Judith Butler Power And Knowledge

Judith Butler, attempting to bridge gender and feminist theories emphasized the notion of performance as an “analytical category that allows for critical intervention” (Hall, 2013, p. 112). Viewing identity as different facets of scripted performance, Butler saw the opportunity to subvert interpretation of gender and sexuality norms as an effort to destabilize hierarchical traditions, like those seen in medical and legal discourses (Hall, 2013). J. Jack Halberstam, who focuses on a melding of queer and transgender theory, emphasizes nonconformity as the catalyst for “radical social change”, namely in relation to connections between transgender persons and societal expectations of their appearance, behavior and assimilation (Hall, 2013, p.115).
Knowledge exists as an extension of power and power is a function of knowledge (Mills, 2003). An iconic example of the practice of power/knowledge is the Catholic ritual of confession (History of Sexuality). Confession, a form of power, was a way for people to tell their truth, produce knowledge, (Citation). This parallels the relationship with a psychologist or psychiatrist in which the confession is revealing truths about oneself in the confessional of a physician's office and the knowledge created reflected in a diagnosis and the constraints or freedoms that accompanied it (Citation). Foucault presents power/knowledge as being productive and restrictive, limiting us externally through the actions and decisions of others as well as internally in the ways we act and reflect on ourselves (Mills,
Directly after the interviews, field notes were reviewed and we began the ongoing process of memoing to begin to integrate our analysis. The initial stage of memoing was a summary of the actual events and conversations. These substantive memos included setting description and quotes. The methodological memos covered observer comments, field notes and a reflection of what was successful in the interview and what needed improvement. This was especially helpful after the first interview when we decided to eliminate a couple questions and reorganize the order of some of the follow up questions. Finally with the analytical memos, we began our primary analysis of finding ideas that stood out which could later be developed in to codes and categories. This memoing process continued through the analysis, and enabled us to more easily “think about the data and to discover ideas about them” (Charmaz, 2006,