what constitutes a performance?

So, Ian got me thinking this week in class, what exactly is a performance? Is it simply when the person being watched intends and understands that they are being watched, that they are performing? Or can a performance be unknown to the actors? I know it is possibe to have invisible theatre in terms of the audience, but can this genre be extended into the manipulation of unwitting actors?

For instance, the videos we see so often posted on youtube containing the nastier aspects of humanity, such as violence. These videos encompass the acts of gang violence imposed upon victims, do these victims then become performers? Can this video then be seen as a performance rather than a crude and insensitive action by a group of (often but not always) teenagers who have not had the adequate socialisation and empathetic skils enstilled upon their psyche to behave in a humane way towards others.

I entered a state of severe perturbation when looking on youtube for videos to use for a module in which i needed visual accounts of female violence. The part that concerned me most was that within many of this videos, interspersed in the background noise can be heard the laughter and mirth of a multitude of males geering and celebrating this girl-on-girl action as such. The question then arises, are these girls performing for the camera, is this a performance staged by them for male attention? Are they aware that they are being filmed? certainly there were a number of examples such as mud fights in which the women/girls were entering into a fight wittingly and with the understanding that a performance would be required. With the fact that throughout a lot of these videos regardless of the arguement as to whether the fighting was intended as a performance or not, the live audiences were majoritly men/ boys. This led me to think about the fact that it was likey that on more ocassions than not the camera was being operated by a male leading me to the conlusion that it would more than likely be this male that posted the video on youtube. The fact is that i am working under the assumption that many of these videos were put there by males (excluding those posted by the females themselves to boast and humiliate the looser) for males.

The perturbation i experienced surrounded the fact that it was blatant acknowledgement of the phallocentric conditions many women are still forced to (and some agreeably) live under. It bothers me that women are still being exploited as entertainment for men. I do not believe that women are innocent within this, as there are some who choose to be a part of this word. However it is the attitude of popular culture that tells women they mus be unrealistically thin and beautiful and without this the only way to get male attention is to 'flaunt it'. It is the perceived mae expectation that creates this reaction within women, i say perceived as i am more than well aware that not all men are mysoginistic pigs this type of 'performance'.

I do not believe that all of these videos are performances. It becomes obvious within a few of them, due either to their poor placing of the camera or the reactions of the girls if they become aware of the fact that they are being filmed. Some of them are light hearted performances that involve bouncy castles and a lot of oil or mud, these are simply girls either having fun or exploiting the male idealistic fantasies of girl-on-girl action. I which case the shouts and jeers of the male audience members is sought after. It is the videos in which the girls are unaware they becoming part of a performance that the male jeers begin to perturb me. It is in these cases that the jeers are derogatory and in which people who try and break up the fight are condemned, and seen as some form of 'fun police' . These videos disturbed me, both becuse of the violence but mainly due to the male reactions and the realisation that too many people enjoy this violence; and girl-on-girl violence is seen as something that is funny and cute and of no significance to the masculine world.

I don't believe i have adequately explained myself, but hope you can understand what itis im trying to put across.