Navigating Cultural Norms: A Study of Gender Performativity and Intersectionality in Umera Ahmed’s Man O Salwa

Abstract

This research probes into Judith Butler’s idea of gender performativity in life of Umera Ahmed’ s selected work Man O Salwa’s female protagonist Zainab. Drawing on normativity and fluidity areas of Butler’s gender performativity theory, this research further explores the deep impacts of complex interplay of gender and other identity factors such as class, culture, familial relationships, socio-economic pressures on female protagonist’s subjugation. This study aims to investigate that how all of this axis of identity intersects and make life more complicated for female protagonist and the other female characters around her. This research demonstrates the process of normalization of conventional roles assigned to a woman by her patriarchal culture. It further manifests deeply the strenuous struggles of female protagonist and the other female characters around her to cope with these traditional gender performances. This study portrays the journey of female protagonist from a conventional woman to an autonomous being and then again to a puppet of patriarchal culture.