Judith Butler's Critique Of Feminism Essay

Contemporary feminist theory has established that gender is a social construct, but Judith Butler takes this a step further and says that if gender is a social construct then sex is too. A quote that says this somewhat clearly is “Gender is the repeated stylization of the body, a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of a natural sort of being (33).” What I got from this was that famous Judith Butler idea of how gender is performative. So this repeated behavior of what is feminine or masculine makes it so that it is seriously believe that is what is meant to be a man or a woman. From day 1 if you have a vagina you are put into a pink blanket, and given gifts that are categorized as feminine. If you’re born with a penis you’re given a blue blanket, and if you clench your fist you suddenly become a future boxer. She uses this idea to critique feminism basically saying that a movement that …show more content…
Butler’s critique of feminism and it’s focus on women doesn’t sink well with me. I believe that is is way to say that what may have been decided by society to be female is wrong, and if we were to move into a feminist movement where we reject these gender performances, what would become the norm, what would be told we are becoming. When a dominant group is in a position of power they are not willing to give up their position. I don’t see how women rejecting what is considered to be feminine or what is essentially considered to be societies definition of a woman would be beneficial for a movement that is centered around making what was/is still considered feminine. I think that using the term feminine and identifying as a woman should be empowering, rather than believed to be something we need to move away