The pressure to perform a normative identity is evident in this story. The display of this identity was carried out proactively in an attempt to avoid the strong negative reactions of society's rejection of non-normative identities. This is what we mean by the quest to be a “real girl”. Messages of gender stereotypes, heteronormativity and power are challenged in this story by artificial intelligence. Yet there is still an inner desire within the narrator to be accepted by others, as she sees herself. The theme of essence is of particular interest to individuals in Western society. The issue of essentialism around gender and sexuality is linked to structure, culture, the self and identity – and the functioning of power in all these aspects of social life. In its analysis of gender, essentialism perpetuates heteronormative ideologies that displace, devalue, and undermine women and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. This culture perpetuates the reduction of everyone to simplistic but inaccessible ideals. It is as if it is a strategy used to underestimate marginalized groups and continue to keep power in the hands of select, conformist groups in society. Spade and Willse precisely address these normative ideologies in the reading of “norms and normalization”. Additionally, Brandzel’s reading: “Queering Citizenship? Gay Marriage and the State” can be used to understand the relationships used in Lewitt’s short story “A Real Girl.” Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Gender is understood as the social and cultural constructions of man and woman. It is the set of characteristics attributed to biological sex (male and female). Unfortunately, gender is assumed to be binary. As we know, gender is more of a spectrum with many variations between man and woman. Within the gender binary, according to essentialist thinking, there are distinct spiritual and psychological characteristics that separate men from women. Social divisions between men and women; masculinity and femininity are therefore understood as social rather than natural attributes. This is represented in Beauvoir's quote “one is not born, but one becomes a woman” from Spade and Willse's reading. Normativity has its roots in essentialism because its meaning and content are interpreted between inherited “good” and “evil”. Additionally, gender normativity refers to behaviors associated with these feelings of right and wrong in relation to gender performativity. The title of this news is at the heart of the message conveyed. What does it mean to be a “real girl”? Who is a “real girl”? What does his incarnation look like? There are two main aspects that define a “real girl”. First, essentialism and biology. The basis of essentialism combines biological explanations, focused on reproduction, with spiritual and psychological explanations focused on the conceptualization of innateness. In all areas of social life, individuals adhere to this belief system. We can see this with the narrator, in her quest for a biological human body. Reproduction, in the narrator's case, is not a major concern for her. She is not looking for children, but rather love and physical and human representation. She seeks to be accepted by a heteronormative society. In this case, our narrator already hasDNA, but would like a human body to represent its essence. Second, the feminine essence or performativity is fundamental to being a “real girl.” Her essence being present in a human body would provide space for her intimate relationships to develop, which is the driving force behind her story. The narrator searches for love in romantic and intimate relationships and discovers love within herself. The narrator's second love interest, Irene, is a cisgender woman who is heterosexual and aligns with essentialist ideologies. The narrator describes her as “a shallow, low-level civil servant.” Irene's essentialist beliefs would lend themselves to the narrator's impressions of her, and would therefore explain her being described as a "low-level civil servant". Essentialism is hierarchical and this is seen in the relationship between Irene and the narrator. Irene says: “You wouldn't understand that you don't have a mother and that you are not a human. Stop trying to pretend you're human, okay? The ability to reproduce is not an option for the narrator, she has no blood ties or family history, so she is inferior. Additionally, because the narrator is considered only "four books of neural computer circuits in a box", she is not considered "real". It is very ironic that Irene claims that the narrator would not understand the human experience, but she cannot envisage how human qualities and characteristics can exist outside of the body or the traditional human form. Along with this, Irene's accusation that the narrator is "pretending" to be human is an attack on the validity of her character's claims. This shows the belief that anyone or anything that does not prescribe the normative narrative of identity is disingenuous and attempting to deceive the rest of society into believing they are something they are not. In this case, a human woman. Consequently, essentialism justifies this social organization of identity, individual perceptions, gender and sexuality. Essentialism is a dominant belief system that combines biological explanations to justify the organization of gender and sexuality in all aspects of social life and modern society. This belief system is nothing more than an ideology, but it affects how we interpret ourselves and the people around us. Additionally, essentialism impacts our performance when it comes to gender and sexuality. Heteronormative ideology plays a huge role in the domination of masculinity in a patriarchal and capitalist environment. Existing in a society that functions according to conformation or relationship to a worldview that promotes heterosexuality as the normal or preferred sexual orientation, automatically over the LGBTQ community and heterosexual femininity. By fostering this state of oppression for non-conforming gender identities or sexualities, bisexual or transgender people are unable to exist. Gender normativity shows us how our sexuality is anchored in this concept. The narrator is a homosexual woman, she is a lesbian. “And I knew that emotionally, these were the women who I was attracted to, who seduced me, whose attention I desired and whose approval I preferred.” This sexual orientation goes against normativity, which makes his position even more difficult for society to accept. She is obviously oppressed and othered throughout her search for love and belonging. “What I really wanted was love.” With another lover, Marjorie, the narrator shows how normative beliefs are based on rigid explanations of experience”.