CAS WS 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Judith Butler, Gender Trouble, Gender Binary

• School: Boston University
• Department: Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
• Course: CAS WS 101
• Professor: Karen Warkentin

Document Summary

Judith butler: gender trouble and the subversion of identity. Rede ning and separating the common sense de nitions of sex and gender was one of the feminist theory"s rst moves. Sex is usually de ned as a fact of bodies in gender theory. Butler: in distinguishing sex from gender, feminist theories have disputed casual explanations that assume that sex dictates or necessitates certain social meanings for women"s experience. Gender is what feminists hoped to change when they separated sex and gender. Butler: sex is not free from being constructed, gender as binary has problems, categories have their own history that we have to think critically about; representation is complex and can make things look natural when they"re not. Sex is complex: perhaps this construct called sex is as culturally constructed as gender, indeed, perhaps it was always already gender .