Premium Essay

Teresa De Lauretis Gender Trouble

Submitted By
Words 923
Pages 4
Teresa de Lauretis.
The phrase “queer theory” was first used by Teresa De Lauretis as the title of a conference she held in 1990 at the University of California, Santa Cruz (Halperin, 2003) where she is professor of The History of Consciousness. At that time, the meaning of this word was just beginning to be transformed by the LGBT community and reclaimed as a term for empowerment rather than a term of abuse directed at the community. The term queer has gone through many shifts in definition since it’s original use to mean “unusual”, “odd”, or “abnormal”, and it is expected it will continue shifting as societal needs change. It has even been argued that putting an accurate definition on the term queer means to limit its potential in ushering …show more content…
In 1990, Butler published her book Gender Trouble, which challenged many assumptions made about heteronormative culture and gender identity. In this book she discussed how the existing feminist movement, of that time, was limited in how it defined gender. During the 1990s the feminist movement moved toward defending a concrete feminine identity because it was believed to be crucial for the societal advancement of women. This delineation of gender was, and still is, reflected in how the world treats gender as binary (male and female). By using poststructuralist theories about socially created identities, Butler makes the case for gender as being a “performative” act that is socially constructed. She points out that gender identity is complex in its relation to sex and that to appreciate these complexities, feminists must move further away from the traditional Western ideologies of what is “normal” gender …show more content…
She discusses in depth structuralist perspectives on gender and sexuality and how the concreteness of these things can be exposed as illogical. She also deliberates the theories of Lacan, Riviere and Freud in an interest to understand the genealogy of gender identification. Butler rejects the idea that all power structures and cultural restrictions must be done away with to have a less repressive mode of gender identification (a view common amongst feminists at the time) and argues that gender identification requires a social structure in order for it to be an achievement. Chapter 3 details Butler’s understanding that traditional views of gender identity can be 'subverted' through masquerade and drag. In conclusion, she argues that feminist politics really can do without a concrete feminine identity, and that doing without it will make solidarity and organization easier. She then argues that other feminists with her same ideals should strive for the deconstruction of feminine

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Industry

...Carter, C. (2011) “Sex/Gender and the Media: From Sex Roles to Social Construction and Beyond,” in Ross, K. (ed) The Handbook of Gender, Sex and Media, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN-10: 1444338544; 365-82. ISBN-13: 978-1444338546 Sex/Gender and the Media From Sex Roles to Social Construction and Beyond Cynthia Carter Introduction In the early years of second-wave western feminism, many gender researchers and feminist scholars distinguished between the notion of sex, defined as biological differences between male and female, and ‘sex roles,’ referring to certain behaviors and characteristics attributed to each sex that was a social construction. The resulting media research centered on images of women in the media (much less emphasis was placed on men) in order to draw attention to inequities in their portrayal in relation to men (in quantitative terms as well as in terms of the use of stereotypes). Since the 1970s, however, the scope of social constructionism has greatly expanded in feminist theory. Some suggest that the distinction between the biological and the social has, as a result, eroded to such an extent that it is no longer possible to understand the difference, while others question the need for this distinction. For instance, in queer and transgender theory and feminist cultural studies, theorists have sought to make strange the ‘sex/gender’ distinction. The key argument made is that biology is no less a cultural construct than gender socialization into masculinity...

Words: 8766 - Pages: 36

Free Essay

Gay Language

...Theorizing identity in language and sexuality research M A R Y B U C H O L T Z Department of Linguistics 3607 South Hall University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3100 bucholtz@linguistics.ucsb.edu K I R A H A L L Department of Linguistics Campus Box 295 University of Colorado at Boulder Boulder, CO 80309-0295 kira.hall@colorado.edu A B S T R A C T The field of language and sexuality has gained importance within socioculturally oriented linguistic scholarship. Much current work in this area emphasizes identity as one key aspect of sexuality. However, recent critiques of identity-based research advocate instead a desire-centered view of sexuality. Such an approach artificially restricts the scope of the field by overlooking the close relationship between identity and desire. This connection emerges clearly in queer linguistics, an approach to language and sexuality that incorporates insights from feminist, queer, and sociolinguistic theories to analyze sexuality as a broad sociocultural phenomenon. These intellectual approaches have shown that research on identity, sexual or otherwise, is most productive when the concept is understood as the outcome of intersubjectively negotiated practices and ideologies. To this end, an analytic framework for the semiotic study of social intersubjectivity is presented. (Sexuality, feminism, identity, desire, queer linguistics.)* I N T R O D U C T I O N Within the past decade the field of language...

Words: 25968 - Pages: 104

Free Essay

Literary Theory

...Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction ‘Jonathan Culler has always been about the best person around at explaining literary theory without oversimplifying it or treating it with polemical bias. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction is an exemplary work in this genre.’ J. Hillis Miller, University of California, Irvine ‘An impressive and engaging feat of condensation . . . the avoidance of the usual plod through schools and approaches allows the reader to get straight to the heart of the crucial issue for many students, which is: why are they studying literary theory in the first place? . . . an engaging and lively book.’ Patricia Waugh, University of Durham Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in 15 languages worldwide. Very Short Introductions available from Oxford Paperbacks: ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes Augustine Henry Chadwick THE BIBLE John Riches Buddha Michael Carrithers BUDDHISM Damien Keown CLASSICS Mary Beard and John Henderson Continental Philosophy Simon Critchley Darwin Jonathan Howard DESCARTES Tom Sorell EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN Paul Langford The European Union John Pinder Freud Anthony Storr Galileo Stillman Drake Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood HINDUISM Kim Knott HISTORY John H. Arnold HUME A. J...

Words: 45107 - Pages: 181

Free Essay

Literature

...Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction ‘Jonathan Culler has always been about the best person around at explaining literary theory without oversimplifying it or treating it with polemical bias. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction is an exemplary work in this genre.’ J. Hillis Miller, University of California, Irvine ‘An impressive and engaging feat of condensation . . . the avoidance of the usual plod through schools and approaches allows the reader to get straight to the heart of the crucial issue for many students, which is: why are they studying literary theory in the first place? . . . an engaging and lively book.’ Patricia Waugh, University of Durham Jonathan Culler LITERARY THEORY A Very Short Introduction 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford o x2 6 d p Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris São Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw with associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Jonathan Culler 1997 The moral rights...

Words: 44695 - Pages: 179