Body vs. subject, (neo)liberalism, & notions of "Performativity"

Mahmood analyzes the body's role in the formation of an ethical subject or self, emphasizing the fact that action precedes (and is the basis for) subject formation (in this case, the pious female subject). The key, she notes, is the work that bodily acts/practices perform as not only "critical markers of piety as well as the ineluctable means by which one trains oneself to be pious" (158) in the creation of the subject. She brings our attention to an endogenous cycle: while the veil itself provides the potential for "a modest bodily form" (161), the act of wearing it simultaneously provides not only the means for the acquisition of such modesty but solidifies the creation (and therefore future expression) of the pious subject.

One of the most important take-aways of this piece for me was an expansion of our discussion in class last week concerning Mahmood's analysis and use of Butler's framework. Mahmood contextualizes Butler by emphasizing the need to analyze performatives in relation to one another and to the context in which they are situated. She applies Butler's notion of "performativity" - namely a "reiteration of norms" that extends beyond the performer (162) - to the wearing of the veil by "mosque women," in doing so, highlighting the role of such an act in consolidating (rather than a challenging of) structures of normativity.

Cainkar applies a strain of Mahmood's argument to her analysis of the role the hijab plays in the backlash against Muslims in the southwest Chicago suburbs post-9/11. She notes that women in hijab were perceived as "cultural threats," targeted due to their perception as "the ultimate symbols of foreignness" and visible markers of "un-American values" (261). It is this American culture - rooted in assumed (neo)liberal notions of what we interpret to be choice and freedom (Cainkar 230; Mahmood) - that is being "threatened" by everything the hijab symbolizes post-9/11, thus prompting the violence against women over men. This calls into question an application of Mahmood's distinction between body vs. self, and in what ways such a dichotomy applies to this scenario.

Shakhsari also expands upon similar neoliberal notions of the subject, bringing to light the important role technology can play in not only creating "gendered civilizational discourses" (10) but providing a transnational site through which such discourses can proliferate and produce "gendered political interventions" (9). By focusing on the production of knowledge in such a unique and relevant context, Shakhsari (in addition to the other authors we've read) brings our attention to and questions how notions of citizenship and the state utilize gendered sexual discourse, a topic I hope we'll get to delve into further in the future.