Up@dawn 2.0

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Identity, by Judith Butler

Postedfor Cong Nguyen #3
When we are asked to name a philosopher, we immediately think of Plato, Aristotle, and/or Socrates – the mainstream, most-talked-about, and ancient dead guys. Although all three philosophers undoubtedly contributed to today’s global culture in many ways, I, for one, think it’s tiring to hear names when it comes to philosophy. Nonetheless, there is a philosopher that I think everybody should be familiar with: Judith Butler. Butler is best known for her theories on gender and sex. Though Butler is considered mainstream in the media and academia, she is certainly not dead nor a guy. 
Judith Butler was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on February 24, 1956. Butler attended Yale University where she successfully earned a bachelor, a master, and a doctorate in philosophy. She specifically trained in German idealism, phenomenology (study of consciousness and experience), and social theory at the Frankfurt School. So far, she has written a total of 14 fourteen books, but one of them defined her career and revolutionized genderism in the 21st century.

Butler’s published work in 1990, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, received much controversy in that it suggests gender binary to be a mistake. Yet, Gender Trouble is Butler’s most influential book as it marked the era of new feminism, which promotes integration of the sexes and gender equality rather than superiority of men over women or women over men. The book preaches that by forcing the idea that there are only two definite groups of sexes, men and women, individual identity is then limited; thus, there would only exist gender roles set by society and no room for identity freedom. Butler believes the problem of gender inequality is attributed by the definition of a woman, and that women is not a homogeneous group but each individual is unique according to their attitudes, habits, and situations.
Image result for gender cartoon
Butler’s philosophy includes queer theory in which she believes a person can’t be identified on the basis of only one characteristic – for example: gender. This is similar to her stance on women in that each person has various characteristics to their personality that all attribute to his/her identity, which isn’t constricted to gender.

I strongly agree and inspired by Butler’s philosophy especially her perspectives on gender and identity. Butler’s work is essential to today’s discussion on gender equality, gender fluidity, transgenderism, etc. Undoubtedly, there is controversy on gender fluidity and the likes that contributes to much hate and violence. This is due to society’s definition of gender roles that limits the boundaries of identity to only innate groups dictated by biology. As children, we were taught that uniqueness is good, and it’s what we should aspire towards. However, the social construct of binary gender makes uniqueness impossible to achieve in that it doesn’t allow one to have complete freedom in forming his/her identity without prejudice and discrimination. I think as long as social constructionism exists, gender among other things continues to be under siege, even if and when gender roles cross boundaries as allowed by society.

There is a Netflix documentary on gender from sociology class that was all educational, eye-opening, and fascinating; 10/10 would highly recommend – “Gender Revolution: A Journey with Katie Couric”
Related image

2 comments:

  1. I agree with you that it's boring to hear numerous ancient philosophers and how monotonous it can get when hearing about them. Therefore, I love how you brought up Judith Butler. I feel like people forget that women can be philosophical as well as men can. It is very important to recognize how gender is portrayed in today's society/culture. I also think it is good to insert your perspectives on how you think the world would be if everyone thought the way Judith does about gender and identity. Also, how her philosophy affects you personally and how people can tie it into their every day lives as well. This post was very interesting!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Judith Butler is a terrific contemporary philosopher, but I don't think she'd agree that Plato, Aristotle, et al are "boring"... in any case, gender equality is an idea whose time is long overdue, and recognition for the excellence of thinkers like Butler is too. She had a timely essay in the Stone blog not too long ago-https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/12/whats-wrong-with-all-lives-matter/

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.