Beyond Gender and Heteronormativity: Negotiating Androgyny in Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness

Anindita Hazarika; Dipendu Das

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2023.v05i06.10012

Beyond Gender and Heteronormativity: Negotiating Androgyny in Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness

Author(s)	Anindita Hazarika, Dipendu Das
Country	India
Abstract	In a dominant heteronormative construct, gender tends to refer to the socio-cultural definition of man and woman and the way in which human beings are differentiated and assigned certain distinctive gender-specific socially accepted roles and behaviours. According to popular belief, it serves as a distinguishing critical category between biological sex differences and how they influence behaviours and competencies that are categorized as either masculine or feminine (Pilcher & Whelehan 2004). In contrast, the gender order adverts to an institutional framework of material and ideological patterns carried out by members of a particular group that shapes the meaning of power dynamics between men and women (Pilcher & Whelehan 2004). In her book The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir examines this distinction, stating, “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” (295). She also discusses how gender differences are set in hierarchical oppositions, with the feminine being positioned as the “other” and the masculine principle always being the preferred “norm”. Beauvoir’s argument on gender as a social construct forms the basis for what Judith Butler refers to as "gender performativity". Butler writes, "Gender is constructed through a series of compulsory performances" (Butler 1990). Jacques Lacan, on the other hand, offers a model for how gender roles are assumed by arguing that gender and sexual identity are learned through identification and language. These numerous ideas and popular perspectives thus seem to question and challenge the preconceived notion of the sex-gender binary. Another important conception that seems to challenge and give a totally different perspective to the whole notion of gender and identity is the idea of androgyny, a concept that talks about a particular method for participating in the "masculine" and the "feminine" aspects as a single entity. Androgyny breaks through the preconceived binary model and considers the existence of both male and female in oneness or wholeness. In reference to the premise mentioned above, this paper intends to critically examine Ursula k. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), which addresses gender and identity issues while challenging the heteronormative binary gender fixation. In the process of redefining how gender and identity are said to be culturally and socially constructed, the attempt would also be to present an argument regarding the fact that gender is an insignificant component of people’s identity but rather an simulated divergence in an androgynous world that accommodates the presence of the opposites.
Keywords	Androgyny, Femininity, Gender, Identity, Masculinity, Sex.
Field	Arts
Published In	Volume 5, Issue 6, November-December 2023
Published On	2023-12-07
Cite This	Beyond Gender and Heteronormativity: Negotiating Androgyny in Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness - Anindita Hazarika, Dipendu Das - IJFMR Volume 5, Issue 6, November-December 2023. DOI 10.36948/ijfmr.2023.v05i06.10012
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2023.v05i06.10012
Short DOI	https://doi.org/gs8ddb

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Beyond Gender and Heteronormativity: Negotiating Androgyny in Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness

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