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Butler on Gender Performativity

Butler argues that gender is performative rather than a stable identity or role. Gender is something we constantly "do" through our performances and expressions, which are shaped by social norms and expectations. Failing to meet these expectations can have punitive consequences. Gender is culturally constructed rather than biologically determined, as de Beauvoir also argued. The body is a canvas with cultural possibilities rather than a fixed script. Personal experiences of gender and the body are inherently political since they are shaped by social and legal norms. Subversive performances could expand and challenge restrictive gender norms.

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147 views1 page

Butler on Gender Performativity

Butler argues that gender is performative rather than a stable identity or role. Gender is something we constantly "do" through our performances and expressions, which are shaped by social norms and expectations. Failing to meet these expectations can have punitive consequences. Gender is culturally constructed rather than biologically determined, as de Beauvoir also argued. The body is a canvas with cultural possibilities rather than a fixed script. Personal experiences of gender and the body are inherently political since they are shaped by social and legal norms. Subversive performances could expand and challenge restrictive gender norms.

Uploaded by

bvidekanic
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
  • Reading and Study Questions for Judith Butler

Reading and Study Questions for Judith Butler What does it mean to "do" gender, that gender is performativity?

(And, why is gender not a role?) Why does Butler say that "gender is a performance with clearly punitive consequences" ? How is this related to de Beauvoirs claim "one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman"? What does it mean to say that the body is a "set of possibilities"(416)? Or, to say: "The body is not passively scripted with cultural codes as if it were a lifeless recipient of wholly pregiven cultural relations. But neither do embodied selves preexist the cultural conventions which essentially signify bodies." Why is it important to Butler that the personal is political? What does she mean when she says that "the performance renders social laws explicit" ? Why is it dangerous for feminists, according to Butler, to rely on or try to establish women as a universal categoryas having an essence, even as a strategy? What is the relationship between sex and gender? Can there be more than two genders? Butlers conclusion: "Gender is what is put on, invariably, under constraint, daily and incessantly, with anxiety and pleasure, but if this continuous act is mistaken for a natural or linguistic given, power is relinquished to expand the cultural field bodily through subversive performances of various kinds." What would a subversive performance be?

Reading and Study Questions for Judith Butler What does it mean to "do" gender, that gender is performativity? (And, why i

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