Queer theory was developed by Judith Butler in her post-modern feminist text, “Gender Trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity” (Horitar, 2015). She discussed the role that gender and sexual orientation play in the way in which society uses this concepts in order to place individuals in a specific category on the basis on how they behave (Guantlett, 1998; Horitar, 2015). This theory examines the diverse ways in which current beliefs serves to reintegrate societal anticipations of gender identity, appearance and sexuality, it also offers a negotiation for the fragmentation of constructed gender categories (Horitar, 2015). According to Western society, sex defines your particular gender (feminine or masculine) which in turn defines your true identity, for example a biological female is considered to be a women who is anticipated, by their society, to be more sensitive and nurturing than a man and who needs a sensual relationship with the opposite sex (Horitar, 2015). This notion was rejected by Butler because according to her gender should be regarded as a performance and not as a category (Guantlett, 1998; Horitar, 2015).
Deploying Professor John Carl Flugel’s Psychology of Clothes in conjunction with queer theory — particularly the theories of Judith Butler, this essay will attempt to examine the concepts of gender and identity in relation to artist Grayson Perry, ‘Britain’s pre-eminent transvestite’ through the lens of adornment. Gender can be defined as a set of different attributes and behaviours that comply to the socially constructed masculine/feminine binary. Adornment, has historically, at least from the 17th century onwards in Western society (Wilson, 1985, p. ), been a highly significant gender divisive tool useful for deciphering apparent ‘identities’, “in the case of an individual whom we have not previously met, the clothes he is wearing tell us
In The French Lieutenants woman and Disgrace, both Fowles and Coetzee explore the issue of societal divisions in varying ways. Primarily, they do this through their presentation of character, femininity and hierarchical societies. The issue of social classes in The French Lieutenants woman is key in understanding the main problems that occur in the comic world of The French Lieutenants Woman. Additionally, the different relationships that Fowles has created in the novel are a biproduct of the divided society in which they live however, this is also an interesting point of comparison with the character of Petrus in Disgrace. Through Petrus and …., Fowles and Coetzee have created novels which exist around these male characters however, whose
Queer Theory As the materials that directly discuss defeminization are relatively absent, in pursuit of the comprehension of the dynamics of defeminization – a phenomenon involving a change in gender performance – I extended the coverage of my review and perused the seminal works of Judith Butler, the proponent of the concepts of gender performance and performativity of gender. Judith Butler’s works are considered major contributions to Queer Theory, a collection of intellectual works focusing on the social constructedness of concepts such as sex, gender, and sexuality (Gauntlett, 1998; Spargo, 1999). Queer theorists question the established links between the three aforementioned concepts and claim that gender and sexuality are independent
The researcher discusses the masculine crisis in this novel by using Judith Butler’s theory of gender and other critics on masculinity and womb envy. Key words: gender; masculinity; masculine crisis; power; womb envy INTRODUCTION The term
In this response paper I continue with my goal of problematizing mainstream concepts in gender theory using ideas generated from transgender studies and my own lived experience as a Filipino transsexual woman. Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble, considered to be one of queer theory’s foundational texts, expounds on the notion of gender performativity that describes gender’s ‘truth’ or ‘naturalness’ as a result of repeated reiterations of (highly mediated) permitted acts while repressing contradictory ones. In the chapter “Prohibition, Psychoanalysis, and the Production of the Heterosexual Matrix,” Butler historicizes patriarchy and the transformation of sex into gender and extends the finding of gender’s artificiality to critique the normative ‘heterosexual matrix’ that imposes rigid social rules to follow in order for on to have a valid ‘identity’. She demonstrates the mechanisms that enforce these ‘coherent’ gender identities by mentioning Lévi-Strauss’ structuralism and the exchange of women as a form of kinship (pp. 47-55); Joan Riviere’s ‘womanliness as masquerade’ (pp.
Then, this idea of nature would be changed by interpretations of particular historical moments and relationships of power. In this sense, the natural must be understood as deeply rooted in social conventions as Foucault tries to redefine in “History of Sexuality”. Consequently, the notion of gender extends to encompass the very opposition of sex and gender / nature and culture. Understood as a discursive effect that places such oppositions outside the limits of discourse, the very language is the one that generates the discourse. Therefore, sex and gender do not
Therefore the similarities exists on how both critiques’ perception on the image of human rights. Feminist will see human rights as the image of men and relativist will see it as the image of the West. The second argument is each critiques have its own hidden agenda. Relativist argues on the feminism that national interest is in line with the feminism (Mayer 1995a: 184), states will use feminist cause to cover the motives to attack the enemy states. While feminist argues on the relativism that the attempt of relativist to protect the diversity of culture will just promote the dominance of male which has no sympathy to the well-being of women.
Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the multifaceted interaction of gender with other identity markers for example race, ethnicity, sexuality, nation, and religion. Femininity and masculinity are such a basic form of social organization that the operation often passes unnoticed. Feminist scholarship shows that traditional categories used for social analysis and their associated interpretive approaches frequently reinforce gender hierarchies and inequalities Interdisciplinary study came forth in reaction to the partial answers to social problems provided by the disciplines. This looks at concepts of gender and power, gender and the body, and gender and knowledge through a sequence of topics such as freedom and liberty, social movements, work with leisure, politics of social justice in addition to sexual violence. We are surrounded by gender tradition from the time we are young.
In his analysis of Western discourses, language helps Foucault to detect social limits of existence. His concept of transgression, i.e. events resulting in the crossing of limits into formerly forbidden zones, explains the re-discussion as well as re-evaluation of such limits in discourses. To him, the language of sexuality is the primary factor to determine the limits of law or, in other words, taboos. In contemporary Western civilizations, however, Foucault perceived that the process of sexual discourse has developed into profanation, i.e.