Essay on Judith Butler and Postmodern Feminism

There are three main sections to a literary interaction, which are emphasis on the text, emphasis on the source and emphasis on the receiver. Under emphasis on the receiver there are several different critical approaches including feminist criticism. Feminist criticism focuses on the critique of female writers, the role of female characters, and how those roles are portrayed by their characteristics and often demeaning actions. In “A Rose for ‘A Rose for Emily,’” Judith Fetterley states that “A Rose for Emily” is a “story of a woman victimized and betrayed by the system of sexual politics, who nevertheless has discovered, within the structures that victimize her, sources of power for herself” (Fetterley 745). The

The wife is at home with the kids and the husband goes to work. Women are the ones who were seen to cook, clean, and take care of everyone else. Did anyone ever wonder if women were truly happy being a housewife 24/7? That idea was one of the factors that lead for Betty Friedan to write “The Feminine Mystique”. The book was was published in 1963. She talks about how women were unsatisfied with their daily lives. In the book, she states, “Sometimes a woman would say "I feel empty somehow ... incomplete." Or she would say, "I feel as if I don't exist." The problem was that many women felt they had more to offer besides being a housewife. Women were so into their families that they don’t have time to truly think about their happiness. So where did she get this information to write the book? In the article , “Betty Friedan” by Mario Kaplan from the Jewish Women’s Archive website, it states , “In 1957, she surveyed two hundred of her Smith College classmates and found that many of them suffered from “the problem that has no name.” Betty Friedan was also a psychology student at Smith College. She was one of the first women to actually speak and write about “ the problem with no name”. She wrote an article in Good Housekeeping with the title “ Women

Towards the end of the twentieth century, feminist women in America faced an underlying conflict to find their purpose and true meaning in life. “Is this all?” was often a question whose answer was sought after by numerous women reaching deeper into their minds and souls to find what was missing from their life. The ideal second-wave feminist was defined as a women who puts all of her time into cleaning her home, loving her husband, and caring for her children, but such a belief caused these women to not only lose their identity within her family but society as well. The emotions that feminist women were feeling at this time was the internal conflict that caused for social steps to be taken in hopes of

A postmodernist world demands equality. One of the hot topics in the news today is, “Should the military require women to register for the draft?”. Women want equality but this one question sparks a heated debate on both sides. Over the years women have cried foul, starting the feminist movement in which they demand equality between genders. Some feminists object to the biblical and traditional name by which the Trinity is designated – “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” – as implying a male deity. Some churches have found the cry of the feminists plausible and have changed the premise of the Trinity to “Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer”. John Wesley, one of the co-founders of the Methodist, anticipated the inadequacy of such a formula as “Creator,

James Patterson is an American novelist. James was born on March 22nd, 1947, in Newburgh, New Jersey. James is the son of Isabelle and Charles Patterson. James graduated Summa cum laude with a B.A. in English from Manhattan University and a M.A. in English from Vanderbilt University. James is married to Susan Patterson, and has one son Jack Patterson. James has written 147 novels since 1976, and has 114 New York Times bestselling novels and holds a record for the most #1 New York Times. James has sold around 305 million copies of his novels

In reading “Feminist Theory From Margin to Center” exposes the consideration that feminism is not equal for all women. The book seems to imply that feminism was created for the middle-class white woman. “Feminist Theory From Margin to Center” quotes the author Betty Friedan famous phrase "the problem that has no name" this phrase is used to describe the conditions of white women and referred to these women’s plight in life.

So would Judith Butler have cause to challenge gender as it relates to Helen Frankenthaler and the Abstract Expressionism movement, certainly. It is also apparent that there wouldn’t be a cause if gender expression, even deconstruction itself, did not rely on polar opposites. There is evidence to suggest that Helen Frankenthaler’s works are inherently feminine. This is due to gender constructs as told by Judith Butler. It is hard to know if Frankenthaler actively worked in creating the soak stain technique of painting as an expression of her

Butler puts focus on the myth of heterosexual integrity and breaks with the traditional concept of sexuality within society (Salih 93). According to the myth of heterosexual integrity, people are born with a biological sex which automatically constitutes their gender (Loidolt) . Furthermore, it is natural that the object of desire is the opposite sex. The famous feminist denies this view and argues that we are not born with a certain gender, but it is socially constructed by society and especially through media and cultural practices (Salih 91). Hence, the role of men and women in society is not predetermined but their behavior is made up and intensified by society. Butler defines gender as “the repeated stylization of the body, a set of

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

This paper will be presenting a position paper focusing on the debate whether we are living in a post-feminist period in which gender is no longer a major barrier to equity. The paper will utilise feminism theory through use of article to create an argument to support this debate. It will also incorporate some compelling case justifying the researcher’s position.

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.

Perception of the Female in the Modern Era: Gender Identity and the Act of "Becoming" in Cindy Sherman's History Portraits

"People who are liberal thinkers have been enslaved by these poseurs, these racketeers, people who are pretending to be liberal but who are in fact just naïve politically. I have been congratulated by women...who are so sick of being bullied by these sanctimonious puritans who call themselves feminists." --Camille Paglia

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.

It seems fitting that the 'marriage' of feminism and postmodernism is one fraught with both difference and argument. The fact that these disagreements occur within the realm of the intellectual undoubtedly puts a wry smile on the face of either party. While feminism and postmodernism share several characteristics, most notably the deconstruction of the masculinised western ideology, feminism chooses to place itself within the absolutism of the modernist movement. While feminism argues for the continuation of the subject/object dichotomy, aiming largely to reverse the feminine position of the latter to the former, postmodernism would have the modernist movement deconstructed in its entirety, including