Gender And Sexual Identity In Judith Butler's Gender Trouble

Judith Butler, gender theorist, consistently challenges the social and cultural informalities associated with both gender and sexual identity. In 1990, she published her book, Gender Trouble, which has since transformed previous understandings about gender and sex, and the roles that they play in society (Julia). Her theories were developed as to define what sex and gender truly mean, and how the cultural definitions of these terms are reflected in how humans represent themselves in society. Her argument about gender and sexual understanding first begins with the comprehension of traditional definitions of gender and sex. Gender, as she summarizes it, is the “repeated styles of flesh” that take shape over time due to its repetition (cats 1). Sex is certain biological processes divided into separate categories (Julia). She claims that these definitions are only used because humans cannot understand gender
In this argument, many scientists propose that men and women were created to reproduce in order to continue the existence of the human race, linking gender identity to biology. Butler assumes that gender and sex are defined by language traditions and can be unraveled by her theory of performity and language disruption. Some scientists may argue that while Butler’s theory about how humans understand gender and sex is correct, it is illogical to assume that men and women were not biologically created to have sex together because of their physical designs. This reasoning might not reject Butler’s ideas about how language effects society’s view about masculinity or femininity, but it does challenge her theories, based on a possible “natural purpose” for men and women being created a certain way, thus establishing intentional sexual and gender