Jewish Performativity on Sex and the City

This article examines the character Charlotte York from Sex and the City to argue for the performativity of Jewish identity. During season six, Charlotte converts to Judaism; throughout her conversion and ensuing Jewish life, Charlotte is forced to reiterate Jewishness on her person in order to mark herself as Jewish. Because of the normative assumption of Christianity on television and in real life in Western culture, Charlotte’s Jewishness is rendered invisible except in the moments when Jewishness is being performatively constructed. By comparing the performativity of Jewish identity to the performativity of LGBT identity, which are argued to be similarly performative constructions of identity, this article works to create a Jewish-LGBT community and an understanding of similar difference.