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Judith Butler’s main idea, from her work Gender Trouble, of ‘performativity’ is clearly reflected within Lerner and Lowe’s My Fair Lady. The central themes of performativity and subjectivity of one’s gender can be clearly seen in act two, scene five of this adaptation of the classic, Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw. Eliza, the play’s main character, is highly performative as she must conform to societal norms and constructed ideals of the the idea of being a “lady” before she can be considered one. Her sex and identity are intimately linked by the language of one professor Higgins,and her identity as a person is re-written for her in the lens of the acceptable to this man. She therefore, is thrust into an identity not chosen by her own nature, but rather that of one that is sculpted and influenced by the world around her.
