Presentation: Part I of Judith Butler's Gender Trouble

A Preface to a Critique on Gender—Review

The following is a reader from San Juan Capistrano's review marveling at how Butler tackles the subject of gender:

I'm no expert but I'm reminded of what a friend once confessed to me: it's hard talking about gender without it turning into a freak show. To her credit, Judith Butler speaks sincerely, with great subtlety, about a very touchy subject. Nevertheless, when you consider that words like sex, heterosexual, and homosexual are hardly a century old, you have to ask why do they seem so certain, so meaningful, so permanent and timeless? Why is it so hard to consider these words as concealing rather than revealing? In the tradition of Marx and Foucault, Butler begins to demystify their credibility and reveals how gender is something which is performative. By this, she does not mean like a role which is donned (though those who don reveal) but rather as a repetitive, cultural activity from which identity is derived. This work is thought to be the beginning of queer theory.

About the Book

Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, written by Judith Butler and published in 1990, is widely considered one of the most controversial and influential works in academic queer theory and feminism. It is a canonical text of the aforementioned subjects as well as one of the most widely read works on gender studies. The book is credited with the creation of the term gender performativity.

In chapter one, Butler argues against traditional feminism concepts and questions what it means to be a woman. The work is best known for Butler's concept of gender as a reiterated social performance rather than the expression of a prior reality. This work has helped to challenge and alter our ideas about gender identity and feminism, a movement that focuses on social, economic, and political equality for women. Her approach to deconstructing previous notions of feminism in order to create her own more progressive theory is inspired in part by Foucalt.

About the Author

Judith Butler, born in 1956, is a Professor of Comparative Literature and Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley. She is well known as a theorist of power, feminism, gender, queer studies, sexuality, and identity. She is described in alt.culture as one of the superstars of '90s academia, with a devoted following of grad students nationwide. Butler has published a number of works regarding gender and feminism, but none are so famous as Gender Trouble.

Sex vs. Gender

Sex refers to the biological male, female, or intersex (a combination of both) category defined by our internal and external reproductive organs and chromosomes, while gender refers to socially created roles, feelings, and behaviors deemed appropriate for men and women by society. Behaviors that are consistent with society's expectations are considered gender-normative, whereas behaviors that are viewed as incompatible are referred to as gender non-conformity. Gender identity is a person's own sense and definition of their gender.

Defining a Woman and Feminist Theory

Butler argued that feminism had made a mistake by trying to assert that women were a group with common characteristics and interests. She believes that the existing feminist movement was limiting in how it defined gender. According to Butler, that approach performed an unwitting regulation and reification of gender relations - reinforcing a binary view of gender relations in which human beings are divided into two clear-cut groups, women and men. For Butler, women and woman are charged categories complicated by class, ethnicity, sexuality, and other facets of identity. Butler argued that feminism had made a mistake by trying to assert that women were a group with common characteristics and interests. Rather than opening up possibilities for a person to form and choose their own individual identity, therefore, Butler believes that this widely accepted model of feminism has closed the options of identity down.

Gender is not a Binary System

Butler explains that when we are born we are placed into one of two categories: male or female. This binary system implies that a person can only be one sex and gender: male or female. This identification, made immediately upon one's birth, defines how we are expected to behave throughout the remainder of our lives. A girl, identified at birth by her genitalia, will be given a pink blanket at the hospital. She will be expected to play with dolls, to play house, and to prefer pink to blue. She will be expected to grow up into a gentle and nurturing mother who expresses her emotions. A boy, also identified at birth by his genitalia, will be given a blue blanket. According to this binary system, he should play with toy cars, to play sports, and to prefer blue to pink. He should grow up into a problem solver who supports his family financially and masks his feelings. She explains that men and women have been previously grouped into these two categories which determine one's characteristics and interests, therefore significantly limiting the complexity of one's identity.

The binary system implies that sex causes gender, and that this then defines sexuality and desire. Butler argues that the ideas of sex, gender, sexuality, and desire should instead be independent factors.

Fluidity of Gender

Butler further notes that gender should be seen as a fluid trait that can change over time or depending on the context of a situation rather than remaining black and white or stagnant throughout one's lifetime. Butler suggests that identity is free-floating - connected not to an essence, but rather to a person's performance. Essentially, this implies that our identities, gendered and otherwise, do not express an authentic inner core self but are the dramatic effect, rather than the cause, of our performances. This idea is not exclusive to sexuality and gender; it also implies that the confines of one's identity can be reimagined, reevaluated, and reinvented at one's convenience.