At the center of
Virginia Woolf's Orlando is the issue of gender expression and
gender identity. In the beginning of Orlando, Orlando is a
boy—and quite clearly male-identifying. Orlando is described with
he/him/his pronouns (henceforth referred to as male pronouns), and
does nothing to defy gender roles, nor voice discontent or conflict
with their identity. In Constantinople, however, this changes.
Orlando has their biological sex change from biosex male to biosex
female. Because of this change of biosex, Woolf's biographer makes
the decision to switch from male pronouns to she/her/hers pronouns
(henceforth referred to as female pronouns). I believe that this is a
mistake on the part of the Woolf's biographer—as I do not believe
that Orlando identifies as a woman the entirety of the time that they
exist after the transformation; rather, that they are gender-fluid.
This belief comes from Orlando's internal struggle that occurs
throughout the novel after their transformation, and from the actions
that Orlando takes after their transformation. Thus, to eliminate
confusion, I will use they/them/their (henceforth referred to as
gender neutral pronouns) to refer to Orlando.
The first hint at
Orlando not belonging to the gender assigned to them takes place
almost immediately after their biosex transformation, “Orlando had
become a woman—there is no denying it. But in every other respect,
Orlando remained precisely as he had been. The change of sex, though
it altered their nature, did nothing whatever to alter their
identity” (Woolf 102). In these lines, Woolf's use of the gender
neutral “their” pronoun is most intriguing. By employing this
pronoun, it acknowledges the gender identity of Orlando. If Orlando
was truly a man or a woman, then Woolf would have used male or female
pronouns. Instead, she uses the gender neutral ones. Additionally,
the lines following those quoted above explain that female pronouns
are used “for convention's sake.” By using this as the
explanation of the use of female pronouns, Woolf is saying that it is
not because Orlando is a woman that female pronouns are used, but
because of Orlando's biosex that female pronouns are used—granting
credence to their pronouns not being female. The historical context
is important when discussing the use of gender pronouns in Orlando.
After all, Woolf was writing during the early Twentieth Century; a
time when gender was contentious—and breaking from the gender
binary was not something that was done lightly. Even today, this is
not an easy topic to discuss—with politicians as powerful as the
President of the United States wanting to legalize discrimination
against people within the LGBTQIA3+ community. Thus, given the
context, it does make sense that Woolf uses female gender pronouns to
refer to Orlando after the transformation.
After the biosex
change, Orlando has to come to terms with the difference in their
lives that having a different perceived gender entails. For Orlando,
this comes with resistance to the norms of the gender binary that is
omnipresent in English society, which occurs nearly instantaneously
in Orlando after their return to English society aboard the Enamored
Lady after their time with the Romani:
And here it would
seem from some ambiguity in her terms that she was censuring both
sexes equally, as if she belonged to neither, and indeed, for the
time being she seemed to vacillate; she was man; she was woman; she
knew the secrets, the weakness of each. It was a most bewildering
and whirligig state of mind to be in (Woolf 117).
Here, we see the
clear admission by Woolf that Orlando does not accept their assigned
gender, nor the gender that they had been assigned prior to their
biosex change. Further, it shows that they know about, and have
experienced the aspects of both genders—and that, in fact, they are
both man and woman at the same time. Further though, the biographer
talks about how Orlando “pitted one sex against the other, and
found each alternately full of the deplorable infirmities, and was
not sure to which she belonged” (Woolf 117). This shows that
Orlando, while belonging to both the male and female genders, also
belongs to neither. This further lends to Orlando being a
gender-fluid individual through their own thoughts.
The next night,
Orlando goes back on what they said before, thinking, “[ignorant]
and poor as [women] are to the other sex” (Woolf 117). This line,
on its own, seems to say that Orlando has settled the internal
turmoil that their mind was the night before, settling the “whirligig
state of mind,” and accepting the assigned gender given to them by
the gender-binary. Indeed, they yell out at one point later that day,
“Praise God that I'm a woman!” (Woolf 119). This appears to be a
full-fledged acceptance of their assigned gender. However, after
praising God, the biographer notes that Orlando pauses on the word
“woman.” If Orlando does truly embrace their new assigned gender,
with the fervor that is implied by their exclamation, then it
behooves us to ask why Orlando paused on the word “woman.” The
normal reasons for pausing in speech usually come about for the
benefit of the audience—such as letting what was said sink in, or
building tension to emphasis what is being said. However, Orlando
does not have an audience. This leaves but one reason for Orlando to
pause—for uncertainty. Orlando pauses after saying “woman”
because they are uncertain as to their truly being a woman. This
confusion is compounded by the sexuality of Orlando, as Orlando, at
the time of this exclamation, does express sexual desire for women
(Woolf 119). So, not only is Orlando dealing with existing outside of
the gender-binary, but they are also confronting the power of
heteronormativity. While this is another interesting aspect of
Orlando's life, it warrants an investigation of its own, which is not
within the purview of this essay. Though it would appear that Orlando
is bisexual or pansexual based on the partners that they have
throughout the novel.
The gender identity
of an individual is something that every person must decide for
themselves. In order to know the gender identify of others, we must
ask them how they identify. However, there are also assumptions that
everyone makes based off of the gender-expression of individuals. In
the case of Orlando, gender-expression can key the reader in on their
gender identity, as their mind is in conflict with this point. One of
the ways in which gender-expression occurs that is most apparent is
clothing. Men and women, throughout history in a majority of
societies, have different ways in which they dress. This is
acknowledged by Woolf's biographer, who goes as far as to say that
the clothing is what ties the gender of an individual together, and
that this can be completely independent, if not “in opposition”
to the sex beneath the clothing (Woolf 139). This showing of clothing
affecting expression is seen distinctly when Orlando encounters Nell.
In this encounter, Orlando dresses and acts like a man—because, at
that moment, Orlando is a man. Woolf's biographer continues to use
female pronouns to refer to Orlando during this encounter, however, I
believe that that is due to the time period and the power of the
gender-binary, and the fear of it influencing her work (through
censorship or just refusal to publish her work), because Woolf does
acknowledge that at the moment Orlando is a man. This occurs when
Woolf says, “Yet, having been so lately a woman herself” (158).
With this phrase, Woolf is writing in the past perfective tense,
meaning that Orlando was a woman recently, but is no longer. Woolf
reinforces this point when she says, “She had, it seems, no
difficulty in sustaining the different parts, for her sex changed far
more frequently than those who have worn only one set of clothing can
conceive” (Woolf 161). With this, Woolf is acknowledging both the
changes of gender that Orlando undertakes, and how that is influenced
by the clothing that Orlando wears.
Gender is a
constant in the lives of everyone. Whether subtle or explicit, it
affects how we act, how we express ourselves, and how we think.
Likewise, gender is central in the life of Orlando in Virginia
Woolf's Orlando. In Orlando, Orlando begins as a man in
the court of Queen Elizabeth I, and is later the subject of a biosex
change from their original biosex male state to that of a biosex
female. While the biographer, and others in the novel, refer to
Orlando as a woman, Orlando is actually a gender-fluid individual.
Woolf shows this through her use of the gender-neutral “their”
pronoun at the time of the transformation and with the internal
conflict that Orlando has between identifying with being a man and
being a woman and their feeling that they belong to both and neither
of the genders at the same time. This uncertainty is compounded by
the lack of language and discussion of the gender-binary, and of
heteronormativity (as Orlando most certainly does not “fit”
within the heteronormative framework of society at the time that they
lived). Gender expression, then, is important for us, as readers, in
determining Orlando's gender identity, as Orlando may not be able to
express their own identity. With this, clothing is a vital way for
Orlando to express their gender. When examining their expression
through clothing, we find that the clothes that Orlando wears define
the gender that Orlando has at that moment. Putting all of these
things together allow us to clearly see that Orlando is a
gender-fluid individual.
