For more information
Call 1-800-351-0222
Call 1-800-351-0222
Gender Trouble
Term Paper ID:43246
Get This Paper Free! or
Essay Subject:
This book provides a discussion of the feminist theories related to gender expression and ...... More...
4 Pages / 900 Words
1 sources, 6 Citations,
MLA Format
$16.00
More Papers on This Topic
Paper Abstract:
This book provides a discussion of the feminist theories related to gender expression and sexual desire offered by Judith Butler in Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. How power structures in society construct false constructs of gender and sexual orientation are addressed from Butler's perspective.
Paper Introduction:
Gender Trouble Introduction Sexuality and gender continue to be a focus of modern discourse onsociology philosophy and psychology In Gender Trouble Feminism and theSubversion of Identity Judith Butler makes some feminist theory claimsabout sexuality and gender that shows their connection to power in society Butler makes two primary claims about sexuality and gender She arguesthat sex is not located within the body in a way that cannot be changed oraltered in any way She also argues that sexual desire and sexualorientation are
Text of the Paper:
The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.
Butler (61) rejects Freud's contentionof an originating bisexuality on two levels. Second, she maintains that this theory is invalid inthe first place because it seems to suggest that there is an initial ororiginal homosexual desire which serves as the basis or measure ofsexuality or desire. Butler argues that in the everyday we seem to take gender ("male" or"female") or sexuality as biological or innate concepts or aspects of humanidentity. She arguesthat sex is not located within the body in a way that cannot be changed oraltered in any way. Criminal or sanctioned identities or sexualities arise becauseof laws and taboos not original desire. Instead, the author argues that sexual desire is produced byculture, whose laws and taboos help to produce sexual desire throughcategorization of the spectra of human sexuality. A conclusion will addressthe implications of Butler's feminist perspective of gender and sexuality. Conclusion There are significant implications for individuals and society thatstem from Judith Butler's feminist approach to gender and sexuality inGender Trouble. A great deal of this categorizationis achieved through the language of social institutions and through taboos,norms and laws that shape sexual desire and sexuality. However, in reality the author contends that what we take asgivens are really social constructs constructed to categorize humansexuality that serve groups in power. Through the language ofsocial institutions powerful laws are put into place that criminalize orsanction various categories of sexual desire or gender expression. The biggest of these is that the constructs of gender andsexuality that are considered original desire or states(heterosexual/homosexual; male/female, etc.) are largely the product of thepowerful male, heterosexual patriarchy in society. She also argues that sexual desire and sexualorientation are also not innate, but are created as social constructions.In this sense, categories like "male" or "female" or "homosexual" or"heterosexual" are not innate qualities of human beings but categoriescreated by culture to lend notions to gender behavior. As Butler (ix)asks, "How does language itself produce the fictive construction of sexthat supports these various regimes of power?" In this way, gender and sexconstructs are involved in power relations in society, between powerful andnon-powerful groups as well as between male and female and heterosexual and"other." One of the traditional views of gender or sexuality that Butlerattempts to refute in her feminist approach is that of sexuality being somekind of initial or original desire that is repressed through social laws ortaboos. It is laws that produce what Butler sees asthe fictions of male/female or heterosexual/homosexual as seemingopposites. Body One of the main points made by Butler is that desire is not a givenin culture. Or, Butler (viii)wonders, is what is natural "constituted through discursively constrainedperformative acts that produce the body through and within the categoriesof sex." It is through these social constructs that Butler theorizes powerrelations in society unfold along with the constructions of gender and sex(heterosexuality, bisexuality, homosexuality, etc.). In Gender Trouble: Feminism and theSubversion of Identity, Judith Butler makes some feminist theory claimsabout sexuality and gender that shows their connection to power in society. Fromthese laws and taboos arise different sexual orientations and genderexpressions that are largely fictions because they only arise due toefforts of powerful heterosexuals to stabilize gender and sexuality.Because of this, individuals are often victims of ridicule, legal action orviolence because they are blamed for their gender expression or sexualorientation that is basically a fiction foisted upon them by the powerfulstatus quo in society that treats heterosexuality and male/female binariesas original desire or the norm.Work CitedButler, Judith. Butler makes two primary claims about sexuality and gender. First she views bisexualityas only "the coincidence of two heterosexual desires within a singlepsyche" (Butler 61). In essence, Butlerattempts to argue that sexuality and gender are social constructions andcan, therefore, be deconstructed through language. As Butler (335) explains, "Thisdisciplinary production of gender effects a false stabilization of genderin the interests of the heterosexual construction and regulation ofsexuality." The powerful male patriarchy, then, tries to stabilize sexualdesire or gender expression through such constructs. 85 82 Gender Trouble Introduction Sexuality and gender continue to be a focus of modern discourse onsociology, philosophy and psychology. For instance, where theconstruction of "female" is concerned, Butler (viii) wonders if the genderdesignation is a "natural fact" or something more akin to what amounts to aperformance of "female" due to cultural expectations. In other words there is no presupposition of an originalheterosexual or homosexual order. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. From a feminist view, Butler argues that male gender andheterosexual desire dictate other constructions of gender or sexual desireprimarily through laws and taboos that give rise to these constructs.There is no primary desire in this sense, only a diverse array of desiresor gender expressions that come into construction in spite of laws andtaboos not because of them. New York: Routledge, 2 6. This analysis willdiscuss the feminist theories offered by Butler in Gender Trouble, showinghow the author believes constructs of gender and sexual orientation arelargely fabrications related to social forces.
If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again:
or
We can write a Custom Essay just for you.
Browse Essays by Subject