Judith Butler's Gender Trouble

When determining what color outfit to buy a newborn, one must color code according to the gender; pink for girls and blue for boys. If one stops to think, one wonders about the origin of this distinction; it must lie in the gender. According to her book, Gender Troubles, Judith Butler defines gender as a cultural construct with defining features that must be followed, which is distinct from sex, a biological attribute. Consideration toward such "consequences", must be acknowledged, such as described by Nicholas Krist and Sheryl Wudunn in their book, Half the Sky Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, where a woman bravely stands up to her male oppressor and receives support. As portrayed in Half the Sky, gender is a role forced …show more content…
In her book “Gender Trouble”, Judith Butler identifies the oppressing factor about gender. Butler asserts, “But the subjects regulated by such structures are, by virtue of being subjected to them, formed, defined and reproduced in accordance with the requirements of those structures” (12). Not only does gender dictate the characteristics of male and females, it does not provide any possibility of those subjected to realize their subjection for that’s the oppression that they have created for themselves. One will only realize the oppression of gender through education, but by then, the conflicts presented mentally and externally are already present; subjugation by this form is therefore unending. One internally struggles with the notion of gender, as it holds society down to a standard of categories called male and female. Also, there is no in-between when it comes to gender, it is a binary as stated by Butler, making it impossible to a full person, able to experience all degrees of emotion or activity because there is such a mental segregation. One will lie about their beliefs so that they can conform. They also struggle externally, striving to seek recognition from others in their conforming