How Does Judith Butler Respond To The Status Of Women?

Judith Sargent Murray was a revolutionary woman- born into a socially prominent and wealthy family during the start of the American Revolution, Murray was recognized for her intellect at a young age and given an education along with her brother. Later in life, she had her written works widely published and read during a time when women’s voices were seen as fundamentally inferior to those of men. In one of her most influential and strongly opinionated works, ‘On the Equality of the Sexes’, Murray makes a strong case for the spiritual and intellectual equality of men and women, arguing that women and men are born equal, but that men are simply given more education and

Judith Sargent Murray’s On the Equality of the Sexes reveals the struggles women had in the 17th-18th centuries when it came to equal education opportunities. Women were expected to become people of domestication while men had many opportunities to expand their minds and be ambitious, and be leaders. Women were expected to focus on taking care of their family, not to have minds of their own. They wanted change.

After reading from the excerpts of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman I have concluded that the situations of women, as far as rights are concerned, have indeed improved vastly. However, even though their situation has been amended and they are now afforded the same equal rights as men, not all women take advantage of these rights. A fraction of women still care more about their own physical beauty, appearance, and the prospect of finding a husband than anything else. Furthermore even, some of the more juvenile women will even occasionally go so far as to play dumb, thinking to attract the affection of men; while others get so self-obsessed with their appearance that they don’t even have to act in order to be received as dim witted or

Hailed as the savior of the “fallen women” and a feminist of her time, Josephine Butler stands as a prominent figure in Britain’s history. Because of her fight for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts (CDAs) of 1864, 1866, and 1869, a number of historians refer to her as a feminist, while others contend that the term is too far-reaching and ignores her religious motivations. According to historians like Helen Mathers or Jane Jordan, Butler was “a true ‘Victorian feminist’”. determined to fight for women’s rights. Her religious motivation, to them, does not detract from Butler’s ultimate goal of improving the lives of women.

Iris Marion Young has a very specific way that she presents her thoughts about the role of gender in society, culture, and politics. On February 6, 2017, the class was assigned to read her article “Gender as Seriality: Thinking about Women as a Social Collective”. Within this article, she talks about the complexities and challenges to a generalized conception of gender and women`s oppression by women of color, and lesbians. Within her paper, she incorporated from Elizabeth Spelman, Claudra Mohanty, Judith Butler, and many other theories ideas about the thoughts surrounding thinking about women as a social collective. Young describes the purpose of saying that women names a serious thus resolves the dilemma that has developed in feminist theory:

Sexuality has an inherent connection to human nature. Yet, even in regards to something so natural, societies throughout times have imposed expectations and gender roles upon it. Ultimately, these come to oppress women, and confine them within the limits that the world has set for them. However, society is constantly evolving, and within the past 200 years, the role of women has changed. These changes in society can be seen within the intricacies of literature in each era. Specifically, through analyzing The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, one can observe the dynamics of society in regards to the role of women through the lens of the theme of sexuality. In both novels, the confinement and oppression of women can be visibly seen as a result of these gender roles. Yet, from the time The Scarlet Letter was published to the time The Bell Jar was written, the place of women in society ultimately changed as well. Hence when evaluating the gender roles that are derived from sexuality, the difference between the portrayals of women’s oppression in each novel becomes apparent, and shows how the subjugation of women has evolved. The guiding question of this investigation is to what extent does the theme of sexuality reflect the expectations for women in society at the time each novel was written. The essay will explore how the literary elements that form each novel demonstrate each author’s independent vision which questions the

Simone De Beauvoir in The Second Sex suggests that to resolve the tension between bad faith and authenticity, people must regard women as subjects and not objects. They must also collectively fight against the idea of womanhood in order to remain authentic to themselves.

Spargo goes on to address some of the criticisms of Foucault and how these failing have been addressed as queer theory has developed. The most significant of these criticism as addressed by Spargo was Foucault’s focus on masculine sexualities . Spargo explores the relationship of the production of sexuality to gender through a discussion of Judith Butler. Butler argues that gender is produced and understood via cultural discourse in the same way as sexuality . Gender according to Butler is

Gender is defined in Undoing Gender in an act of improvising within a scene of constraint, where one that is always within a social context, and never outside of the ideology. Butler expresses that Undoing Gender expresses an understanding of how “restrictively normative conceptions of sexual and gendered life” might be undone. She stresses throughout the reading that this process of undoing is not something that is negative or

Judith Butler’s article on “Performance Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory,” denotes that gender identity represents a performative accomplishment induced by social taboo and sanction (Butler 520). Even though Butler’s theory on gender performativity has played an influential role in cultural studies and feminist theory, certain areas of philosophy provide significant insight into critical social theory. From the perspective of critical legal thinkers, Butler’s idea of performativity is linked with her views on gender and plays an important role in legality as well as politics. Critical theory in gender performativity presents a social theory to critique and change the society as opposed to the traditional theory. Similarly, critical theory has the objective to explore beyond the surface of social life to unveil the assumptions that limit a proper understanding of how the world functions. The concept of gender performativity instigated by Butler’s book, Gender Trouble, starts by reflecting on the female identity (Fagot 3). In other words, Butler criticizes the critical approaches to feminism that influence the idea of identity politics and the notion of female identity. Similarly, the various approaches seem to ignore the idea that all the various identities come from the effects of repressive regimes and authority as well as the issues raised by the feminists. The concept of gender performativity has a social and cultural obligation

According to Judith Butler’s theory, gender is a social concept and not a natural part of being, therefore making it unstable and fluid. Gender identities are produced through what Butler calls “performativity,” the repetitive acts of expression that form and define the notions of masculinity and femininity. These repeated performances are engrained within the heteronormative society and impose these gendered expectations on individuals. In this respect, gender is something inherent in a person, however Butler writes “gender is always a doing, though not a doing by a subject who might be said to pre-exist the deed.” In Olga Tokarczuk’s House of Day, House of Night identity is undoubtedly central to the characters’ stories, specifically the strict social constructs of gender that is snarled with one’s identity. Tokarczuk’s novel presents a mosaic of stories that put into question heteronormative gender roles, while offering an alternative way of existence. Analyzing House of Day, House of Night with Judith Butler’s gender theory demonstrates the characters struggles within the rigid constructions of gender and how some ultimately deal with moving past such restricting expectations.

To understand Butler’s work, it is important to know who Butler is. Judith Butler was born on February 24, 1956 in Cleveland, Ohio. She attended Bennington College and Yale University afterwards where she studied philosophy, receiving her B.A. in 1978 and her Ph.D. in 1984. She then taught at Wesleyan University, George Washington University, John Hopkins University, and University of California, Berkeley. In 1987, Butler had released her first book called “Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth Century France” which was about the concept of desire. Butler had then released her better known work “Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity” in 1990, and its sequel, “Bodies that Matter: On The Discursive Limits of Sex” in 1993. Much of her work had great influence on feminism, cultural studies, and continental

To be feminine is to be pretty, sexualized, and passive. “Marked Women” by Deborah Tannen, “Sexism in English: Embodiment and Language” by Alleen Nilsen, and “A Woman’s Beauty: Put Down or Power Source?” by Susan Sontag are three essays that show these negative connotations of femininity. Together, they exemplify that females are “marked” as pretty, sexualized, and passive.

In 1990 Judith Butler first published her book Gender Troubles, where she questions gender roles. Butler theorizes that gender, as in male and female, is a type of societal/gender colonialism created to keep people who do not fall within the gender roles from being part of the mainstream society. In her 1999 preface, in which she addresses the impact her book had in the decade since its original publication, Butler expresses the concern she had with the “heterosexual assumption in feminist literary theory (61).” Butler utilizes the works of other feminist philosophers to further demonstrate the inconsistency, and disconnect between fighting for women rights and fighting for human rights. Judith Butler makes an interesting argument on the failure to recognize the spectrum of gender, however, she makes a compelling argument on the use of language perpetuating a patriarchal society.

While he waits “at a traffic light,” he “catches his eye [on] a tall girl in a black leather skirt” (Coetzee 194). She is mere stranger on the road, yet he is confident in being able to immediately hook up with her. The way he looks at women, reflects how they are displayed as animals and sexual bodies waiting for someone to catch them and because this occurs frequently, the idea of female bodies being dominated and constructed through male ideology becomes naturalized and accepted as a norm in society. It is evident that though all women do not become prostitutes because they enjoy the idea of it, there is this acceptance of the gender binary, where women choose to transform themselves into this sexualized character that seeks attention and is submissive to the man. Monique Wittig highlights the idea of categories in her text, “One is Not Born a Woman.” She agrees with Coetzee’s representation of the male and female roles and says that “for “woman” does not exist for [them]: it is only an imaginary formation” created by men (Wittig 15). Wittig explains that the category of “women” goes beyond the biological genes and outer appearance. It is something that is created not to make women feel good about themselves or to give them certain types of privileges, but it is a socially constructed idea that subject’s women into a certain type of character that benefits men. She goes on to say that “Once the class “men” disappears, “woman” as a class will disappear as well, for there are no slaves without masters” (Wittig 15). Consequently, the class of “women” is created in response to “men,” where if the category of “men” did not exist, then women would not be so restricted in the things that they are allowed to do and they would not have to live a life trying to satisfy men in order to