Self performance: performing identity and the self as a form of labor

Why do contemporary forms of life, work, and culture often seem to revolve around having to perform oneself and one’s identity to different ‘audiences’ and their varying expectations? Why are the expectations of these performances different for different people? What are the consequences of subjecting the self to a lifetime of perpetual performance, both for the individual and for the collective? This text explores the concept of self performance as a form of labor that people living within a capitalist context are subject to, with varying consequences based upon their identities. The central research questions address how all of life has been put to work, and how labor has shifted to evaluate every aspect of a person’s identity and being, as part of their value as a laborer, as well as the resulting changes in subjectivity. Central to this text is questioning the role identity plays - both historically and contemporaneously - in determining labor roles and remuneration within capitalist systems. Why have certain identities been marginalized and relegated to the most invisibilized, underpaid, and undervalued work, and how are the cliched social and cultural expectations of these identities linked to this organization of labor? By tracing the gendering and racialization of various peoples and forms of labor from the first wave of primitive accumulation to contemporary biocapitalism, I aim to demonstrate how the accumulation and weaponization of difference have been used to perpetuate exploitative capitalist structures. The framework within which these research questions are rooted is the study of reality TV, particularly The Real Housewives series, which straddles the line of reality and culture. The pop cultural framework of reality TV functions as an easily accessible entry point to complex and loaded questions, as well as being an extreme and highly visible version of performing oneself as both a form of work, and way of life. The text also includes examples from the world of contemporary art, my own experiences as a woman of mixed race working in the field of art and culture, and my artistic practice to further elucidate and research this form of work. The text also eventually concludes with some assessment of various cultural and political strategies for breaking out of the capitalist system of self performance