The Struggle for Gender Identity in David Mamet’s Sexual Perversity in Chicago Anonymous College

David Mamet’s Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1974) is a postmodern drama that portrays the stereotypical and traditional images about women during that era. This piece of work really concentrates on the power relations based on gender, and the void that appears between genders. Though there are no consistent characters, or plot, the dialogues represent the features connected to this topic properly. There are no moral values, no normal relationships at the edge of an era when women’s roles in society are changing. This latter statement is something, even Danny acknowledges and says out loud in the drama. Vulgarity, the dehumanization of women like “Deaf bitch” (Mamet 69), also language usage and the lack of communication are topics in the drama that are going to be analyzed. Other topics that need to be examined – besides self or gender identity and the lack of communication – are the lack of empathy and moral values, femaleness, self-knowledge and self-hood, not to mention the hierarchy built into society. What really have a power in the drama are communication and language; these are the embodiments of expressing the unstable masculinity when the requirements of the social institution are neglected, and women’s roles are...