According to Gil, paradoxical body space is the body part that protrudes into the space (22). The proximity is created between the things in the space and the body. The space is not only created by artists but also by gymnasts who stretch their bodies. Butler argues that gender constitution is based on the strategic repetition of actions (354). He states that gender is usually constructed not by us or I but by what individuals do, how they do it, and in what sense. Basically, gender is personification that personifies inanimate objects. Fanon brings along his argument about the idea of black beauty (Sokari).
He says that identity is the ultimate answer to the question of what any human really wants in this life (Beyers 6). The genuine need of black people, according to Fanon, is to be recognized as equal humans to whites. The idea of being black is an identity that colonizers constructed, and identity should never be based on race. The universal identity that everyone should recognize is being human. One should identify themselves as a human being able to acknowledge another human.
Gil’s idea of a paradoxical body can be reconciled with Butler’s own about gender constitution and Fanon’s concerning black identity by arguing that we are all human by identity. What makes us human is our body and mainly the internal body. Both Gil, Butler, and Fanon unanimously agree that the actions of our inner bodies are what make us who we are and neither race nor culture. Butler even goes to the extent of saying that we are the ones who construct ourselves by choosing what to do and how to do it. What we do and how we perform it comes from within.
Work Cited
Beyers, Jaco. “Reconstructing Black Identity: The Black Panther, Frantz Fanon and Achilles Mbembe in Conversation.” HTS: Theological Studies vol. 75, no. 4, 2019, pp. 1-7.
Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution.” Feminist Theory Reader, 2020, pp. 353-361.
Gil, José. “Paradoxical Body.” TDR/The Drama Review, vol. 50, no. 4, 2006, pp. 21-35.
Sokari. “Fanon & the Representations of Black Beauty in Popular Culture.” Black Looks – Black Looks – Including an African LGBTIQ+ Archive. Web.