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

idea, which socially should have been enough to prevent it. However
superfluous her protestation is, Desdemona still registers it: “Nor would I there
reside,/ to put my father in impatient thoughts/ by being in his eye” (I.iii.263-
265). Desdemona will not sit idly by and allow the men to determine her
destiny. Not only does she register her displeasure with the idea of being sent
home to her father, “Desdemona speaks at length, offering several reasons
against the Duke’s plan” (Dash 108)and she is the only of the three of them to
propose a solution to the matter of “fit disposition” ( I.iii.255) for her while
Othello is in Cyprus.
Other than sexual organs, according to Butler, there are no “natural”
aspects of gender: “Consider that sedimentation of gender norms produces the
peculiar phenomenon of a ‘natural sex’ or a ‘real woman’ or any number of
prevalent and compelling social fictions” (Butler 140). Natural gender attributes
are a myth. But, within the text of Othello, this mythology of either “natural” or
“unnatural” gender performance is predominant. In fact, one of the most
compelling charges Iago (and Brabantio, we must never discount the impact of
his judgment upon Desdemona has on Othello) brings to bear is two-fold, and
both aspects of it have to do with her nature: 1. That it is un-natural (i.e.,
contrary to her gender, which is inseparable from her race, culture, and status)
for her to physically desire Othello because of his race; and 2. That it is natural
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