Judith Butler

JUDITH BUTLER
“The Norm of Gender?”

JUDITH BUTLER
“The Norm of Gender?”

Who is she?
Judith Butler – born in 1956 – is a Professor of Comparative Literature and Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, and is well known as a theorist of power, gender, sexuality and identity. She is described in as "one of the superstars of '90s academia, with a devoted following of graduate students nationwide".
What has she said?
In her most influential book ’Gender Trouble’ (1990), Butler argued that feminism had made a mistake by trying to assert that 'women' were a group with common characteristics and interests. That approach, Butler said, 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. Rather than opening up possibilities for a person to form and choose their own individual identity, therefore, feminism had closed the options down.

Who is she?
Judith Butler – born in 1956 – is a Professor of Comparative Literature and Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, and is well known as a theorist of power, gender, sexuality and identity. She is described in as "one of the superstars of '90s academia, with a devoted following of graduate students nationwide".
What has she said?
In her most influential book ’Gender Trouble’ (1990), Butler argued that feminism had made a mistake by trying to assert that 'women' were a group with common characteristics and interests. That approach, Butler said, 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. Rather than opening up possibilities for a person to form and choose their own individual identity, therefore, feminism had closed the options down.

“The Queer Theory”
Queer theory is a field of critical theory that...