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JUDITH BUTLER
From Feminism to Queer Theory
Queer Theory refers to an academic discipline that is both centered on thinking about non-normative sexuality and gender identity.
Second Wave Feminism: Questioning of the criteria in which the feminists defined the term, “woman”
The category of womanhood is crucial for second wave feminism.
Capacity for reproduction (biological)
Those without the phallus (psychoanalytical)
Those oppressed by men’s objectifications (sociological)
What is a WOMAN, anyway?
"One is not born, but rather, becomes, a woman” -Simone de Beauvoir (The Second Sex, 1949)
Judith Butler aims to state that gender is largely socially constructed.
Distinguishing Gender and Sex
“Gender is a socially imposed division of the sexes” (Gayle Rubin)
SEX: (Female/Male) BIOLOGY: Chromosomes, hormonal profiles, internal and external sex organs
GENDER: (Masculine/Feminine): CULTURE: the characteristics that a society or culture de-alianates as masculine or feminine
“Gender is the stylized repetition of acts through time”
Judith's definition of gender.
Break the sentence down one by one:
Walking is an act. Walking is a good example of an act because it takes place through time.
Stylized repetition of an act: Walking in a particular way is a stylized act. There is no such thing as a non stylized act. Butler thinks this is significant because it is hard to imagine a way of walking that isn’t somehow interpreted as masculine and feminine especially because we live in a society where the spectrum of masculinity and femininity is so cursive and influential.
Our way of walking is repeated over time such that it becomes a part of us.
What does it mean that gender is performative?
Performance v.s Performativity (Judith Butler)
One of the main takeaways:
We tend to think that gender is a stable and essential fact about a person, but she’s saying it is a phenomenon that is being produced and reproduced all the time, in time.
But where does gender come from?
1.) According to Essentialists: whatever it is to be a gender is ultimately best explained by biology (usually sex chromosomes)
2.) According to Constructivists: Your gender is socially constructed.
Butler’s theory of performativism plays very much to the social constructivist angle because she thinks that gender identities and all the expectations and rules that come with them are grounded in social norms.
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