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Undoing gender by judith butler spark notes
Undoing gender by judith butler spark notes
Gender studies judith butler
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Recommended: Undoing gender by judith butler spark notes
In Gender Trouble, Judith Butler discusses complications with constructions of inner and outer worlds of the body. She argues that “internalization of gender”, as common linguistics describes it, is a part of the heterosexual hegemonic binary of gender conformity which distinguishes inner and outer worlds. Gender, in the commonly accepted model, is innate and through a process of bringing out the inner gender is expressed. Butler proposes, instead, that “the gendered body is performative” and “has no ontological status apart from the various acts which constitute its reality” (173). Thus, gender does not exist within a person, a part of the body itself, but is a performance constructed through many displays. Gender is not explicitly connected to identity because it is not internal but rather on the body. Butler says that drag “reveals the distinctness of those aspects of gendered experience which are falsely naturalized as a unity through the regulatory fiction of heterosexual coherence. In imitating gender, drag implicitly reveals the imitative structure of gender itself – a...
In the theory “Doing Gender” by Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman negate the fantastic qualification between the social built “gender” instead of the natural “sex”. Rather they contend for a more mind boggling relations in the middle of social and physical components. In this theory by West and Zimmerman the meaning of gender is a sociological one which depends on codes and traditions that are at the establishment of regular exercises. “Doing Gender” intends to perform complex societal exercises of discernment, communication and of micro politics which characterize certain exercises and interest and manly or female. Conventional sex discernments perspective man and woman as regular and unequivocal classifications. They believe “doing gender” is through the garments you wear, the way you talk, etc. Basically, doing gender alludes to carrying on or thinking in a way that
“Boys will be boys, and girls will be girls”: few of our cultural mythologies seem as natural as this one. But in this exploration of the gender signals that traditionally tell what a “boy” or “girl” is supposed to look and act like, Aaron Devor shows how these signals are not “natural” at all but instead are cultural constructs. While the classic cues of masculinity—aggressive posture, self-confidence, a tough appearance—and the traditional signs of femininity—gentleness, passivity, strong nurturing instincts—are often considered “normal,” Devor explains that they are by no means biological or psychological necessities. Indeed, he suggests, they can be richly mixed and varied, or to paraphrase the old Kinks song “Lola,” “Boys can be girls and girls can be boys.” Devor is dean of social sciences at the University of Victoria and author of Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality (1989), from which this selection is excerpted, and FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society (1997).
On account of cultural influences, gender roles are institutionalized and enacted at the levels of the family, community and society. Culture makes gender roles meet certain inescapable beliefs, assumptions, expectations, and obligations. Cultural practices are treasures of a social group as they are a mark of their identity and assertion. Moreover, certain cultural practices are gender specific and are mandatorymarks of a particular gender. Moreover, there is a lot of meandering in the name of culture that goes into the making of women by patriarchy,as "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman" (Beauvoir 295). Gender politics camouflaged by cultural norms and governed by patriarchal interests and manifested in cultural practices like ‘Female Genital Mutilation’ or FGM, make the life of women difficult and burdensome. Alice Walker’s fifthnovel Possessing the Secret of Joy(1992)discusses a tabooed cultural practice called female genital mutilation, camouflaged by gender politics, that is used to subjugate women, to protect the interests of men. Walker through the novel has put forth the idea of Judith Butler of how“gender is performatively produced and compelled by regulatory practices of gender coherence . . . constituting the identity it is purported to be."
...ing: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion." Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex." 121-156.New York: Routledge, 1993.
In their publication, “Doing Gender, ” Candance West and Don H. Zimmerman put forward their theory of gender as an accomplishment; through, the daily social interactions of a man or woman which categorize them as either masculine or feminine. From a sociological perspective the hetero-normative categories of just sex as biological and gender as socially constructed, are blurred as a middle ground is embedded into these fundamental roots of nature or nurture.To further their ideology West and Zimmerman also draw upon an ethnomethodological case study of a transsexual person to show the embodiment of sex category and gender as learned behaviours which are socially constructed.Therefore, the focus of this essay will analyze three ideas: sex, sex
For this week’s readings, I choose to talk about “What it Means to Be Gendered Me” by Betsy Lucal. In her work, Betsy Lucal identifies the issues that come with the Patriarchal dominance there is in our society. Speaking mostly on her past experiences, the author illustrates the ways her problems in life, reflect the on how our culture has constructed gender. She also hopes to either agree or contradict with the points made by Zimmerman about doing gender. Her situation matches really well to what the issue stands as today. Betsy has the constant harassment and under classification of her gender due to the struggle that she classifies herself as a woman, however, her physical appearance disrupts the social norms that society label as “women”. The author hopes to capture the urgency in abandoning the gender system we
Gender is a performance according to Judith Butler . All bodies, she claims, are gendered from birth; sometimes even earlier now we can determine sex in the womb . For Butler society dictates ones gender and the individual reinforces that gender through performance . “The deeds make the doer” in Butler’s words; there is no subject prior to performance. Butler’s concept of gender, however, leads us to question: what of those who are incapable of performing the gender ascribed to them? If one is unable to perform are they left genderless, lacking subjectivity and social identity? If no human is without gender , as Butler claims, then where does this leave her theory? Either gender is more than simply performance or one can exist without gender.
In a reading taken from Women 's Voices Feminist Visions called Trans Identities and Contingent Masculinities: Being Tombois in Everyday Practice, the author Evelyn Blackwood went
This article was written to bring attention to the way men and women act because of how they were thought to think of themselves. Shaw and Lee explain how biology determines what sex a person is but a persons cultures determines how that person should act according to their gender(Shaw, Lee 124). The article brings up the point that, “a persons gender is something that a person performs daily, it is what we do rather than what we have” (Shaw, Lee 126). They ...
The novel 1984, written by George Orwell, portrays views on sex and gender in an authoritative government. Oceanic government aims to maintain their power by asserting their dominance over society. This is done through outlawing sex, with the exception of reproduction of more Party members. Two characters, Winston and Julia, have sex for pleasure and also as a form of rebellion against Big Brother. The government takes them both as punishment for their sex crimes. During imprisonment, the relationship between Winston and O’Brien develops. Along with sex, gender is relevant throughout the novel. The party’s attempt at making gender a non-issue is valiant but it makes gender roles more evident in other aspects of the book. While depicting the future in 1984, George Orwell carefully analyzes sex and gender in Oceanic society through government manipulation, character rebellion, and natural human instinct.
There has been a long and on going discourse on the battle of the sexes, and Simone De Beauvoir’s The Second Sex reconfigures the social relation that defines man and women, and how far women has evolved from the second position given to them. In order for us to define what a woman is, we first need to clarify what a man is, for this is said to be the point of derivation (De Beauvoir). And this notion presents to us the concept of duality, which states that women will always be treated as the second sex, the dominated and lacking one. Woman as the sexed being that differs from men, in which they are simply placed in the others category. As men treat their bodies as a concrete connection to the world that they inhabit; women are simply treated as bodies to be objectified and used for pleasure, pleasure that arise from the beauty that the bodies behold. This draws us to form the statement that beauty is a powerful means of objectification that every woman aims to attain in order to consequently attain acceptance and approval from the patriarchal society. The society that set up the vague standard of beauty based on satisfaction of sexual drives. Here, women constantly seek to be the center of attention and inevitably the medium of erection.
Emma Renold (2005) describes gender in reference to Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity by saying, “gender is not something that you have, but something that you do and continually do through everyday social and cultural practices” (p. 4). This paper intends to examine the social and cultural practices in which children and young people engage in and also, how these practices solidify their gender identity within the boy/girl binary. I will explain the contradictory notion that “childhood is a time of presumed sexual innocence” (Renold, 2005, p. 17) through my experience at Walmart. Furthermore, this paper will look at how toys gender and sexualize children and young people by examining the differences between White and Black dolls,
Is there a true gender, or is gender something imposed upon us by society? This can be answered by her thoughts on gender performativity, and her opinion on “drag”. In some aspects, drag is often seen as taboo, and is commonly seen as an activity in which men dress as women. In this context, Butler argues that drag in an essence doesn’t really exist, because there is no proper gender to dress yourself as. This idea of a proper gender comes from society, and the societies imposed ideals of what proper gender is. Butler says “there is no original or primary gender a drag imitates, but gender is a kind of imitation for which there is no original”; thus, there is no true gender., no ideal to be imitated through drag. Gender, according to the text, is simply a performance we put on every day. We become the gender we chose through our daily decisions, through our hair cuts and clothing choices; these choices are also influenced by what the society deems is gender appropriate (p.312). As she states, “the notion of proper operates …improperly installed as the effects of a compulsory
In Judith Butlers article she states that "Gender is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo." (520) From this statement, we can assume that Butlers relates the actions of the body to a person 's gender. How you act and body language are some examples of relating the body to sex. In Susan Williams article she follows the gendering process of twenty-six girls and their regular regime of becoming a woman. Through the progression, she learns that the course of becoming a woman is more short-term than she, thought.(2002) After reading these two article, I came up with two themes that tied into both the items and the films. The two issues are discovering who you are, and that happiness depends on
Society has stamped an image into the minds of people of how the role of each gender should be played out. There are two recognized types of gender, a man and a woman, however there are many types of gender roles a man or a woman may assume or be placed into by society. The ideas of how one should act and behave are often times ascribed by their gender by society, but these ascribed statuses and roles are sometimes un-welcomed, and people will assume who they want to be as individuals by going against the stereotypes set forth by society. This paper will examine these roles in terms of how society sees men and women stereotypically, and how men and women view themselves and each other in terms of stereotypes that are typically ascribed, as well as their own opinions with a survey administered to ten individuals. What I hope to prove is that despite stereotypes playing a predominant role within our society, and thus influencing what people believe about each other in terms of their same and opposite genders, people within our society are able to go against these ascribed stereotypes and be who they want and it be okay. Through use of the survey and my own personal history dealing with gender stereotyping I think I can give a clear idea as to how stereotypes envelope our society, and how people and breaking free from those stereotypes to be more individualistic.