Viola's use of gender imitation is intended to demonstrate how the power of love can be a method that undermines the gender binary and its importance. This gives rise to the theory of the hermaphrodite, an individual who possesses both male and female sexual organs or other sexual attributes. Charles argues that the theatrical convention of cross-dressing and the androgyny it symbolizes therefore challenges the regulatory parameters of erotic attraction through the vehicle of performance, a performance that shows that gender is a part payable by any sex (Charles 126). Gender can be played by any sex, male or female. It is not perceived as sexual nor does it influence social rules during the Elizabethan period. Charles argues that Shakespeare's work likely introduces models of homoerotic representation in order to interrupt that binary and show how the gender identities that support such duality are enacted, performed, and interpretable by both sexes (Charles 129-130). Shakespeare's work seemingly presents examples of homoerotic representation with the ultimate goal of disturbing that binary and showing how sexual personalities are maintained on stage. “…the discussion of these cross-dressing performances is informed by Judith Butler's influential gender notion that the gender role is performative…the 'masculine' and 'feminine' are nothing more than obligatory citations of sexual norms. .. they provide an illusion of their own