the trouble with gender in othello - Auburn University Electronic ...

Desdemona’s transgression in her refusing to perform her role as daughter/
“reflect”ion of masculine identity properly:
The bride functions as a relational term between groups of men;
she does not have an identity, and neither does she exchange one
identity for another. She reflects masculine identity precisely
through being the site of its absence.[…] As wives, women not only
secure the reproduction of the name (the functional purpose) but
affect a symbolic intercourse between clans of men. […]the
woman in marriage qualifies not as an identity, but only as a
relational term that both distinguishes and binds the various clans.
(Butler 39. Emphasis original to the text)
Ergo, Desdemona has forced her father to “intercourse” with a patrilineal group
he did not choose. Further, by eloping she rejects her role as a “reflection” or
“symbolic exchange” and instead claims an identity for herself, rejecting her
identity as “Brabantio’s daughter.”
As the feminist mantra goes, “the private is political”; it is impossible, in
any patriarchy where women must be trusted carrying children (and therefore,
with passing on genetics as well as fortunes) to separate a social transgression
from a sexual transgression. For a Butlerian reading such as this the distinction
is even less important because, as Dino Falluga explains:
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