Dr. Gregory House is a disabled diagnostician with an extremely caustic personality. His boss, Dr. Lisa Cuddy, usually dresses in cleavage-revealing tops. One of House’s assistants is sometimes mistaken for being gay and consequently ridiculed for it. These are just some of the characters of the award-winning medical drama, House, M.D. Such interesting personalities present on the grounds of the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital certainly justify the writing of a textual analysis of the television show. With that in mind, the works of Judith Butler is deemed pertinent for this study.
Butler introduced the theory of gender performativity in her book, Gender Trouble (1999), suggesting that gender is merely a person’s body language that is specifically coordinated in order to fit within clearly defined parameters of healthy and normal identification (Mansfield, 2000:76). She also proposed that a gender system does not exist naturally but fabricated and sustained by discursion instead, i.e. through our own repetitive performance of what we assume is the ‘right’ gender for us, eventually perpetuating the myth that a naturally-occurring gender system exists. Thus, the characters in House, M.D. are found to be merely performing their genders to give the impression that their lives are organised around the culturally acceptable poles of gendered being. Using this core concept, it is possible to evaluate why the show’s characters act in the way they do. This paper will therefore attempt to explain their characteristics and personalities as concerted efforts to conform to the aforementioned parameters, and in the event that they fail, how they attempt to compensate for the deviations or become chastised for it.
Nevertheless, a reduction of Butler’s work to the above ideas is an oversimplification of the complex and multifaceted theory of gender performativity. As such, this paper does not purport to reflect the full breadth of the theory but rather an appreciation of the theory’s essence as a basis upon which a textual analysis of House, M.D. as well as its characters and their personalities could be made.
First of all, we have the show’s namesake, Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), a medical genius who suffered a thigh infarction several years prior to the events of the show, rendering him crippled. This could be viewed as an obstacle which prevents him from completely ‘performing’ his masculinity through traditional means, such as displays of strength, control, and independence (Barker, 2003:301). Butler (1999) also suggests that those who do not constantly perform and represent themselves according to such standards may face social isolation, mockery, stigma, or even violence and death. Ultimately, House’s disability emasculates the character, causing him to compensate through his trademark acerbic personality. House also demonstrates unnecessary violence on occasion as an outlet for his suppressed masculinity; in the second season episode Hunting, he attacks the father of a patient in an attempt to prove a diagnosis. Hence, it is concluded that the pressures of conforming to society’s definitions of the male gender have forced House to, in the words of performance, ‘overact’ in such a way that observers continue to see in him the traits generally associated with men.
Another aspect of House’s character is his dependence on Vicodin to relieve the chronic pain in his leg. Although this habit is justified, the amount he consumes daily betrays a heavy addiction to the painkillers. It has been suggested that low self-esteem could arise from a self-perceived failure to meet society’s expectations (McLean et al., Rowe in Barker, 2003:303), leading men to resort to violence, gambling, alcohol and drugs as forms of self-medication against “covert depression stemming from shame and ‘toxic’ family relationships” (Real in Barker, 2003:303). House’s heavy Vicodin use – above and far beyond that of the usual dosage taken by most people – may have resulted from being abused as a child (revealed in the season three episode One Day, One Room), the breaking straw being the thigh infarction that crippled him. Therefore, his drug abuse is not so much a method of compensating for his emasculation, but more for assuaging the emotional trauma of his childhood as well as the depression caused by his self-perceived failure to perform his gender correctly.
Like House, his boss Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) is someone who endeavours to correctly perform the female gender. Traditionally, an ideal woman is “caring and maternal”, “anxious to please” as well as “subordinate” to men (Barker, 2003:308). As the Dean of Medicine of the hospital, Cuddy is in a position of high power typically associated with male doctors. Thus, she attempts to compensate for her apparent masculinity by putting on a façade of femininity; Joan Rivière, an influence on Butler’s writings, suggested that womanliness is nothing but pretence in her 1929 essay “Womanliness as Masquerade” (in Mansfield, 2000:75). Rivière speaks of a highly successful woman professional that would act in a highly flirtatious manner to her male counterparts so as to return ownership of the phallus, a symbol of power, back to them. This reflects the relationship between House and Cuddy; she constantly empowers him by submitting to his requests to conduct dangerous tests on his patients as well as subjecting herself to his misogynistic comments that border on sexual harassment. In the season one episode, Kids:
[House’s eyes widen, then he covers them with his folder]It could also be surmised that Cuddy’s ‘masquerade’ is an intentional one based on her tolerance of House’s behaviour and on her preference for cleavage-revealing tops. As such, her personality supports Rivière’s thesis that femininity (or in fact, the female gender) is indeed an act which can be performed at will, further acknowledging Butler’s idea that gender is a “set of repeated performances that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of a natural sort of being” (in Cranny-Francis et al., 2003:168).
Cuddy: What are you doing?
House: Trying to think of anything except the produce department at Whole Foods.
Cuddy: I am working, it got hot, stop acting like a 13-year-old!
House: Sorry, you just don't usually see breasts like that on Deans of Medicine.
Cuddy: Oh, women can't be heads of hospitals? Or just ugly ones?
House: No, they can be babes. You just don't usually see their funbags.
Moving on, the character of Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) represents many of the traditionally desired traits in a woman. Kind, caring, emotional and sentimental, she often becomes attached to the patients she treats. Her compassion seemed limitless; she once married a man dying from cancer despite knowing his condition, as well as agreeing to watch a homeless man suffer his final hours in the episode One Day, One Room simply because he wished to punish himself for living a wasted life by experiencing a meaningful (and painful) death. Assertive in her beliefs, Cameron passes as a person who very routinely exhibits the most desirable female traits throughout the series. Regardless, when she underwent an abrupt change in personality during an episode of the show, she is demonised (in the eyes of the audience, based on the series’ portrayal of her in that episode) for not conforming to the typical cultural definitions of the female gender.
In the episode Hunting, Cameron was exposed to the HIV-positive blood of a patient, creating fears that she may have been infected with the virus. Although her test results have yet to return, she expected the worst; discarding all her inhibitions, she became high on the patient’s methamphetamines and seduced a colleague. Her character’s personality almost completely inversed, she now becomes subversive to society’s expectations of a woman which, according to Butler (1999), draws an appropriate punishment. Hence, the episode thereafter depicts her as a sexual predator, appearing shaggy and haggard, as well as losing the ability to do her job properly. Overall, this impression of undesirability is Cameron’s punishment for her failure to conform.
This analysis now proceeds to another one of House’s fellows, Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer), and the aforementioned HIV-positive patient named Kalvin (guest star Matthew John Armstrong) as their characters provide an interesting insight into the treatment of homosexuals in House, M.D.. This is then consolidated with Butler’s appraisal of homosexuals, within the realm of gender performativity.
Firstly, Butler had always viewed the binaries ‘heterosexual’ and ‘homosexual’ with visible contempt. She uses drag as an example of putting on of a gender that does not properly belong to any sex, that ‘masculine’ does not necessarily belong to ‘male’ and ‘feminine’ does not belong to ‘female’ (Butler & Salih, 2004:127). Instead, it is an impersonation of any possible gender, resisting the traditionally held idea that there is such a thing as a ‘proper’ gender. Thus, she reasons, how could there possibly be a ‘reality’ of the heterosexual and the ‘imitation’ of the homosexual when both terms themselves are merely “an imitation of an imitation, a copy of a copy, for which there is no original” (Butler & Salih, 2004:129)?
This brings the argument back to Butler’s own suggestion that gender is a form of performance; heterosexuality is only produced by the repeated signifying practices of the traditionally-held representations of gender, that masculine is to male as feminine is to female. It is a problem when these age-old representations are challenged, as people are generally hostile to supposed ‘deviations’ from the norm. Consequently, when the character of Chase was thought by Kalvin to have been homosexual (“Nobody can be that pretty and not be gay.”) in the episode Hunting, the former was very quick to reject that notion, as though he were being accused of committing a crime.
Nevertheless, despite the series’ favourable portrayal of non-heterosexual characters, homosexuality in House, M.D. is dogged by stereotypes which lend credit to the suggestion that those who do not perform their gender correctly are chastised for their queer behaviour. For example, although Kalvin is depicted as being happy with his life (“Playing by the rules makes everyone else happy. Now I’m happy.”), he has AIDS, indulges in casual sex and uses recreational drugs; negative characteristics that are typically associated with as well as demonises gay culture. Furthermore, he has a difficult relationship with his father, who blames him for his mother’s death; being HIV-positive, Kalvin could not donate a kidney to save her life. All of these are interpreted as punishments that he receives for performing his gender wrongly, for being homosexual. Like how several of the characters have stated in that episode, it seemed like he deserved it.
Having analysed several relevant characters from House, M.D., it can thus be concluded that Butler’s theory of gender performativity allows for an interesting textual appreciation of the show. The treatment of these characters by the series’ writers demonstrates the effects of one’s choice of performance. Firstly, one could attempt to choose to fit within the bounds of traditionally-held definitions of gender. Failing to do so, one could compensate for that failure by the ‘overacting’ of other aspects of one’s character; for example, Dr. House and his rudeness. However, if one goes so far as to completely challenge the myth that a naturally-occurring gender system exists by deviating from the aforementioned bounds, he or she may face repercussions for that choice. In other words, an interpretation of Butler’s theories could very well be simplified into this: When performing a gender, we must attempt to conform to the status quo or compensate for any flaws that impede our attempts, lest we be chastised for our queer behaviour.
References
- Barker, C. (2003) Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. (Second edition)
- Cranny-Francis, A., Waring, W., Stavropoulos, P. & Kirkby, J. (2003) Gender Studies: Terms and Debates. NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Hunting, Season 2 Episode 7, House, M.D. (
- Kids, Season 1 Episode 9, House, M.D. (
- Mansfield, N. (2000) “Femininity: From female imaginary to performativity” (excerpt), Subjectivity. NSW: Allen & Unwin: 75-78.
- One Day, One Room, Season 3 Episode 12, House, M.D. (
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