Judith Butler Constructed Identity Summary

Gender can be defined as “sex roles” which are conditions that one considers to be for men or women. People tends to mistake it with sex or thinks that they are both the same. We discussed about the patterns of gender which how the authors of The Kaleidoscope of Gender describes it as “regularized, prepackaged ways of thinking, feeling, and acting” (Spade and Valentino,2017). It becomes an identity for us. We believe that there is and can only be two genders, being masculine for men and feminine for women. These roles has been forced onto us since birth: blue for boys, and pink for girls. You can see the roles being push onto a person throughout one’s life, but we don’t notice it since it’s “normal” to us.

Gender is actually a set of rules, customs and traditions assigned to people of a particular sex. Gender is not biological but sex is. Rather, according to Lorber, it is influenced by our society and our culture. By proving this claim, Judith Lorber has put forth the example of the man and this example is efficient in distinguishing “gender” as a practice than as an innate attribute.

What does it mean to be a woman or man? Whether we a man or a woman, in today’s society it is not determined just by our sex organs. Our gender includes a complex mix of beliefs, behaviors, and characteristics. How do you act, talk, and behave like a woman or man? Are you feminine or masculine, both, or neither? These are questions that help us get to the core of our gender and gender identity. Gender identity is how we feel about and express our gender and gender roles: clothing, behavior, and personal appearance. It is a feeling that we have as early as age two or three. In the article, “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meaning of Gender,” the author, Aaron Devor, is trying to persuade his readers that gender shapes how we behave because of the expectation from us and relate to one another. He does this by using an educational approach, describing gender stereotypes, and making cultural references. He gets readers to reflect on how “Children’s developing concepts of themselves as individuals are necessarily bound up …to understand the expectations of the society which they are a part of” (389). Growing up, from being a child to an adult is where most of us try to find ourselves. We tend to struggle during this transition period, people around us tell us what to be and not to be, Jamaica Kincaidt in her short story, “Girl” tells just that, the setting is presented as a set of life instructions to a girl by her mother to live properly. The mother soberly

Performance exists first, then gender. Gender does not occur from an internal essence. We as a society, are unable to acknowledge that we’re performing our gender, we believe it’s inherent. Performance is learned by what is already historically dictated as gender and is acted out by the individual through performance of the body. The act of doing one 's body comes from history that is shared and developed over time. Butler argues that gender is

Judith Butler (Gender Trouble, 1990) argues that rather than sex determining gender-gender determines sex. Sex is shaped by gender discourses which give us scripts to perform according to whether we are biologically classed as male or female. The continual performance of these scripts on a daily basis is what makes us male or female. The classic example of this is the third sex, yes, the third sex and that is the transgender( born male in a female’s body 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

Judith Butler’s essay, “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” calls for a new way to view sex and gender. Butler argues that “gender identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo”. In this case, gender is not constituted by what one is, but rather what one does; the performative acts constitute gender. In other words, gender is not the starting place; it is an identity repeatedly constructed throughout time. Butler is trying to show us a feminist perspective of sex and gender. She attempts to follow Beauvoir’s path in a fight against society norms.

According to J.L. Austin, all speech is performative. Therefore, the speeches are both performative and performances as displays of verbal artistry. Expounding on Austin’s ideas, Judith Butler claims that gender is an action, something one does. In the first speech, if I assume that the speech is being delivered by a woman about women’s rights, then the speaker’s performance also embodies the performativity of gender. She uses the relevance of her gender-identity to attempt to drive a social movement that may not necessarily redefine her gender, but will certainly change the social status and perception of women in general.

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.

In this essay I discuss that "doing gender means creating differences between girls and boys and women and men...." (West & Zimmerman 2002:13) I am concentrating on the female perspective, how societyputs forth expectations of what is 'natural' or biological even though, in some cases, it can be quite demeaning and degrading. I am using some examples from the local media and also a few childhoodexperiences that have helped me to now strongly suspect that the quote from Simone Beauvoir (1972) "One is not born a woman, but rather becomes one" most likely has quite a bit of truth to it.

Judith Butler’s approach in “From Undoing Gender” lets the audience see a different side of opinions regarding gender. Judith’s presence and way of speaking lets us look at things in a way we never had before. She demonstrates her way of thinking, acknowledges other peoples ways of thinking and also goes outside the box in creating her own definition of undergoing gender.

Her essay deals with the conceptual presence of gender within society that functions as the primary element in expected behavioral roles. Drawing upon previous philosophic and psychoanalytic thought, Butler espouses a theory rooted in the concept of social agents that "constitute social reality through language, gesture, and all matter of symbolic social sign." (Butler 270) Butler asserts that gender is not based on an internal identity or self-definition, but rather on perceptory, reflective notions of performances. Gender itself, in its unstable temporality, is defined by Butler to be "an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts"--an ephemeral performance from which social constructs are formed. (Butler 270) In this analysis, Butler establishes the notion of gender as an abstracted, mass perception which is rendered concrete by the fact of its common acceptance. It is a shared reality of the public, it's existence is a consequence of society's mutual acknowledgment. In this light, Butler describes the concept as being purely temporal--the appearance and perception of gender constitutes its reality. As a result, the examination of gender construction is the examination of its performative, perception-based manifestation. Upon breaching the collective assumption of the actuality of gender, its mutual acceptability is undermined, rendered unstable, and therefore, non-existent.

“Performative utterances do not describe but perform the action they designate” (Culler 96), and the repetitive assertions from the white man placed upon the black man results in him being inferior. The white man’s performativity about Butler’s idea of gender trouble, that gender, sexuality and biological makeup are not correlated. It also refers to oppressions of genders that do not fit the norm of society. For Butler gender acts “as a strategy for survival within compulsory systems, gender is performative with

Therе arе mаny wаys in which tо exаmine the cоncept оf gеnder. Mаny pеоplе simplу detеrmine gеnder as a divisiоn intо mаle аnd femаle but it becоmеs mоre difficult with theоry. In Judith Butler’s Performative Acts and Gender Constitution she says that gender is an act that is repeаted, reеnacted and re-еxperienced (Butler, 1988:906). It is a performance that is impоsed to individuаls by mаny outsidе sоurces thrоughout histоry such as the sоciety. She аlso аdds that sоciety mоlds us into how we view “men” and “women” shоuld act or behavе. We wеre raised to behаve in cеrtain wаys that оur pаrent’s beliеve were traits of a prоper lаdy or a gentlemаn becаuse they too, were rаised with the same understаndings.

Juliet Mitchell concurs with Butler's view in her critique; Psycho-analysis and Feminism (1974), where she attempts to show that "gender is constructed rather than biologically necessitated" and sees importance be place upon identifying the "precise developmental moments of that construction in the history of gendered subjects." This is similar to Butlers demand for a genealogical inquiry into gender construction. Butler draws on Jean Paul Sartre's essentialism; "existence precedes essence", and Simone de Beauvoir's concept that "One is not born, but rather becomes a woman." Judith Sargent Murray argues that when born we are "tabula rasa"; a blank slate, therefore concurs with the idea that one is not born a woman; our gender is constructed. Donna Haraway adopts Murray's concept later, suggesting we rid of our cultural baggage and accept our identity's as hybrid. In her feminist discourse Butler maintains this idea that a sense of `womanness' is not prescribed at birth, but is in fact constructed by society through experience and life. Gender is not something you are but something you do; "gender, sexuality and the self do not exist before they are performed in a social context." Butler's `Gender Trouble' seeks to discover, however if there is "some commonality among "women."..independent of their subordination by hegemonic, masculinist cultures?" Butler questions if there are, perhaps certain natural elements that are "specifically