My dissertation, “Bodily Inscriptions, Anticipations and Ruptures: the spectacle of the body in performances and performative acts of social resistance,” presents the work of women artists and groups who utilize their bodies as a primary component of their work. Each chapter centers on a different mode of bodily articulation. In addition, each of the artistic practices present moments of possibility that challenge the audience’s assumptions and present a momentary exchange of alternate social perspectives. The first, The Body as Absent Presence, presents the work of Ana Mendieta; the second, The Body as Canvas, presents the work of the Riot Grrrls; and the finally, The Body as Illusion, presents the work of Dred. The specific performative mode of each artist re-launches a feminist theory for performance practices, whether in music, sculpture or performance art. In Ana Mendieta’s work this mode presents a juxtaposition of earth and body, that ultimately presents the viewer with ephemeral, eroding figures and challenges them to consider the relationship between the artist’s presence and absence. The Riot Grrrls utilize their bodies as canvas, literally writing on the body, challenging the audience to consider the significance of text and body. And lastly, Dred’s performance as a drag king injects itself into the audience’s ideas about the normative representations of gender. Following this trajectory of bodily use and presence, I unravel the intricacies of the relational space between the performed body and the audience; for, it is within this space that the tension and potentiality of the performative and performed self reside.