Judith Butler Informativity

In “ Performing Gender Identity: Young Men’s Talk and the Construction of Heterosexual Masculinity” by Deborah Cameron portray a very controversial theory in which Judith Butler discusses the idea of gender performativity. Butler clearly states that gender must constantly be reaffirmed and publicly displayed for gender rules to be maintained. This excerpt hints to the main idea illustrating that one’s sex is biological, but gender is constructed, learned, and performed. The main idea behind the term gender performativity is that, gender itself exists only as it is established and repetitively performed in society.

On June 26, 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled that the US Constitution guarantees the right for same-sex couples to marry. Many conservative groups do NOT agree with this decision. The gay marriage debate has been simmering for as long as I can remember. The four articles I have selected give information from four different perspectives including that of liberals, conservatives, homosexuals, and orthodox Jews. With so many differing opinions, one can understand why it's been so hard for the nation to come to agree on this issue.

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

“Doing gender” refers to how a person communicates their gender identity. Gender can be “done” in a countless number of ways, both verbally and nonverbally. Some examples of this include speech, appearance, career, leadership style, and even handwriting. The study of communication and the study of gender are closely related. Communication works in a way that allows people to construct, perform, and change gender, but it also has the ability to constrain a person’s

Gender is one of the most prominent features of a human being and not enough people pay attention to the development of such delicate trait. Our gender contributes a lot to our daily lives. Whether we are shopping or talking to somebody, people act differently based on your gender. Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet wrote just about this peculiarity in their article “Learning to be Gendered”. Penelope Eckert’s and Sally McConnell-Ginet’s article exposes some things that define a boy as a boy and a girl as a girl.

A metamorphosis in how the American judicial system perceives same-sex marriage, has developed over the past forty years. In October, 1971, the Supreme Court ruled that: "The institution of marriage as a union of man and woman, uniquely involving the procreation and rearing of children within a family, is as old as the book of Genesis.”

The legalization of gay marriage has been a controversial issue in many state courts since the mid 1970s. Gay marriage scares many people because it strays from the norms of heterosexual relationships. Traditional American ideals have become a part of culture and society that everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, or race, or gender, expect to have as a basic human rights. Several times in history these have been identified as inalienable rights. One of the expected rights of many American citizens is the right to choose who they love, who they marry, and how they live their day to day life. When heterosexual Americans were introduced to the idea of same sex marriage, they became afraid that it would “taint the minds of the young members of the community,” since homosexualty was and still is frowned upon in the community. Thus, the homosexual community’s opportunity to freely choose how to live their life is taken

Gay marriage should not be recognized, similar to the opinion of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in the case of United States versus Windsor. Antonin Scalia argues, “The Court’s ruling in the United States versus Windsor would wrongly invalidate state efforts to limit lawful marriage to opposite-sex couples”. In this paper, I will explain the legal and constitutional reasoning on why same-sex marriage shouldn’t be legalized nationally.

When it comes to Butler and based on her essay that we studied “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” where she introduced the term of gender performativity and based it on a feminist phenomenological outlook and suggested that this is based on experiences that we live. Butler accepts the notion of a "distinction between sex, as biological facticity, and gender, as the cultural interpretation or signification of that facticity". (Butler, Judith (1988). "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory".

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.

These perceptions dictate our gender and how we interact with that gender in everyday life. Because, gender is performative, every component of our lives feeds into this performance, and I believe it is interesting to analyze these performances and the way society reacts to them and also how these performances create a binary sex as a natural thing.

Same sex- marriage is still the topic of many peoples conversation across the country. Citizens, divided by politic party, are very passionate about how they feel about it. The president didn’t approve of it at first, but now he finally accepts same- sex marriage, the Judicial System uses its power to dictate to the States, forcing them to accept same- sex marriage. Both houses of Congress continue to debate what marriage means.

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.

This statement suggests that if you were to disregard the scripts that are assigned to each gender, something different might come to be. In summary, the theory of gender performativity highlights that gender performance is habitually and continually acted and performed on a daily basis in everyday life and gender does not have to be depicted by the set regulations of society.

Individuals slowly realize, as well as companies that it is a suitable to instate same-sex benefits to same-sex spouses; in the same way, traditional marriages are receiving benefits. Several of the employment benefits that our federal government provides to its employees and their families remain tied to a person’s marital status. Employers who offer benefits for domestic partners support an employee of culture, diversity, and social acceptance, which can be used as a marketing tool for the company. In light of the changes to the state law 's meanings of weddings, and the probability that such changes will continue to occur, companies can and ought to study their current advantage arrangement archives to guarantee that benefits are