Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity

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Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity

4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 · rating details · 3,791 ratings · 189 reviews

Since its publication in 1990, Gender Trouble has become one of the key works of contemporary feminist theory, and an essential work for anyone interested in the study of gender, queer theory, or the politics of sexuality in culture. This is the text where Judith Butler began to advance the ideas that would go on to take life as "performativity theory," as well as some of...more

Paperback, Routledge Classics, 236 pages

Published May 12th 2006 by Routledge (first published March 1st 1989)

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May 16, 2008 Colin marked it as to-read

I remember, really vividly, the exact moment I realized my bachelor's degree in the humanities was basically worthless. It was my last semester of college, about two weeks from the end, and I was in my Sociology of Birth and Death course. The professor was a Brandeis-educated woman, heavy into earth-mothery visions of life and death who had taken a sociology class with Morrie (of the Mitch Albom book Tuesdays With Morrie, which to date is the stupidest book I've ever read; that might say a lot a...more I remember, really vividly, the exact moment I realized my bachelor's degree in the humanities was basically worthless. It was my last semester of college, about two weeks from the end, and I was in my Sociology of Birth and Death course. The professor was a Brandeis-educated woman, heavy into earth-mothery visions of life and death who had taken a sociology class with Morrie (of the Mitch Albom book Tuesdays With Morrie, which to date is the stupidest book I've ever read; that might say a lot about my outlook on life, but Jesus, man). After a miserable semester with very little class-wide critical thinking in which I was frequently disgusted by virtually everyone else in the course, it came time to announce what our final projects were going to be. After a lot of reflection and thinking, I had decided that I wanted to try to apply Butler's ideas on performativity to notions on fertility, and try and see if there were any double-inversions a la drag queens in the way people had sex. I announced my intention to focus on people who biologically were NOT fertile but were having relations, such as young children and old people. (When my friends would ask me what I was doing for the project, I told them 'I'm studying how old people fuck.')

So I explained my idea and where I thought it would lead (turns out the answer was, largely, 'nowhere', but it was a fun paper to write anyway) in front of the class and was met largely with a mix of student disinterest and blank stares. The next student to announce a project was a very masculine Jewish dude with a beard, who announced that he and his two female friends were going to pretend to be pregnant (that is, all three of them were going to pretend to be pregnant) and walk around with a group touring the school. The professor, much to my horror, did not say 'oh hells no'. I proceeded to have a visual hallucination of a pile of money to the amount of forty thousand dollars appear in the middle of the classroom and catch fire.

Full disclosure: I got a B in the course because over the course of the semester I had, in my course journal that I mistakenly thought wasn't going to be read, written extensively about what a fucking joke I thought the class was, how pointless the reading was, etc. I did, however, get an A on the paper, I suspect because I was one of three or four people out of the 20 person class to not do something blatantly idiotic and unchallenging. I guess the moral of the story is do not study sociology unless your professors are willing to attack every stupid idea that comes out of your mouth.(less)

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Aug 30, 2007 David Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: All of us

Shelves: favorites

True, it is a bit dated today, and I would distance myself from her strong emphasis on psychoanalysis and performativity, but it was a radical turning point in my life, and is close to perfect as a theory text.
Its impact on contemporary feminism and critical practices can not be underestimated. This book will always be close to my heart.

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Aug 04, 2012 Craig Werner rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: womens-lit

Badly written and destructive in its impact on academic discourse. Butler is a darling of the theory crowd, one of the required citations. I found nothing in it that went beyond the standard cliches concerning the inadequacy of essentialist definitions. That wouldn't earn it the one star; what does is Butler's centrality to the infinite regression school of literary/cultural theory. By the time Butler's acolytes--apparently oblivious to the fact that every third sentence is borderline ungrammati...more

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Feb 13, 2011 Ben rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

More than anything, I'm impressed with the scope of Gender Trouble. Having a basic keyword understanding of Butler's theory, but no primary exposure, I was fully expecting her to stay in the realm of abstract poststructuralist "il n'y a pas de hors-texte" performativity of gender, so when she dipped into the reification of biological sex by means of gender restrictions, I was thoroughly impressed. Part of that impression was the realization that rather than being a ridiculous over-stepping of bo...more More than anything, I'm impressed with the scope of Gender Trouble. Having a basic keyword understanding of Butler's theory, but no primary exposure, I was fully expecting her to stay in the realm of abstract poststructuralist "il n'y a pas de hors-texte" performativity of gender, so when she dipped into the reification of biological sex by means of gender restrictions, I was thoroughly impressed. Part of that impression was the realization that rather than being a ridiculous over-stepping of bounds (a professor of rhetoric lecturing on genetics, don’t be daft), it was rather a completely necessary move. Butler has to hit all of the major categories of gender construction – genetic, morphological, and cultural – in order to ward off “yes, but” criticisms that will always point back to the givenness of biological sex which gender can only ever agree or disagree with.

The fact is, as Butler points out, that it is not 99.9% of people who have clearly defined genitalia (or genitalia which easily match up to the pre-figured conceptions of male and female sex organs; to speak of anything that has a material existence as ill-defined sounds a bit silly on reflection), but something more like 90%. It seems a shallow victory at first. That’s still the vast majority of people who match up to sex norms easily. But 10% is still 100x as many people as 0.1%. Add in the genetic irregularities (again, irregularity as not matching up with expected binary configurations) of XXY, XX’s who manifest as men, XY’s who manifest as women, etc. etc., and transgendered individuals who seem to have a fully consistent biological sex but still identify across lines, and suddenly we’re talking about a rather significant fraction of our population.

Is a binary gender system useful? I suppose, but I’m uneasy leaving the question at that. The physical sex side of the problem has just as many consequences for the baby born with ambiguous genitalia as the cultural gender side (which, of course, isn’t really a different side at all) has for the woman who wants to make CEO. Or, put another way, perhaps it’s necessary to solve the problem of the person made fun of in the locker room for not conforming to genitalia norms (nevermind the fact that s/he will have to choose one locker room over another in the first place) before we can solve the problem of the gay boy made fun of for not being able to throw the football on the field (disclaiming again, of course, that of course homosexuality does not always translate to carrying behaviors from the opposite sex... or that girls can’t throw a football).

So, perhaps rather than accepting that “Categories are what human beings do. We need them,” we need to move to why we establish categories, question whether we need them, and ask whether their use value outways their capacity for erasing difference.

(P.S. Who would have expected Judy to align herself with Nietzsche, and on the critique of slave morality no less, over Lacan? Is the drag queen our übermensch?)(less)

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Aug 08, 2008 Patti rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. First, there's not much reason to read more than the first chapter of this--"Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire"--unless reading rhetorical masturbation gets your cheeks rosy. Butler might get misquoted in discussions about trans identity more than any other writer. I'm gonna paste the paragraph on this book from my thesis cuz I like to sound smart:

In Gender Trouble, Judith Butler makes an argument for the discursive nature of sex which positions gender as the medium through which sex is discursivel...more

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Nov 07, 2007 k8inorbit rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: gender studies, queer studies

Shelves: academic, gender-studies

It's incredibly difficult to get past Butler's writing style, which is notoriously dense. (We're talking Ghengis Khan levels of "notorious".) Ultimately this makes the reading experience so frustrating that it's hard to appreciate or understand the theory.

I also found Butler's writing to be extremely repetitive. She tends to restate the same concept in a variety of ways, without really doing anything further with it. Ultimately, I think she could benefit from an editor, but many academics seem...more

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Apr 17, 2013 Abby Brown rated it 5 of 5 stars

Gender Trouble by Judith Butler asks "How do non-normative sexual practices call into question the stability of gender as a category of analysis?" (Butler 1990:xi). Butler focuses on disparity and connections between concepts of sex, gender, sexual practice, and desire. She describes the "trouble" in gender: normative sexuality fortifies normative gender but those that challenge such norms might fear a loss of gender place; gender norms perpetuate violence and de-naturalization of gender envisio...more Gender Trouble by Judith Butler asks "How do non-normative sexual practices call into question the stability of gender as a category of analysis?" (Butler 1990:xi). Butler focuses on disparity and connections between concepts of sex, gender, sexual practice, and desire. She describes the "trouble" in gender: normative sexuality fortifies normative gender but those that challenge such norms might fear a loss of gender place; gender norms perpetuate violence and de-naturalization of gender envisions a rethinking of life; gender is performed but subversions make possible political change. This list is non-exclusive, but Butler pays special attention to the role of power. "Power appeared to operate in the production of that very binary frame for thinking about gender" (ibid. xxx). Butler critically questions that sex is biological and gender is culturally created. She says if gender was culturally created than it would not adhere to a sexed body, and so the construct of sex is also culturally constructed (ibid. 10). Yet gender and sex norms still persist within a structure of compulsory heterosexuality in society - where sexed bodies are identified and women are seen for purposes of reproduction (ibid. 24). Butler seeks to understand how certain sexes/genders are considered in conformance within hegemonic heterosexual and hierarchical power relations. Sexes/genders that do not conform provide an opportunity to critically describe "subversive matrices of gender disorder" (ibid. 24). Butler is probably best known for her theory of performativity in this book. She states: "Gender is the repeated stylization of the body, a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of the natural sort of being" (ibid. 45).

The theory of performativity is perhaps what troubles me most about reading Butler's Gender Trouble. It is certainly clear that sex/gender/sexuality roles are repetitive based on juridical and productive powers in society (ibid. 3). But it is difficult for me to comprehend what drives deviations that subvert sex/gender/sexuality norms. At the same time, I understand such deviations in the creation of a less oppressive world are essential. For example, my body is a culturally created identity fused with sex/gender/sexuality, and my identity has no desire to procreate (ibid. 24). This lack of desire to procreate somehow makes me in the eyes of some of my friends with children less of a woman - whatever that category is supposed to mean. A friend once told me something of the sort "you can't truly experience the wonder of the world unless you have a child." My friend's statement certainly bolsters Butler's argument that sex norms and gender norms are linked and constructed - it seems my friend feels to be a women in the reproductive sense means to be a women in the cultural sense which results in my questioning my sex/gender place in society (ibid. 126). True, this anecdote is perhaps an example of innocuous discourse about sex/gender norms in society. But did this discourse represent a microcosm of gender violence? Further, did this discourse take place in a paternalistic representation of hierarchical gender or sex norms? Not looking at the gender hierarchy, how does the sex hierarchy proceed: man as universal subject, women as reproductive subject with role, women as no reproductive subject without role, women as man or man as women without role, et cetera? Of course, my writing about sex hierarchy surely reinforces discourse that reifies power relations in terms of sex, gender, sexual practice, and desire. That is not my intent, and it is my hope that this writing is critically evaluated. But I still seek to better understand the process that unintentional subversive acts calls into question assigned roles of sex/gender/desire.
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Feb 19, 2013 Jack rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: queer-lbgtq, feminism

As with every theoretical text I find informative, fascinating, widely useful, etc., there are always a number of problems to discuss along side the issues that make this an influential theoretical work. For instance, Judith Butler stiiiill has not dealt with dis/ability in a decent way, despite the fact that so many damned dis/ability theorists use her work constantly (and coincidentally, problematize her work as much as they revere it).

Of course, Butler is not herself dis/abled, but this of co...more As with every theoretical text I find informative, fascinating, widely useful, etc., there are always a number of problems to discuss along side the issues that make this an influential theoretical work. For instance, Judith Butler stiiiill has not dealt with dis/ability in a decent way, despite the fact that so many damned dis/ability theorists use her work constantly (and coincidentally, problematize her work as much as they revere it).

Of course, Butler is not herself dis/abled, but this of course does not let her off, although I don't know HOW many arguments I've heard as to, "Is she supposed to cover EVERY topic?" In reply, it's not that a theorist, author, artist, etc. must cover EVERY topic. If they deal with the body, there are so many things to deal with, such as race, gender, aging, sickness, pain, suffering, embodiment, trauma, sex, sexuality, gender presentation, dis/ability, ability, madness, sanity, masculinity, femininity, all genders, all sexualities, (I am probably forgetting so many - and someone should definitely call me on the ones I forget! please) etc, or at least acknowledge the existence there of! There are also some extremely problematic ways in which Butler speaks of trans* people in this text, in fact, fetishizing, pathologizing, and in effect, Othering us to the extreme. Oivey.

The thing is, over the years, Butler does exist as a person within the dis/ability spectrum - as we all do, non-dis/abled or dis/abled, sane or mad - she is supposedly somewhere on these spectrums and therefore should speak of her embodied social reality and PRIVILEGE in regards to her body and its social status. When she speaks of the body, Butler speaks of the female, or feminine, or other-gendered body, (as an able-bodied/non-disabled "sane" white western cis-woman living with female partner with a non-normative gender presentation).

As with many other authors, I only find large criticisms in theorists whose work I admire deeply. Otherwise, I honestly wouldn't give a shit, and would hardly expect so much. Butler is capable of deep insight, nuanced analyses, and wonderful creative theories regarding the Body, abjection, subjectivity, gender, sexuality, race, etc. It is only because she looks so deep into these other forms of theory that I wish so much that she would take care to look at Crip Theory and Trans* Theory more carefully, because I think that she is one of the few capable theorists outside these fields that would make some in and outroads that would make our little obscure fields taken a little more seriously in academia, and possibly even society.

Damn, Judith, see what you've done? Best to be crappy at everything, then no one expects anything of you. If you are marvelous, then people need your help and ask you to rethink your writing for the benefit of large communities. This goes to show how seriously Butler is taken within the academic community because of her writing (which I'm happy to say, has much improved in recent years, so MOAR people can read it! YAY).(less)

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Jun 25, 2012 Avital rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

In this book, Butler exposes the problems resulting from the identification of gender based on the biological difference between men and women. This classification is constructed by discourse with the objective of recreating hegemonic paradigms and perpetuating current power relations. Defining Women and Men as universal categories disguises the interests it serves. Therefore, anything that is defined as natural or universal should be studied critically. She writes, “Signification is not a foun...more In this book, Butler exposes the problems resulting from the identification of gender based on the biological difference between men and women. This classification is constructed by discourse with the objective of recreating hegemonic paradigms and perpetuating current power relations. Defining Women and Men as universal categories disguises the interests it serves. Therefore, anything that is defined as natural or universal should be studied critically. She writes, “Signification is not a founding act, but rather a regulated process of repetition that both conceals itself and enforces its rules precisely through the production of substantializing effects” (185). The assumption that there is a pre-discursive body with a pre-determined sexuality and gender sustains oppression against subjugated and marginalized subjects. Disconnected from the body, she suggests, gender can include more than two versions. The analysis of these concepts--or deconstruction-- provides tools to the socially oppressed to fight against the existent social order.
The book is divided in three chapters. The first one, “Subjects of Sex, Gender, Desire”, introduces the woman as a subject of feminism and distinguishes between sex and gender. The second discusses heterosexuality within psychoanalytical and structuralist theories. The third, “Subversive Bodily Acts” deals with the category of biological sex and ends with Butler’s theory of gender-related performance and performativity.
For the sake of revealing the power relations behind pre-determined gender and sex, Butler suggests the concept of performativity. Gender performativity is related to performance and shares elements with it, but it has no subject. She explains, “The action of gender requires a performance that is repeated. This repetition is at once a reenactment and reexperiencing of a set of meanings already socially established” (178). Performativity creates a fictional reality in which gender and its roles are determined according to a men/women binary distinction. According to her, the category of Women from which the feminist struggle arises is different from this political, hierarchical myth based on biology.
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Oct 04, 2009 Justin rated it 5 of 5 stars

It took me a long time to read this book because I read it in the midst of doing a bunch of other things I would rather not do (work, take classes), and I had to return it to the library because I had exceeded my renewal limit, and so I checked it out again, and I will admit to only having read this book because of Zizek's (op?)position vis a vis Judith Butler. But considering I struggled to find the time to read it (or perhaps because of this(?)), and admittedly reading it for perhaps less than...more It took me a long time to read this book because I read it in the midst of doing a bunch of other things I would rather not do (work, take classes), and I had to return it to the library because I had exceeded my renewal limit, and so I checked it out again, and I will admit to only having read this book because of Zizek's (op?)position vis a vis Judith Butler. But considering I struggled to find the time to read it (or perhaps because of this(?)), and admittedly reading it for perhaps less than noble reasons, I can't say enough good things about Gender Trouble.

Butler presents her sophisticated argument without obfuscation or resorting to the esoteric. In Butler, we see that Foucault is still not only relevant but vital. Here Butler also takes on many of the heavyweights of (French?) feminism (along with Freud and Lacan (though in the case of these two, not to the extent of, Irigaray)), and she is clearly up to the task.

Just to let Butler's prose speak for itself and save me from having to summarize an otherwise complicated argument, "That gender reality is created through sustained social performances means that the very notions of an essential sex and a true or abiding masculinity or femininity are also constituted as part of the strategy that conceals gender's performative character and the performative possibilities for proliferating gender configurations outside the restricting frames of masculinist domination and compulsory heterosexuality." Can't stand a lot of of this Foucaultianist constructions? You might not like this book? For me, it made me want to read Foucault again.

So, yes, after having read this, I am planning on re-reading Foucault's "History of Sexuality Vol. I" and I also have some Monique Wittig on reserve at the library, both of which are something of a detour of the books I had planned on reading (albeit, everything I was planning on reading could be categorized within something of a narrow field). And, if, perhaps, the best that can be said of a book was that it was good enough to make one stop wanting to read the books one had planned on reading in order to read others related to it, then truly this is an excellent work.(less)

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Jul 28, 2011 Phil rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: theory-non-fiction

Everybody talks about how difficult Judith Butler's work is to read, but I found her fairly accessible. I mean, she does take her cues from Hegel, Sartre, and Lacan, all of whom are practically unreadable.

I find Butler's arguments really convincing, but they are based on a number of theoretical premises that one must accept as plausible. Many people, even those in academia, still accept the gender binary as a more or less reliable given (otherwise women's studies would collapse as having no iden...more

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Sep 13, 2007 Librarian rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: glbtq, adultnonfiction, feminista

One of the most widely known books on gender studies, Butler challenges French feminist essentialist thought. She also touches on sex determination in genetics and gender play. Butler also challenges basic gender distinctions both in traditional and feminist discourse and relates the distinctions made to their political and social power structures. In a nutshell, it's all about gender-as-culture.

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Jan 31, 2010 James Sheasley rated it 4 of 5 stars

It was a fabulous text and it really managed to solidify ideas that I had already tentatively held regarding the construction of gender identity. It's nice to have the academic vocabulary, however, to now support and defend them. I was especially interested in her argument that the rejection of homosexuality is implicit in the incest taboo, which wasn't something I had considered. She effectively gets to the very heart of the performative nature of identity, though I would have enjoyed seeing he...more

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Oct 26, 2010 Dusty rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: graduate-school, read-in-2010

Five stars to me for reading, from cover to cover, an entire book of Judith Butler's notoriously circuitous prose. And five stars to Butler for an insightful, humane contemplation of the culturally-imposed binaries between male/female, straight/gay, soul/body, etc. That the book is imperfect even the author would agree. In her (new) preface she explains that, in the wake of Gender Trouble's unexpected and overpowering influence, her career in the 1990s became, primarily, an effort to clarify and...more

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Aug 03, 2012 Nick rated it 4 of 5 stars

An extremely useful and insightful book, one which helped form the basis of much of my last years work in university studying various conceptions of gender and masculinity in various media. Perhaps not quite as strident as psychic life of power, Butler seeks to elaborate her notion of performativity in the production of gender roles which causes the book to be something of a potted history of the concept, lacking slightly in application.

A difficult book for those not familiar with Zizek/Butler e...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Mandy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Perhaps somewhat out-dated (in that Butler's ideas have seeped deeply into the foundation of what is now, but wasn't yet then, queer studies), but seminal nonetheless. The big takeaway: gender constructs sex, and gender itself is constructed through repeated performances of "gender identity." The most compelling section, I think, is the one on drag, in which Butler identifies drag shows as performances in which the performed aspects of what is considered biological sex, gender identity, and gend...more

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Nov 25, 2007 Meghan rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've read this book a couple times—both times in the rush of late semester. It would be nice to read it again without the context of how I might use the ideas in a paper. I like Butler in the same way that I like many infuriating and brilliant people.

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Nov 15, 2007 Krista rated it 5 of 5 stars

Okay, I KNOW. I'm the only person I know who actually LIKES Butler. She's not easy to read, her theories are dense, and she can be pedantic. But ... I really really really love this book and the foundation she lays for poststructuralist and queer theories.

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Aug 29, 2007 Nicole rated it 5 of 5 stars

i later learned that two separate girls i took queer theory with were afraid to talk to me after a lengthy diatribe i delivered in class referencing this book. i love it so much that apparently talking about it made ME "intimidating." that's got to be a powerful book!

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Dec 11, 2008 Ellie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Although this is rather dense at first, I think its definately a work of brilliance!

The main thrust of Butler's argument is that the coherence of the categories of sex, gender, and sexuality is culturally constructed through the repetition of stylized acts in time. Or in plain English, that we are socially conditioned from an early age to behave in ways that are according to our social ideas of our gender.

Thus girls will be seen as, and therefore start to behave in a "girly" way.

It is worth rea...more

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Nov 04, 2007 Jen rated it 5 of 5 stars

A little academic for those of you not into that, but for all my feminist pals you should take a look at this book or anything by Judith Butler.

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Jan 12, 2013 Dunjx added it

Shelves: faks

Pobogu neugodno mi je označiti ju kao pročitanu iako sam ju pročitala, mnogo ljubavi za njen mozak i način na koji funkcionira, ali to kraljevstvo riječi je izvan mog dometa.
Jako. Teško. Piše.
To što sam pročitala cijelu nije mi pomoglo da shvatim poglavlje koje moram objasniti, a tek to što sam to poglavlje pročitala nekoliko puta kroz ovih par dana je jedva dovelo do toga da shvatim što misli. Topla preporuka svima koji misle da znaju. Išta vezano uz konstruiranje osnovnih *postavki* roda unut...more

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Oct 26, 2007 Katie rated it 5 of 5 stars

So much about the world that was previously a mystery to me clicked into place after reading this book. It changed me completely.

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Apr 09, 2010 Matthew rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Matthew by: Kathy Brown

Not a terrible surprise, in many ways, because this is Judy's first major book and I read it after already reading a couple of later pieces building on the same ideas. Still. It's a pretty heady critique of existing gender theory, ranging from Freud to Lacan and on to Foucault, Irigaray, Kristeva, and Wittig. Brilliant and incisive, but really quite dense.

For the cursorily-interested, her ultimate point appears almost entirely in the last 15-page chapter, in an argument that masquerades as a ch...more

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Oct 30, 2009 Andrew added it

Shelves: theeeeeeory, gender-studies

OK, so gender is chiefly performative. This seems reasonable. And at the beginning of the book, I was on her side-- hell, "androgyny is a cultural imperative" was a mantra to me in my college days. But I think Butler goes a bit overboard with the idea, attributing a degree of fluidity to gender that seems more prescriptive than descriptive. I agree that mid-century French feminists were more essentialist than they cared to admit, and I'm impressed with the way that Butler cleaned house in regard...more

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Apr 07, 2009 Anthony rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: feminism-queer-theory

from the 1st paragraph of the preface:
"To make trouble was, within the reigning discourse of my childhood, something one should never do precisely because that would get one IN trouble. The rebellion and its reprimand seemed to be caught up in the same terms, a phenomenon that gave rise to my first critical insight into the subtle ruse of power: The prevailing law threatened one with trouble, even put one in trouble, all to keep one out of trouble. Hence, I concluded that trouble is inevitable a...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: academic, cultural-studies, feminism, gender-and-sexuality, lgbtqia, politics, philosopy

Reading Gender Trouble for the first time 20+ years after its original publication is, for people familiar with contemporary feminist and queer thought on gender, a bit of a "duh" moment. Of course, most people in the field talk with ease about the construction of gender, but when this book came out it was very influential. Butler is also here building on prior (mostly French psychoanalytic) work to discuss the construction of sex - questioning whether "women" as a group and the basis of the fem...more

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Feb 06, 2013 Jon Johnson rated it 2 of 5 stars

GoodReads is curious in that of the five possible star ratings, one is negative ("I didn't like it"), three are positive ("I liked it", "I really liked it", and "It was amazing"), and one is qualitative ("It was okay"). I give Judith Butler's "Gender Trouble" two out of five stars, because it was okay. Form is as important as content, and it was a hassle to read. I found myself stopping reading because my mind was wandering, and I wanted to understand what she was arguing. This book was such a s...more

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Apr 11, 2012 jtabz rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: school-stuffs, critical-theory, philosophy

Reading this book 20 years after it was published sort of makes you realize just how influential it really was, in part because of how intuitive Butler’s then-groundbreaking argument now seems to anyone with a basic understanding of postmodern theory.

It is not, however, without its frustrating qualities. To begin, Butler spends a good ¾ of the book (or more) explaining other peoples’ theories and arguing against them, leaving very little space for her to present her own contributions to these di...more

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Jun 21, 2011 Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars

Butler's writing is dense and difficult work in places, but her thought is original and profound. I had read secondary treatments of her before, but never the original work, and I'm glad to have accomplished it. Though I began this book in January and read bits and pieces here and there over the ensuing months, I read the final third of it pretty quickly over the last 24 hours because those sections were so engaging.

In this excerpt you get a good sense of one of her main points:

Because gender is...more

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About Judith Butler

Judith Butler is an American post-structuralist and feminist philosopher who has contributed to the fields of feminism, queer theory, political philosophy and ethics. She is currently a professor in the Rhetoric and Comparative Literature departments at the University of California, Berkeley.
Butler received her Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale University in 1984, for a dissertation subsequently publi...more

More about Judith Butler...

Books by Judith Butler

Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex"

Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence

The Psychic Life of Power: Theories in Subjection

Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative

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Quotes from Gender Trouble: Femini...

“If Lacan presumes that female homosexuality issues from a disappointed heterosexuality, as observation is said to show, could it not be equally clear to the observer that heterosexuality issues from a disappointed homosexuality?” — 18 people liked it

“As a result, gender is not to culture as sex is to nature; gender is
also the discursive/cultural means by which “sexed nature” or “a natural
sex” is produced and established as “prediscursive,” prior to culture,
a politically neutral surface on which culture acts” — 12 people liked it

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Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity

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