Binary Gender System in Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the restrictive binary gender system in light of Virginia Woolf's novel, "Orlando," with insight from Kate Bornstein's "Gender Outlaw" and Leslie Feinberg's "Transgender Warriors". The paper shows that Virginia Woolf's character, Orlando, on becoming a woman, maintains the same personality and memories that she had as a man. Orlando's gender identity, then, is somewhere between man and woman, but she must choose to present herself as either a man or a woman when she interacts with society. The paper shows that Orlando, and countless less-visible individuals in the same situation, must tailor gender expression to the closest acceptable model in the binary gender system.

From the Paper:

"In a culture that hinges so critically on clearly defined gender roles, it seems significant that Orlando was accepted back into her life and the English culture on her return. At her estate, which she left as a man years ago, "No one showed an instant's suspicion that Orlando was not the Orlando they had known." Even that evening after meeting Orlando as a woman, Mrs. Grimsditch, a housekeeper, mentioned that "for what with the towels wanting mending and the curtains... being moth-eaten round the fringes, it was time they had a Mistress among them." It is in this comment that the frame of mind of the Englishman and Englishwoman becomes clear: While Orlando may have been a man, that does not matter, so long as Orlando fully assumes her role as a woman. For her to be accepted back into English society, she must function as a woman, for she looks like one. If she were to look like a man, then she must function as one. Orlando wishes to be part of society (as she always has wished), but her nature is at odds with the way society now expects her to behave."

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