Maryam Delgoshamehr - Department of English Literature, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran

Masculinity and femininity or one‟s gender identity refers to the degree to which people see themselves as masculine or feminine given what it means to be a man or woman in society. Gender Politics debate about the rules and relations of men and women. Gender politics refer to society‟s position on gender roles. It is an assumption underlying expectations regarding gender different in society. William Shakespeare, the greatest dramatist, lived during the Elizabethan era. It was a time when women were portrayed to be weaker than men. Shakespeare, on the other hand, depicts the character of women in their richness and power that transcend the norms of that time. His women characters demonstrate great intelligence and a strong sense of personal independence especially in his famous play King Lear. Shakespeare portrays women as the "stronger" sex in King Lear. One of the main members of feminist criticism is Judith Butler, who argues that we all put on a gender performance and so it is not a question of whether to do a gender performance, but what form that performance will take. By choosing to be different about it, we might work to change binary understanding of masculinity and femininity

Femininity, Masculinity, Gender, Gender Performativity, Gender Identity