Butler's Imitation And Gender Insubordination

Butler says “We have an interesting political predicament, since most of the time when we hear about “rights,” we understand them as pertaining to individuals, or when we argue for protection against discrimination, we argue as a group or a class.” (Page 241). I agree with this statement. This statement reflects the reasoning why societies that we find ourselves in are the way they are. I believe this statement means more than what is read. I believe this is why individuals who are not accepted by society are the ones who are misunderstood by society. People who are gay, lesbian, or transgendered do not have the same rights and same pre-judgment that is formed from someone who is accepted in society than a heterosexual person. However gays, lesbian, and transgender express political views and ideas just as a heterosexual person who is accepted by society expresses their political views. Sexual orientation is the only reason gays, lesbians, and transgender are not accepted by society. Butler says “We ask that the state, for instance, keep its laws off our bodies, and we call for principles of bodily self-defense and bodily integrity to be accepted as political goods. Yet, it is through the body that gender and sexuality are exposed to others, implicated in

In “Bloodchild,” Butler depicts a reversal in gender roles to argue that people must understand each other’s role rather than place a level of superiority

While reading “Gender,” an essay by Jack Halberstam, the topic of sexism was brought to the forefront of my mind. It has been brought up more often in conversation in the modern era, issues such as how a few cruel insults pertain to female reproductive anatomy and, in a sense, degrade females and ultimately identify them, as well as femininity, as inherently “bad”. Such a thought stemmed from how Halberstam touches on the “problematic stabilization of the meaning of ‘women’ and ‘female’”: meaning there is no room for argument when it comes to your gender—you’re either a girl or not. You either fit into a strict mold, or you do not.

In Octavia Butler’s Dawn the idea of gender is deconstructed and reformed from the typical human’s definition. Often people do not consider the role of gender in society today. Usually the first thing one notices when meeting someone new is their gender or their presumed gender. However, there becomes a problem when the person whose gender we perceived identifies as a different gender. Butler forces the reader to examine how they judge and perceive gender. While the ooloi are actually “its” their personalities seem to imply a certain gender. The transgender community often brings up this issue because these assumptions of gender based on our judgments of what defines a male and what defines a female can skew how a transgender person is treated and addressed. In Chapter One of Gender Through the Prism of Difference by Anne Fausto-Sterling, the idea of expanding the number of genders based on one’s biological differences is examined through the five sexes theory. By now the concept of gender being defined solely by one’s biology has mostly been left in the past but the question remains of how do we truly define gender? How does being outside of the social norms that Michael Warner talks about cause us to feel shame when discussing our gender and our perceptions of gender? In this essay, I will argue that preconceived notions of gender create shame when a person’s own perception of their gender does not fit the social norms. This stigma around the limited and strict definitions

If I make the argument that The Beekeeper’s Apprentice is Laurie King commenting on the gender roles at the turn of the 20th century, then I can make sense of why Mary Russell appears to be a female Holmes. This argument can be supported through the historically accurate portrayal of what life was like at the beginning of the 20th century. It can also be supported through the examination of our modern Holmes, the young Mary Russell and their partnership. This novel gives us a modern and retired Holmes who now takes care of bees, and Mary Russell who is a young American woman that can match wits with him.

Judith Butler is an American post-structuralist philosopher and critical theorist. Her area of expertise is gender theory. She is most well known for her theory of gender performativity which states that gender is a social construct which is performative in nature. In simple terms what this means is that gender is not a quality that people have, but a pattern of behavior that people perform. The performance of gender, Butler contends, creates and reinforces societal gender norms which are perceived as “natural” and “normal” but are actually a set of learned behaviors which are fluid and constantly changing.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is set in America in the 1950s, a time when women were expected to be quiet and submissive, which is the complete opposite of how women are portrayed in the book. Ken Kesey presented women in a way that was not the norm in America in the 1950s. Almost all the female characters in the novel are shown as being extremely dominant and as “castrators” completely contradicting the stereotypical image of females in America at the time.

After viewing and studying Morten Tyldum's loosely based biopic of Alan Turing in "The Imitation Game", I have concluded that patriarchy was abundant during World War Two and it was most obvious throughout Joan Clarke's life. While analysing different critics opinions and views on Joan Clarke's role in the film, I found many supporting ideas and discovered that there was a lot of sexism during the time of the Enigma code. Through broad analysis I found that the chosen critic's opinions were supportive of each other. The two main critics I studied were Barnaby Walter and Joe Miller, both wrote in 2014. These two critics showed similar views and coincidently posted on the same day.

No one lives with a specific gender until the age of three. That’s when most children begin to explore their surroundings and learn to categorize themselves as boys or girls. Moreover, the difference in strength between male and female turns into the foundation of gender stereotype. Generation by generation, we inherit this socially constructed rules that society puts on us. With a background like our society, Lois Gould----the author of “The Story of X” examines how individuals would blindly follow the mainstream under the impact of society and how they might force people to confront due to the faith in common values.

For as long as can be remembered, men and women have been placed in specific roles in society. Both have been given a set of rules they are expected to follow and a set of stereotypes they are expected to fit into. For the most part these roles were, until rather recently, strictly obeyed. However, while there are still expectations and stereotypes today, it is more common to see individuals from both genders breaking the barriers and exploring options outside of the limits. Visible through the contrasting class systems, Sophie Treadwell’s 1928 play “Machinal” and Clare Boothe Luce’s 1936 drama “The Women,” are both perfect examples of the ways in which women begin to break the societal expectations.

What is the status of this exclusion?” (28). Butler is simply stating that there is a confusion in terms of gender. Society thinks that gender is a cultural construction that also defines whether you are human. Butler is explaining that gender is something that you are born with and not something that you can choose in the second half of the quote.

Judith Butler questions the belief that behaviors of either sex are natural. She proposes a rather radical theory that gender is performative and that sex is constructed. When gender is being performed, it means that someone would take on a role, acting in such a way that gives society the idea of their gender and constructs part of their identity. To be performative means that we produce a series of effects.Gender is constructed and is not in any way connected ‘naturally’ to sex.

There are several sources that tell a person how to be a man or woman. Science tells us by recognizing the X or Y chromosomes. The media shows us through the physically ideal celebrities that grace the covers of magazines and flaunt their bodies in commercials. Sports, wrestling, cars, and blue for the boys. Dresses, make-up, painted nails, and pink for the girls. All of these sources, as well as others, have evolved into an expectation that has become institutionalized within society. This expectation, is placement and belonging into the binary system of person: the man or the woman. In Anne Fausot-Sterling's acrticles “The Five Sexes” and the “The Five Sexes, Revisited”, the

“We are victims of a matriarchy here my friends…” (Harding). A matriarchy is a social order where women have power. In the novel One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest the women are portrayed as the power figures and have the power manipulate, or control the men in the ward, as shown by the characters of Nurse Ratched, Mrs. Bibbit, and Vera Harding.

The definition of gender and sex pertains to a distinction between male and female binaries, gender in this sense is therefore considered achieved at birth. It is argued that social interaction and conventions influence the difference in behaviour and construction between men and women. Alternately it is also plausible to argue that behaviour and gender constructions are influenced by biological factors. Judith Butler however deconstructs distinctions between biological given sex and a socially and culturally constructed gender. According to Butler traditional ethics of gender identity are restrictive because they are limited to gender as binary.