Judith Butler: Your Behavior Creates Your Gender | Big Think

Judith Butler: Your Behavior Creates Your Gender
New videos weekly: bigth.ink/youtube
Join Big Think+ for exclusive videos: bigthink.com/p...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nobody is born one gender or the other, says the philosopher. "We act and walk and speak and talk in ways that consolidate an impression of being a man or being a woman."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Judith Butler is a post-structuralist philosopher and queer theorist. She is most famous for her notion of gender performativity, but her work ranges from literary theory, modern philosophical fiction, feminist and sexuality studies, to 19th- and 20th-century European literature and philosophy, Kafka and loss, mourning and war.
She has received countless awards for her teaching and scholarship, including a Guggenheim fellowship, a Rockefeller fellowship, Yale's Brudner Prize, and an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award.
Her books include "Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity," "Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex," "Undoing Gender," and "Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable?"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIPT:
Question: What does it mean that gender is performative?
Judith Butler: It’s one thing to say that gender is performed and that is a little different from saying gender is performative. When we say gender is performed we usually mean that we’ve taken on a role or we’re acting in some way and that our acting or our role playing is crucial to the gender that we are and the gender that we present to the world. To say that gender is performative is a little different because for something to be performative means that it produces a series of effects. We act and walk and speak and talk in ways that consolidate an impression of being a man or being a woman.
I was walking down the street in Berkeley when I first arrived several years ago and a young woman who was I think in high school leaned out of her window and she yelled, “Are you a lesbian?”, and she was looking to harass me or maybe she was just freaked out or she thought I looked like I probably was one or wanted to know and I thought to myself well I could feel harassed or stigmatized, but instead I just turned around and I said yes I am and that really shocked her.
We act as if that being of a man or that being of a women is actually an internal reality or something that is simply true about us, a fact about us, but actually it’s a phenomenon that is being produced all the time and reproduced all the time, so to say gender is performative is to say that nobody really is a gender from the start. I know it’s controversial, but that's my claim.
Question: How should this notion of gender performativity change the way we look at gender?
Judith Butler: Think about how difficult it is for sissy boys or how difficult it is for tomboys to function socially without being bullied or without being teased or without sometimes suffering threats of violence or without their parents intervening to say maybe you need a psychiatrist or why can’t you be normal. So there are institutional powers like psychiatric normalization and there are informal kinds of practices like bullying which try to keep us in our gendered place.
I think there is a real question for me about how such gender norms get established and policed and what the best way is to disrupt them and to overcome the police function. It’s my view that gender is culturally formed, but it’s also a domain of agency or freedom and that it is most important to resist the violence that is imposed by ideal gender norms, especially against those who are gender different, who are nonconforming in their gender presentation.
Watch on Big Think bigthink.com/v...

[@bigthink]

Want to get Smarter, Faster™? Subscribe for DAILY videos: bigth.ink/SmarterFaster

[@undertheriverstone]

Want to get smarter faster? Do not listen to anti-feminists who shall wave the feminist flag and "perform feminism" rather than defend women's rights. Shame on "Big Think" for going with the stupid narrative in support of the abusive multibillion dollar gender industry.

[@johnsmith7140]

Your content is trash

[@joyce605]

If Butler can talk normally, why can't she write normally?! This is actually comprehensible.

[@maskman9675]

Lel. Perhaps the performance of the philosopher/sociologist requires more intellectual pompousness than the performance of the public intellectual.

[@plsarguewithme2665]

because it's academic

[@marcostorrestaboada5502]

what about Zizek xd

[@jamesoleary2476]

John Lo no she is uniquely good at saying very little while being pretentious

[@jamesoleary2476]

John Lo I'm read her works. There is very little intelligence evident. Interesting you don't actually have any concrete defense of her work

[@zfloyd1627]

Utter pseudoscience.

[@davidap257]

BULL***T

[@yarpenzigrin1893]

This is pseudo-scientific, pseudo-intellectual babbling that's completely detached from reality.

[@alsdyall]

Exactly.

[@ForeverNovemeber]

Imagine dedicating your life to something and end up like this.

[@gnosis8142]

It is based on a more Basic Principle ― that there are no Innate Properties to a Person. Which is ridiculous.

[@IAND-wg8fq]

oh my god she's a "professor"? 😅🤣😂😂😂😂😅🤣

[@bravetherainbow]

Lol the way she says "I know it's controversial, but that's my claim" in the weathered way of someone who's been making the same claim for like 20 years

[@fartinIutherking]

She knows she's wrong but it's hard for her to admit. This is what happens when you sit in an echo chamber for too long

[@bravetherainbow]

@@fartinIutherking is devoting your life to studying a subject the same as an "echo chamber"? do you think not bothering to learn anything new about anything makes you a better person?

[@fartinIutherking]

@@bravetherainbow Yes it is an echo chamber when you are studying something like gender completely discarding biology.

[@bravetherainbow]

@@fartinIutherkingIn what way is she "completely discarding biology"? What biological discoveries of the last few decades are you referring to exactly? What do biologists have to say about the language and roles of gender in history? I don't know much about advanced biological theories of gender, so please enlighten me.

[@bravetherainbow]

@jay did you bother to listen to the distinction she made between something being "performed" and something being "performative"? Because it sounds like you still think she means gender is faked. That's not what she means. She means it's actively carried out every day, like performing a task not like performing a play. I think she chose confusing language for it though.

[@sunshizzleyou]

Anybody else here because they couldn't get past the (first sentence) of one of Judith's writings so they were hoping KZbin could help.... yeah, that'd be me... :(

[@kingsleyenaboakpe2107]

Me too! 🤣

[@urielrodriguez2459]

@@kingsleyenaboakpe2107 The fact that you don't understad it does not mean that it's right, or complex. It means that you have to read some of the authors that influenced her. When you do it you will realizs that her theory is completely bullshit.

[@richjuin9504]

@@urielrodriguez2459 you just made a claim. You have to support said claim with actual facts and evidence and logical reasoning.

[@billsimms2511]

I was given one of judiths books and made it halfway through. It was nonsense

[@richjuin9504]

@@billsimms2511 again, this is weak reasoning. Someone can say the same about any and all academic research papers. Doesn't mean the academic work is inherently false.

[@samuelclemons508]

Are you effing nuts ???

[@kellyoradio5029]

More boring nonsense...

[@RandomDropUp]

I'm so annoyed I must read and write about this trash in college. College is a scam.

[@FreeTicketsX]

She comes across like she is smart, but doesn’t get the simplest things it’s crazy

[@wakawakawilly9365]

She managed not to say a darn thing. You've all been intellectually hoodwinked by a sophist. At least they don't teach this crap in college.

[@Jacob-ps5xl]

hilariously I'm watching this video because I'm writing an essay on the usefulness of gender performativity as a concept that informs understanding of gender. college is about writing critically anyways, if you can back it up with evidence then anything is a good point essentially.

[@gollum.norris7622]

She cant even Unserstand the simplest Things. Gender = Behaviours and social Role typical for one Sex. This social Role ist partly biologically and partly culturally constructed. If you behave atypical for your Sex, you don't behave as any gender. That doesnt mean you can make up your own. You either fit a gender Role or you don't. The mistake is to disconnect gender from Sex and biology. If you have a set of behaviour thats not linked to a Sex, its not a gender. So there are 2 Genders in that Sense. So the next Question would be: Can you choose your gender? Just as every other social identity, gender is negotiated with society. You can not choose ist yourself. The more you behave Like the opposite Sex, the more likely others are to recognise, that your behaviour would fit the opposite sex and treat you accordingly. But they will not act as If your dick fell off. Pronouns in Humans are linked to Sex, not to gender. Gender is nothing you'd need to Focus on. There is nothing wrong with behaving typical or atypical for your Sex. There is no value in breaking or sticking to gender roles. Just do what you want, but don't View everything from the genderperspective. Its useless and confusing, nothing more.

[@lauralairose5164]

She is mad as a box of frogs.

[@meatrackgames]

postmodern sophistry

[@notoriousadrian4369]

lol this is just ridiculous

[@GoPats37]

Im still confused about the difference between gender being "performed" versus gender being "performative"

[@alexsarullo3753]

Performed means gender is there before the performance. Performative means that gender is the performance itself (gender does not exist until it is performed)

[@halguy5745]

@300bpm "me no understand smart words so me thinks you are wrong"

[@PeymanMusic7]

@300bpm why are you so mad bro? Butler wouldn't be considered as one of the most genius thinkers of our time if what she said was bullshit.

[@cococandacraig3624]

300bpm maybe it would be warranted to think about it more than 1 second before discarding it out of hand? Ignorance is bliss enjoy!

[@killerhitman28]

Go to school, then. It means repetition

[@nolslifegren]

Is she pretending to be a man ?

[@GentlemanLife-Beyotch]

Ew

[@christianbolt5761]

Maybe we should called it No Think

[@lucaskenui6379]

gosh what a deeply depressing comment section

[@chaun1115]

Judith Butler in line with Big Think values: “There are probably forms of incest that are not necessarily traumatic or which gain their traumatic character by virtue of the consciousness of social shame that they produce.” Judith Butler

[@johnsmith7140]

😲

[@donm1612]

I had to look that up. She did say that, which is of course in line with the father of queer theory, Michel Foucault.

[@DMp-xp6mj]

She's absolutely right tho. In many cultures it was a normal phenomenon to marry cousins together ( sometimes even first cousins) whereas nowadays this is something unheard of

[@chaun1115]

- @@DMp-xp6mj, incest defender

[@davidsprouse151]

I can tell by the comments here that y'all don't know papa freud,

[@user-qk8vq2sm1n]

Absolute drivel.

[@drunkviggo7263]

Pure Gibberish

[@CH-sl1yd]

judith butlers gender is performative.

[@heliusfacenna4109]

Really? So what is Judith's gender, and where did you read their identification of self?

[@CH-sl1yd]

@@heliusfacenna4109 you missed the point.

[@heliusfacenna4109]

@@CH-sl1yd So are you going to make 'the point' more clearly...?

[@zachinse4228]

Disproven by modern neuroscience.

[@headspace7372]

Not really, though. AFAIK it is more in favor of 'performativity'? Prove me wrong by showing me the study where you know this from. (I am not a fan of Butler myself, but you can't just invoke science without basing your claim on actual scientific data.)

[@calebgrasse]

Damn I guess some random person on the internet has completely dismantled years of research and theory with a single sentence. Let’s give this man a standing ovation for his impeccable wit. You truly are the genius the world has been waiting for.

[@zachinse4228]

@@calebgrasse www.sciencedirect.com/journal/frontiers-in-neuroendocrinology/vol/32/issue/2 Here you go. Gender differentiated interests, sexual orientation, 'roles' etc. are not caused by socialization but by hormone exposure in utero, independent of sex.

[@zachinse4228]

@@calebgrasse For example, congenital adrenal hyperplasia causes female babies to produce unusually large amounts of male hormones. Despite appearing completely to be women and therefore being socialised as such, they overwhelmingly lean towards 'male' hobbies and interests.

[@alessiodattilo6987]

@@calebgrasse Years of research dedicated to what? Gender is multifactorial: it has been proven eith the David Reimer case, which I suggest you to look up. Behaviour does create some aspects of gender, but saying that gender is entirely a societal construct, is wrong. Even the human species is sexually dimorphic.

[@aidepaul534]

Three minutes of unsupported (and false) claims.

[@laylaw.4346]

Alright, so I've been reading this comment section for a while now and I keep hitting on the word 'propaganda'. But propaganda for what exactley? Please enlighten me, I'm puzzled.

[@Ashakat42]

Propaganda for the contingent of society that wants to tear it apart or in the common parlance to "queer" it.

[@georgenagy9766]

For a while I felt like I was a man trapped inside a woman's body ....and then I was born

[@Regulification]

George Nagy hahaha

[@malefeministgiangilo287]

We've had a listen Judith. No dice.

[@ikkirr]

you must have been a huge baby

[@PhaIIanxx]

That‘s gold. 😂

[@comfortablesofa]

Glad the academics are working on the tough problems, now that world peace and climate change is a thing of the past.

[@comfortablesofa]

@@sigiloXXX The timing of this tsunami of bullshit is somewhat irrelevant. This garbage "research" (not really research ... just someone pontificating) shouldn't be funded over better deserving programs. Just a bunch of entitled bullcrap

[@jaredpillow5403]

This lady is lost. Gender is not social. In fact, it’s actually not as complicated as these academics try to make it. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1)

[@Kaymen1980]

We are males and females behaving.. "Nonbinary" is nonsensical

[@athousandIQ]

What crap! Check Norman Finkelstein on wokeness...

[@GordonBrevity]

That guy burns so many bridges!

[@athousandIQ]

What do you mean? @@GordonBrevity

[@GordonBrevity]

@@athousandIQ Ah, I did a typo in my rely!

[@jamiedorsey4167]

I was a little surprised by the video. I'd heard Judith Butler's name in relation to current gender thinking. But here she actually moves in a different direction and says gender is socially created and reinforced rather than being something internal that one inherently understands.

[@newsduke]

Hey, that means Butler agrees with anti-trans right-wingers! That's not a good thing.

[@gnosis8142]

@@newsduke - this is Post-Modernism. They deny there is Any Nature to Anyone. Not that there are Different Natures.

[@carinaochoa2563]

It seems that most of the comments already got confused at the first step of differentiating sex and gender. Which I guess is understandable because 3 min is too little to explain her theory fully. To make it more understandable I will try to make a resume of my understanding of her theory, sorry for my english. First of all one should give a look into two concepts of Saussure... one, that no matter what we do we are always thinking within a system. For example, we cant imagine a new colour without distancing ourselves from all the other colours first, that means that we are not assuming a position outside of the "system of colours", we are still within the system. So, every type of "protest/alternative thinking" only finds meaning because of the conscious contrast and meaning of the other parts of the system. two, the triangle of reference....which means that when we see an object we perceive it as a whole but one needs to make oneself clear that there are different processes going on here: (1) the physical existence of the object.(2) the name we give to it. (3) the meanings and assumptions that we related to it. so, for example, "chair" ...chairs exist outside of language, the physical existence of what we call them has its own reason of existence in which the chair doesnt care what humans think of it, it just exists (1) . Then there is the name, in this example "chair" , language is a system of symbols, so we need expressions to refer to things (2). And then there are all those assumptions we relate to "chair" , that can be our knowledge about its potential materials that its made of, or also the knowledge that we use it to sit, that it can be usually found in dining rooms and so on, many many things. So, Judith Butler makes use of the thought line in which we need to be aware of (1) , the human physical body, (2) the name we give to divide its genitalia = "sex" and (3) gender as all the ideology and assumptions we relate to it. One should also take into consideration the concepts of Pierre Bordieu of Habitus and Praxis, in which Habitus is like the knowledge we got "programmed" with since we were little, and Praxis daily actions we do to replicate such "Program"...that can mean a lot of things, and its divided into many different categories and environments, for example food taste, based on what type of food habits your family had you are likely to replicate those in your further life and with your children, it is not a must obviously but life is full of those details. It also includes table manners, religion, or basic things like how to use a phone, how to react when we face stress, the way we express love or perceive love and so on. All that can be highly personal and individual but also goes further, it is a part on how society divides into poor and rich, or intelectual or not, or also how we create our perception of "foreigners" "nationalism" and also things like racism or sexism. We are born into a structure and based on how we are molded by that structure we then later replicate it with Praxis. Because a society is an alive thing that has the ability to adapt. We tend to think that society is something big and powerful and often ignore that its made of individuals like you and me. Also our identity tends to be formed based on differences...so, the white racist does discriminate against black people for example, not because of those persons inferiority but because of his attempt to try to establish him/herself as superior, so, by telling ourselves that "I am not x" one establishes that "I belong to this other category = I am this" (Stuart Hall) And then there is also Michel Focault with his Discourse. For him power is not a matter of hierarchy...instead its that what those complex social systems produce constantly in interaction to each other. So, power is omnipresent and not understandable directed by an individual. It also means that we are all below it. For example one might say that a president is above power because he owns it, but he was too below the structure of power that forced him to adapt to the "rules" of elections, or that he is below the social rules for a president of being for example extrovert (usually), or that he is expected to be smart and have good table manners, to be an excellent public speaker and so on...That whole combination of rules and concepts has many divisions and segments in which one reaction causes another one and so on. They are like chains of Discourse in which they give meaning to each other. And those Discourses do not follow some sort of strict Superior logic, they vary based on culture and also based on time. Different factors create different reactions and a society adapts to those changes of costums. One just needs to be aware how deep that goes, even things like for example punctuality, some cultures pay more attention to it than others. But that is also based on a combination of many small factors and one of them is a different individual/ cultural understanding of time that varies. That also leads to body perception...there were times in which being overweight was considered to be a sign of Beauty, tattoos and their social acceptance also vary. Based on how the outside demands are put on us by society we have a different perception of everything. And institutions for example create the effect of believing that the way we think is objective, that there is some sort of thought line that exists outside of subjective perception. So, now we come to Judith Butler...she is aware of all those and a lot more. She thinks based that, that when we think about gender (which is NOT the same as sex) we talk as if the body was like a chair in which whether it rains or snows the object does not get affected...But that is not true. Because there is not such thing as a human form before the formation of body, like, we cant freeze our brains. Because one essential side of human beings is their capacity to learn, to create an Habitus and we are what we learned to think. Based on that gender is a type of Habitus and we perform it daily and through that we create our identity through differentiating ourselves from each other by trying to create stereotypes or social rules that fit within that whole Discourse complex in which we live in. Now, gender is Performance and a social construct...again, we are not talking about sex here, and as we live within a system in which we cant fully escape it one might say that, sex is gender because as we are all anyway formed and created around it since we are born, it might be artificial but its still valid because its part of what we are or turned our minds into. And yes, that is true to some extent but our identity is based on many things more than that...the way of being "male/female" in one culture differs to the way of being "male/female" in another culture, your age also plays a factor, your grandmother has a different concept of "woman/man" than you do. Whether you are born as rich or poor, your skin colour also marks somehow how you are perceived by society and therefore how you perceive yourself, it marks your life and your identity. A person from the opposite sex than you who was born in the same social environment as you, who looks similar to you, same religion, Ideology and so on is more similar to you, your way of talking and everything than someone from your same sex who was born in another position of a social structure. So, we are born in a body and then turned into what we are through many many factors and sex is only one of them, a minimal fragment in a combination of thousands of details that we are constituted of. But for some reason we keep talking and thinking as if that one difference defines everything we are. We have incorporated in our mind that there are two type of subjects, male and female, and that everything else are atributes, like race, social class, hobbies, nationality and so on. Butler tries to bring up the concept about that we should perceive sex as an atribute as well, That there is only one human subject with many different atributes and not some sort of core that depends on your sex. Based on that we also wouldnt try to discriminate people for not fitting into their "gender" standard for example. More liberty to try to understand ourselves as complex creatures and not a mix of boxes. I am just a cultural anthropology student and we didnt study this subject thaaat well either so I am sorry if I mixed up some of the details around the terms or intentions of the respective philosophers.

[@alinastefana4138]

There is the option to have in mind Butler's rhetoric while also disagreeing and ask: ok, what would be the alternative? I would say education is the solution, but not a biased education, as in the one offered at most universities where you can nit-pick only the convenient parts and go march for Marxism. I think Butler is not fully aware of her appeal to activist youngsters who haven't read and learned enough simply because of...well...time. Categorization has been there before civilization, simply because people always need a way to simplify the complexities of the surrounding world, regardless of the culture they belong to. That's why we have archetypes in mythology and that is why we have stereotypes all around us. It is not something evil, it is just something natural. Psychologist Gordon Allport made a clear stance for "in-groups" and "out-groups". If you delete one form of categorization, another one will be formed instead. Allport also noticed that strict equalitarian values or any other strict values, regardless of their good intentions, can lead to prejudice against any "out-group" that disagrees. And if we look at the current academia, we find ourselves in echo chambers of social justice. That is not progressivism. I will end my stance by saying that, in theory, many ideas are perfect, tempting, interesting and may seem applicable. When putting them to practice, however, they don't work. In real life, we are humans. And I think this is the biggest error when reading Butler. Not distinguishing between theory and practice. And I could go further and state that this is the biggest error in the field of humanities and social sciences. Dismissing reality in favor of idealism. Which in return backlashes through this snowflake reaction we see in universities...

[@rlarkin100]

"But for some reason we keep talking and thinking as if that one difference defines everything we are..." Who? I think no one does that or even thinks that way.

[@Neuroneos]

@300bpm Butler doesn't pretend to be a "real scientist" so she can't be accused of being a "fake" one.

[@scrufyonpanfu]

@Lewis C. you’re literally wrong stating that. gender and sex is different. go do your research. it’s literally on the world health organisation.

[@raspberryberet4544]

Seems to be contradictory. On the one hand gender is an inner sense of who you are and simultaneously it's socially constructed . People seem to have forgotten basic biology.

[@polish2x91]

How she made it this far without being found out for the fraud she is, is a real testament to how much the universities are socially engineering the culture

[@DeepStreamBits]

People seem to have forgotten basic logic

[@voltijuice8576]

It's almost as if people's inner life can be informed by external events and information! It's a feedback loop where we and the world are influencing each other.

[@ayanokojikiyotaka2413]

Wrong,In your simple minded language,Fuck gender norms I'll be what I want,It's my feeling of what I am, rather than norms being imposed on me,get it,I can create and change myself.

[@MediocreApologist]

plz don't comment unless you have an understanding of Foucauldian discourse. Thanks.

[@williamruth3544]

@D Maxson "filosofy is dooble spek me no read filosofer" crybaby

[@jbagger331]

So nobody gets to comment?

[@ReplyequalsNerd]

Sorry, I'm a dumbass that's read 1984 and watches joe rogan, I get to comment all the drivel I want

[@StreetfighterU]

Lol this is astrology for intellectuals

[@qncqn619]

1 will someone explain genetics to this lady 2 y is a literature prof talking about gender?

[@SmashingCapital]

You dont know what gender is watch the video

[@qncqn619]

The title of the video is "Your BEHAVIOR Creates Your GENDER" Sorry but genetics disagrees. You are born the way you are. No one gets to choose. I wish you would have read AND understood my comment before lashing out at a stranger simply for a difference of opinion. If you don't agree with my viewpoint that is your CHOICE, but don't get snippy at a complete stranger for it. Be a moral person and just agree to disagree. We don't have to agree to coexist.@@SmashingCapital

[@mycroftholmes7379]

Judith Butler's deconstruction of "gender" is absurd. She convolutes the idea of "personality" with "gender"....

[@shtfcker24]

gender is convoluted

[@laurentiumanolescu]

Overcomplicated shit with no meaning.

[@sashsash6679]

What she says has no scientific basis at all. Not very smart for a professor!

[@ApPillon]

Nah sonny, you're very wrong.

[@mlmoreno75]

Let’s play pretend!!! What a clown!

[@Aaron.T2005]

You can see the demons in her eyes… Sickening. This was played in my grade 12 English class! Abomination

[@daisy7066]

Identity isn't about "gender" ! That's the fundamental lie in all this. There also seems to be some confusion when it comes to assessing the play between environment and "choice", something she seems rather certain about. I'd like to hear more about the kin relations around these issues which one never hears about as if such people exist in a vacuum & their relational context has nothing to do with it, their family politics has nothing to do with it, yet some go as far as mutilating themselves - anything so as not to face up to their problems. Very irresponsible to see the medical profession colluding in this. There's also a problem with the idea of a "performative" gender, in the end there are women who have deep voices and sound like men and even behave in some ways like men but don't go as far as self identifying as such. Why would they need to? To go to the extremes of changing your physical body means something more troubling is happening. I've read JB claims that trans-critical feminists don't represent the feminist movement - and she does? The feminist movement isn't an academic movement it's a social movement, always has been.

[@whitneykeen3561]

I think gender is implicitly, or sometimes explicitly co-constructing with identity, until one’s sense of gender arrives as a meta-construction framing further identity development. In some families gender is imposed- that is, it is explicitly performative. Does that make sense?

[@Nomdecodezero]

Buuuuuulshit.

[@jordanthomas4379]

No, it’s biological

[@autumnrobertson8073]

To all of the people out there making ugly, cruel comments about Judith Butler, Calling her a man because she doesn't dress traditionally feminine just means she scares you. You're scared of being intellectually challenged by strong, intelligent women because you've been socialized to think they don't exist. But we exist and we're going to change the world. Find a better way to spend your time then commenting about how Butler is "ugly" or a "propagandist" because you're clearly afraid of what you don't understand.

[@zfloyd1627]

Judith Butler is a charlatan, not a "Strong, intellegent woman".

[@flukeskydiver]

Why is it that leftists always know the deep psychological processes of their opponents?

[@9hank]

This comment section is like a p-zombie sink strainer.

[@9hank]

I was going to delete this comment but then I reread some of the comments posted and decided it's a valid assessment.

[@9hank]

anonymous, posting one's emissions as opinions really doesn't count.

[@relaxingsounds1386]

Tide Pod eater

[@birouldoi1776]

Is this the well-known HamaSS lady?

[@yogi2436]

'Gender' now has become to have the same meaning as 'fashion', and fashion means something we can put on and take off as we wish, but wishing has never really made anything 'real', just as ideology has never made anything real , when viewed over time. Ideology contains spectacle, and spectacles never nourish and endure in life enhancing ways. All public shows of gender statements show a desire for increased power and desire for public acclamation. Public acclamation is addictive and requires an ever present audience, and audiences need to be fed by a constant stream of new fashion in order to create a new gender to live in. And on it goes...

[@mattng4707]

WOW and she gets paid for this?

[@markoristic7575]

Michael Douglas has some interesting philosphical views

[@derekgrossheider7207]

dude.... this is fucking hilarious

[@finngreen8192]

Oh my god, I choked😂

[@tachikomakusanagi3744]

I'm beginning to understand my ancestors attitude towards what they called witches. I think they might have had something there.

[@jsm3737]

Preach it, more REAL women for me. But do me a favor, AND STOP PREACHING THIS TO KIDS WHO STILL BELIEVE SANTA CLAUS IS REAL

[@Flintlock1776]

Absurdity on parade.

[@psycopathpsycho1790]

Care to elaborate? Id like to hear your counter-argument.

[@Flintlock1776]

@@psycopathpsycho1790 It doesn't matter how a person "performs." That person either has a dick or no dick. There are only two genders and men can't have babies.

[@moodrahkamite818]

What happened to "Born this way?"

[@orlabenlarsen1831]

she is crazy and so wrong

[@ryanformiles]

u look like jamie lannister n its good

[@seanieboi1234]

the only comment that sort of makes sense

[@thegod2291]

@@seanieboi1234 true , I mean when it comes to gender politics out brains die

[@sarahmouncher9360]

Isn't she just doing the same thing as the bully though? Just in a progressive sounding way. The bully says: "You're a girl, so act in a girly way" Butler says: "You're acting in a girly way, so you must be a girl" Shouldn't we stop putting people into boxes based on their behaviour or their gender expression? You can be a woman, and act as masculine or as feminine as you want. And same for men and non-binary people. In my view, your gender is an inner sense. I know that makes it hard to define and conceptualise, but not everything needs a concrete definition. The colour red, for instance. You could say something about light waves, perhaps. But you couldn't make a blind person truly understand what it means for something to be red. I think the same applies to gender. You can't explain what it is to be a woman, but if you are a woman then you 'just know' that you are one.

[@jamiedorsey4167]

I'm mostly on board with what you say. Though I still don't really understand the notion of gender being an inner sense divorced from the world. Isn't someone's conception of a man or a woman based in large part on the external definitions a culture uses? I feel like a man because of how I define being a man, which I get in large measure from my experience and the culture. I have a broad definition, I have many traditionally feminine characteristics, I could adopt a more narrow and traditional view of manhood and call myself non binary instead, but I don't because of the externally sourced definitions I choose to adopt.

[@notu1529]

No, she is not inversing the way of bullies, she is doing a meta-gender where she deconstructs what gender and human beings really are. Here, she states that gender is produced by the human senses and reason (mind) based on our physical attributes (biology), and this is an evolving phenomenon where our conception of gender changes or is not set in stone; it reproduces. To make a generalized conception of gender is imprecise because we are not considering every physical attribute that constitutes gender categories, and we still do not know every physical feature of gender. This is precisely why gender non-conforming people exist in our society with imprecise gender conceptions.

[@RobotPilots]

Her argument is not "you look like a girl, so you must be a girl" her argument is how a lot of what we perceive as gender norms are not internal or based in objective truth, but rather social standards, and with this we portray our (keyword: OUR, to assume autonomy) gender identity externally with the way we act and present.

[@Bangy]

If gender is performed and the world is a stage. Then these are the clowns.

[@celestialnubian]

Many problems in the world started with this "woman" and her ridiculous assertions.

[@rano12321]

No it doesn't.

[@Bibirallie]

Judith needs to distinguish gender and gender stereotypes and roles.

[@eldevenirdelostiempos9764]

This reminds me of the interview where an african anchor asks a gay activist why she's gay and she just answers "who says I'm gay" and the anchor is just confused.

[@sebastienriou6603]

y r u ge?

[@heatsink47]

@@sebastienriou6603 L G B T Q Where is da h?

[@sebastienriou6603]

@@heatsink47 da banana

[@parul6658]

😂😂😂

[@huzaifamalik7678]

it was a trans activist which is why the quesiton "are you gay" confused everyone if i recall correctly

[@antennawilde]

I miss the days when people were just straight or queer and nobody really gave a shit.

[@ophelia.7]

That's actually healthy imo. I simply call myself "queer" and no one asks me anything. It's none of anyone's business.

[@Hermenegilda77]

That‘s an insane lost lady telling only crappy nonsence she herself does‘t get

[@caramelunicorn8023]

Thing with bullying is not that they keep you in your gendered place. They make you feel like you'll never fit in with that ideal. Pretty messed up

[@Grokford]

That would seem to imply that the standard is incomplete and not the encompassing of gender that Butler implies. If gender is performance, then why are those who differ from that performance treated as inferior versions of the gender rather than something else entirely?

[@Theonlyukr]

back in my day when we didnt fit in we just did psyphadelic drugs and didn't do irreversible surgeries

[@lemonqvartz]

@@Theonlyukr claiming you're a different gender versus expressing yourself in a way despite being your gender are two different things.

[@lemonqvartz]

@@Grokford because other people have different ideas of what your performance should be, and if you have certain characteristics they expect you to act and identify a certain way.

[@alharrison1038]

Awful. It's the worst thing in the world.

[@CatharticCreation]

as a lifelong masculine woman that regularly dances between dressing feminine and masculine (like most women), i seriously do not believe this. even in my most masculine energy, i have always felt like a woman. it wasn’t learned, it was innate. and if it was learned, that’s like saying cats only know how to be cats because they take example from other cats. have them be raised by another animal and they’d behave like that animal. okay, true….they’re still a cat though, with mostly catlike characteristics! does this make sense?

[@leonsvoboda5059]

yes, it does. you describe the describe the difference between sex and gender.

[@Jacob-ps5xl]

Not to be pedantic but cats need to stay with their mother for the first 12-14 weeks of their life in order to learn how to be a cat, this is quite literally the point of parenting. Though I don't think cats particularly have a concept of taxonomy.

[@lonzo61]

@@Jacob-ps5xl Cats don't need to learn to be cats. They ARE cats. Parenting by cats or Homo sapiens is...particularly with cats, just a way to care for the youngster until they are independent. Certainly, with humans given that we are more complex than cats, means that there is more to raising a child than there is to raising a kitten by its mother. And certainly, raising a child means that the parents are instilling social norms and societal expectations to a greater or lesser degree to that child. But much of what we are as individuals is innate--which is to include our sexuality, among other things. And CatharticCreation ably made this point. Butler is clearly very androgynous, which gives her an interesting perspective. I think she makes a valid point or two, but she puts too much emphasis on gender in a way that makes it seem like it's mostly imposed on us. This and similar notions being taught in universities has wrought dangerous gender ideology and the resultant misguided and horrific "gender affirming care" being foisted on children. This is just one of the problems with modern progressivisim. It's why so many people are, rightly, opposing WOKE ideology to a greater and greater degree. These modern ideas about gender and all the baggage it has with it must be challenged. Trans women (men who claim to be women) should not be competing with women. This is yet another way that this gender sh*t is so off the rails. And a woman does not have a penis, and a man cannot simply claim to be a woman. And women breastfeed their offsrping--not men. And women get pregnant--not men. Sorry if I got a little too deep into the weeks here. Maybe your comment did not deserve this response. I'm possibly over-extrapolating.

[@michaelmcgee335]

Judith Butler is one twisted and dangerous individual.

[@Lebowski53]

Absolute bollocks. As ever, I blame the French.

[@GuitarCoverForMyself]

I never understood Butler to the core, I mean: Aren't there biological differences between man and female? Like genitals, hormones etc? Can someone help me? Would be greatly appreciated.

[@quadpad_music]

I think her thing is pointing out the difference between biological traits (sex) and the behaviors we assign to people based on them, via culture (gender).

[@ivtch51]

I refute what this lady says. Sure I appreciate that sexual roles and sexuality stereotypes are enhanced and encouraged by society in general or by groups within it. However I would insist there is such a thing called a gay soul. In the 60s and 70s, mainly in my teens, before I even knew there was a word called gay or homosexual I ALREADY KNEW there was something very different about me . For example I knew I had a crush on other guys and had no idea why. I KNEW that I could not act like other guys (eg have girl friends, play foot ball etc). It was an extremely lonely, confusing time. It felt like something was innately different inside me despite what overwhelmingly heterosexual society said. It is only later on that I came to give my sexuality a name and discover how to live it out in a meaningful, enjoyable and satisfying way. I find Christian fundamentalists have similar ideas of sexuality fluidity and so to them we choose to be sexuality sinful.

[@SahRookh]

Judith Butler is the most blockheaded individual

[@williamh5780]

Nothing more dull than ppl who are obsessed with their race, sex or sexuality.

[@joaogabriel1820]

William H well people wouldn’t be obsessed with this if being gay didn’t come with a life o violence and homophobia. the same goes for race and etc

[@aristoteles4723]

Redefining terms is not scientifically correct. Gender has always been the social term for Sex. So “man” is an adult male and “woman” is an adult female. Taking the term Gender and putting a different definition on it is illogical and shows the ideological and subjective intentions of the person who started it (it’s unknown when it exactly started). Gender and sex are interrelated, meaning that Sex lays the foundation for our gender identity (either “man” for males or “woman” for females) which is the norm for the majority of human beings. We don’t question it and we don’t even directly identify with it because it comes naturally. The word that should be used for the modern day definition of Gender is “gender expression”. So Sex lays the foundation for your gender identity and culture gives you the tools to create your “gender expression”. We mostly go with the norms of our societal time. Nobody in 2021 would dress like an Ancient Greek. So the gender expressions of men and women in 2021 are different than the gender expressions of men and women in the past. There are exceptions. You are still a man even if you like wearing dresses or you cry often while watching romantic comedies (like myself) or if you like ballet. ALSO there are exceptions like transgender and intersex people. Transgender people are still influenced by their biology because it is biological anomalies which makes them “feel” like they are in the wrong body. Hormonal imbalances also play a role. They are excused for wanting to live their lives as the gender that doesn’t (entirely) correspond to their sex. They are going through tough times and are worth all of our empathy. Nevertheless, we cannot create general norms for the human species out of a small minority of people which clearly has a biological anomaly (norms like “men can also get pregnant” or “trans-women are real women” are clearly false). Intersex people are also a small minority that we cannot create general norms for the human species from. A biological anomaly that is mostly created by foreign influences (for example chemicals) that alter their development in the womb. Mostly intersex people also align with one of the two genders (man/woman).

[@jayweh]

I don't really understand butler's point of performativity. for instance, as a kid I liked playing with cars and dolls. I built forts and played school teacher...so very mixed. I did like doing 'girly' stuff a little more. I am not interested in numbers, physics, electronics etc. and I think that is totally me feeling that. no one is forcing me into the role of a woman who loves talking more than staring into the tv scratching my belly so to speak. nor am I painting my finger nails all day or think about hairstyles and make up. I just don't feel like I am doing a gender someone forced onto me.

[@arnav8162]

I think you're mistaking discursive with coercive

[@2wheelz3504]

That is because you are not. You are being your sexed self and that is not gender. You have a sex and you are you behaving the way you are comfortable. You are not moving among genders. You are behaving according to the way you are made within your sex, and that has a significant amount of variety.

[@jayweh]

@@2wheelz3504 I'm "being my sexed self"? that sounds like nonsense. the best way to describe what I am is: I'm being me. with a variety of interests and behaviors. leave my sex out of it. what I have between my legs has zero to do with it.

[@jayweh]

@@2wheelz3504 I'm being my sexed self? that's nonsense. I being myself, regardless of what is between my legs.

[@katebutcher7132]

PEOPLE what Judith is saying is that "gender" is a social construct. She is using a word you have already assigned a different meaning to, let that go. SEX is male female, essentially your biological makeup, if you're born with a penis or a vagina. What she's saying is that from society and ourselves and this "phenomenon" around us, we believe that BECAUSE of our SEX we have to adopt certain traits. For example, you may have a penis but not CONFORM to all stereotypes such as enjoying football.. you may prefer a fashion show? Judith uses a brilliant comment "I have some friends who say "I would die if I had to wear a dress" some of those are men, some of them are women". Just because you're born with a vagina doesn't mean you have to do anything society tells you to, you don't have to wear dresses for example. Essentially Judith is freeing us of all constraints, basically shes saying do what you want! If you're against her then your for society controlling your identity.

[@anarcopinkobrasileru]

Kate Butcher Actually sex isn't a binary opposition, and you don't need to gender testicular/heterogametic or ovarian/homogametic. To call the sexes male and female is just as socially constructed, and also depend on cissexist/dyadist influences on science, academia and discourse. But overall, you're correct.

[@anthonypalka1169]

so if we reduce all of this to a single proposition, "society's control is broken by the actions of the individual," it becomes trivial & is hardly groundbreaking. does an academic discipline *really* need to be created in order to further our "understanding" of something that's a truism? I don't think so. indeed, there's certainly sociologists that have helped, but seldom does this occur on a national level. that's it. all the "performativity" in the world won't change the undeniable fact that men act like men & women act like women. the "left" & "right" are the same beast.

[@Andrea-ue7gv]

If the world didn’t go woke this lady would be mumbling this shizo nonsense in a strait jacket

[@Aaron.T2005]

In a Nunavut asylum

[@johnmarshall3481]

She’s wrong period

[@jonno.alexander]

This poor woman's legitimate questions have been so distorted by the very people who support it (intersecrionalists and their kin). The whole point of questioning gender expression was simply to avoid, as she stated, the "policing" of variance in expression, like manliness/femininity in one culture is different from another, and the social repercussions in straying from those gendered expressions should not be punished or socially persecuted and ostracized. A noble critique in my view. The IRONY is now is its modern, liberal educated supporters are now the police of anyone who resides on the ends of the spectrum: if you are too feminine, you are oppressed by the patriarchy, conversely, if you are too gendered in masculinity and Heaven-forbid, heterosexual, you ARE the patriarchy (and deserve the historical comeuppance due!!) And now supporters of the theory have gona as far as publicly shaming and bullying anyone outside of the minority expressions, poetically eating themselves from within. Shame that the pushback end result might be the discarding of gender performativity theory altogether. It was supposed to offer the student a mental exercise in creating awareness in variance of expression, not make them the judge and jury of it! It was a noble step in accepting variety in expression (in this case the expression of one's gender based on their sex) and the freedom one has of it, but it may have overstepped now...

[@Neuroneos]

@@_blank-_ A lot of big words for you to play around with.

[@Bradley_Lute]

Which is noble, but she is wrong. There is indeed a biological component to gender. Gender is partly cultural yes, but she seems to suggest that it is all it is. Which is kind of hurtful to people who feel very strongly that they are their true gender like classical cis people as well as classical trans people. Trans women have female looking brains. Their are sexed brains.

[@tom-dahl1598]

straight male here. i got bored of performing maleness. it's boringly restrictive. i take what i like now. it's better.

[@siobhanchristine-bligh183]

If you arent taking the piss, im genuinely glad to hear this because people should feel free to do whatever!

[@tom-dahl1598]

@@siobhanchristine-bligh183 yup, truth. just got tired of the nonsense.

[@dimelinlo9183]

Pseudo-intellect. People don't fall for this nonsense theories.

[@rosoursecret2932]

“Nobody is really gender from first time” YES because genders don’t mean SHXT..! Human species are distinguished by two sexes: female and male. And social fixation of each sexed bodies’ common traits are gender which is the same as gender stereotypes. What? If you act feminine then your “gender” is female? How any more sexist this claim can be?

[@bokutop.2067]

1) She says it's NOT acting or role-playing. She says it's different to say gender is performed and to say gender is performative. You didn't listen. 2) She said (but not in this movie) sex is also gendered.

[@ST-rm3bz]

The word “gender” was created in the original context that humanity gave to male and female. In the very meaning that if you are born with a penis, you are a male. If you are born with a vagina, you are a female. The same works for animals, no matter the prowess of a lioness or the candor of a male bird. If a woman wants to feel comfortable with your masculine looks and mannerisms (pun not intended), or, a man wants to feel comfortable with their feminine traits and behavior, all options of outfits included, that’s all very normal and known by humanity. However, you can’t campaign to change the lexical, the meaning of male and female, in an effort to strengthen your argument. No. You will need to use trans, where it applies, and, where it does not apply to you, try another word. Female and male are taken. And insisting in this rebellion against the dictionary won’t make “gender modified” (how about that one) people become more or less accepted. If anything, this silly argument is making all of us waste time. Just find new names, use them, and leave female and male alone. And let’s go on with life because we have more pressing matters awaiting, such as feeding the world population and peace. Also saving whales and forests. The list goes on. This is a wasting of precious humanity time!

[@Mary8950Dio]

It’s a language all her own.. Freud reborn

[@MissTina62]

Sex is binary. Gender is a personality spectrum. That is all.

[@StroumTV]

Why would you want to split sex and gender? I sometimes dont feel like a man. Still I am biologically male. Our spirit is always gender/sexless. But its just awesome getting to know your biology. Its part of exploring the material world by firstly accepting our biological vessel. Accepting societal norms that are hopefully adopted to the natural order. We cant change the material world. We can only change our societies but also they are dependent on nature.

[@thomasbarkas6092]

Imagine thinking this wasn't some weirdo looping on gay he is.

[@viranko7530]

This lady is one of the craziest people I've ever heard. I can't believe anyone listens to this nonsense.

[@JosePerez-he1do]

The mental gymnastics and conjecture are a sight to be hold.

[@John-lf3xf]

Jose Perez dumb conservatives like you are the reason there is never a sense of finality. Because you guys can never sense the real issue. Not only do you need to demonstrate how synthetics out of any persons control exist and construct our being, we also have to explain the origin of this delusional phenomenon of us controlling all of reality which is precisely where this retarded notion of gender control comes from. I think, therefore I am.

[@minecraftparkourredditstories]

@@John-lf3xf blah blah blah blah mindless jargon doesn't make this pseudoscience real kid

[@enoughvincent]

@@minecraftparkourredditstories Why is it pseudoscience?

[@pintobeans994]

talking about gender before the gender nazis got a hold of it

[@andreibrauner2745]

I think the concept that gender is produced by how you act contradicts a long time goal of the lgbtq community. Haven't we been trying to explain to people that the way people express themselves doesn't necessarily have anything to do with their gender? Of course, biological factors cause a tendency among male and female identified people to perform gender in a way that is in line with so called societal expectations of gender norms. But with this type of viewpoint, is a very feminine gay man simply a woman because he is performing gender in a feminine way? Would non-binary people have to be androgynous in order to be valid in their identity? The more I think about it, the more contradictory Judith Butler's way of thinking (and the theory that gender is mostly or entirely a social construct) becomes.

[@TarredImage]

To take your example, about the feminine gay man... it is up to the man to tell me what gender he identifies with. And that's that. he could be a woman, or he could just be a feminine gay man. Or any other gender. That's not important. What's important are the "roles" we assign to genders. The feminine gay man , upon identifying as a woman, might suddenly find his societal roles changed (more domesticated perhaps) . That's the only relevant thing about gender, otherwise what does it really matter what gender you belong to.

[@Schopenhauer69]

Judith Butler's version of Gender isn't even a thing. There is only male and female in the material world. That's it. Everything else is arbitrary. A person who says "that's my claim" without providing evidence to support said claim is a snake-oil salesman

[@lemonqvartz]

to add onto floppy disco, even in my own experience the way someone informs me of their gender changes how I may view them. people wish to ask androgynous folks there gender/sex because they feel the need to catergorize them into something that makes sense. or, they make an assumption and hold onto that belief. then they act accordingly. it doesn't matter what their actual anatomy is, as the other person has to trust they are telling the "truth". LGBT people often express notions that, "nonbinary people don't owe you androgyny." I think it's very assumptive to say, "you think gender is performative? then that must mean you believe anyone who identifies such a way must act accordingly." it's not hard logic. the consistent belief is self expression, autonomy, and lack of "normalcy". it is in good faith. they don't wish to enforce ideals of gender norms, but simply acknowledge how other people may view it

[@edithtea9477]

​@@TarredImage If his gender is based on what he identifies as, being a "woman" or "man" is only defined by * people who claim those identifies*. So, the meaning of "man" or "woman" is non-existent. So why do we even create those categories? Those labels do not add anything to our society if there are absolutely no definitions/descriptions to them. In this case, why don't we just drop them?

[@TarredImage]

@@edithtea9477 yes but gender becomes an important marker to identify behaviour against specific group. We need to label it to be able to measure it.

[@roxanne4820]

and my professors persistently push her and other thinkers alike onto us

[@peppermintgal4302]

​@CankerousBooch Arís "Subversive activists" Shut the fuck up, reactionary. Market Driven culture wouldn't be good, btw, markets are currently driving genocide in the Congo.

[@esoterika2355]

This theory seems like a riff off of Simone de Beauvoir who said "one isn't born a woman, one becomes a woman, which was a commentary on how society at the time imposed precise gender roles on to women (i.e. motherhood/wife) and, as woman adopted these roles, they fulfilled societal expectations of what a woman is. Classic feminists have fought to get rid of prescribed gender roles so people of both sexes have choices. Gender ideology is an abomination of this as it clings to, and reinforces gender roles.

[@luanao7665]

Not necessarily because non binary people don’t feel attracted to any gender

[@filipedecarvalho3390]

Not once she mentions biology as an important factor. And no, I don't believe in biological determinism but developmental psychologists have known for decades that boys and girls differ from an early age, before even any socialization happens. To claim that all "performances" are constructed randomly without a biological basis would make us wonder how male and female behavioral universals could have arisen at all. The same patterns can be noticed over and over and in societies that had no contact with each other and that's way before this globalized world in which we live.

[@phosphorous4712]

Filipe de Carvalho unfortunately, there is no point at which socialization begins, making this debate difficult. French and German babies cry differently- French with an upward note at the end and German with a lowering one. To say that gendered socialization begins with a child’s “active” awareness of the world around them is... well, false, regardless of where you stand in the debate. We are socialized and placed in a gendered paradigm at times before our sex is even examined via ultrasound!

[@rodwells15]

@@phosphorous4712 What,,,are you that deluded...where did you get that choice bit if research from

[@siobhanchristine-bligh183]

Yes to a certain extent, but most Sexologists and Biologists now kind of see gender maping onto sex as a spectrum, with Extreme: Male, Extreme Female on one end. Most people exist within the middle of thier studies, and have attributes we could call both masculine and feminine. Butler, though she does piss me off a bit, is attempting to explain how socieities talk about gender- as if the language we use is real 100%, but really psychologicaly we might not always easily map how and why we do what we do, with reference to inernt biology. I view the whole debate around this with growing interest, as I think people vary soooooooooooo much that its hard to determine the exact role of psychology and society!

[@siobhanchristine-bligh183]

@@finchbevdale2069 Hmmmm, no they are not universal. But there are distinct scientific commonialities, or thematic inferences. I think thats whats pretty interesting, its hard to unpick what is someone's sex, and why they act because of thier societal gender!

[@Ax18NY]

Butler is revolting.

[@sadetwizelve]

No it doesn’t