Judith Butler is a prominent American philosopher and feminist theorist. She has been influential in the development of gender studies, queer theory and ethics. Judith Butler’s work has been influential in part because it challenges traditional ideas about gender and sex. In particular, Butler’s work on gender performativity has helped to open up new ways of thinking about gender and its relation to power.
Philosopher’s first book, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990), was particularly influential in this respect. In this work she argues that gender is not just a matter of biology or cultural norms; instead, it is something that we perform and act out as we go through our lives. This means that there is no single fixed form of what it means to be male or female; rather there are a variety of ways in which gender can be expressed – many of which are not accepted by mainstream society.
Butler’s theory of performativity can be applied to sexuality too. She argues that heterosexuality is not simply a matter of who you choose to have sex with, but also how you behave towards other people and how other people react towards you. This means that rather than seeing heterosexuality as an essential category we should see it as something created through certain acts (such as kissing another person).
