James 1 Tiffany James Mr.

McCauley Foundations of Criticism 14 October 2013 How Our Actions Decide Who We Are Queer theory is influenced by deconstruction, feminism, gay and lesbian studies, psychoanalysis, postcolonialism, and other postmodern theories, queer theory questions the very terms we use to describe ourselves such as heterosexual or homosexual (Bressler 223). Queer focuses on "mismatches" between sex, gender and desire. In Jonathan Swifts poem The Ladys Dressing Room it is possible to see how gender is constructed/ deconstructed as a performance rather than as a biological fact, and how gender is something that someone does, rather than what someone is. In Swifts poem he focuses on the deconstruction of gender and how it is a performance. However, the poem starts off treating gender as a biological factor. In the first line the speaker says, five hours, (and who can do it less in) (Swift 1). Even though the beginning of the poem starts off with a line that society sees as a biological factor, that women naturally take forever to get dressed, that is not what the majority of the poem focuses on. Around line 7, stole in, and took a strict survey (Swift 7), the poem begins to clue the reader into the fact the poem is about to analyze every little thing that Celia (women), does (do) to create the image that she has. The first thing Strephon, the man going through Celias room, sees is a dirty smock / beneath the arm-pits well besmeared (Swift 11-12) and then he swears how damnably the men lie,/ in calling Celia sweet and cleanly (Swift 17-18). The sweat stains on the smock show how women are not perfect creatures that look and smell clean all the time like men seem to think. Women

James 2 use combs for various reasons every day, but Celias were filld up with dirt so closely fixt,/ no brush could force a way betwixt (Swift 21-22), made up of a past of composition rare,/ sweat, dandruff, powder, lead and hair (Swift 23-24). These lines are the perfect example of how gender is being deconstructed from how dirt filled the combs were to exactly what the dirt in the combs were composed of. In the poem gender can be deconstructed as a performance; just like in the poem gender is what someone does not what someone is. For example, a forehead cloth with oyl upont/ to smooth the wrinkles on her front (Swift 25-26), shows the reader that women do not start off with perfect looking skin, but that they must apply creams and ointments to the skin to make it look so smooth and fetching. Strephon then finds a pair of tweezers to pluck her brows in arches round, or hairs that sink the forehead low, or on her chin like bristles grow (Swift 55-58). When the reader sees the phrase a pair of tweezers it automatically makes them think of facial grooming which is another thing that the female gender does. The speaker goes on to tell of a glass that can to sight disclose, the smallest worm in Celias nose, and faithfully direct her nail to squeeze it out from head to tail (Swift 63-66). The mention of a glass in the context of the poem gives the reader the impression that the speaker is talking about a magnifying glass and that the smallest worm is her nose hair that she

James 3 feels she must pluck to stay beautiful. This is just another ritual that women follow categorizes them as being a part of the female gender. Throughout Swifts poem it was easy to see how gender was deconstructed as a performance and how gender is what someone does. The construction of gender of the female variety in the poem is similar to the construction of the female gender in society today because women still put on a show when they leave the house. Just like in the poem women today use ointments and creams to fix their complexions and they pluck hairs in all areas of the body to look more polished and clean. However, the main point is that women have not changed over the years because it is what they do that puts them in the female gender category.

James 4 Works Cited Bressler, Charles. Queer Theory. Literary Criticism. 5th ed. United States: Pearson Education, Inc., 2011. 220-229. Print. Swift, Jonathan. The Ladys Dressing Room.