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Judith Butler's Queer Theory

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Queer Theory As the materials that directly discuss defeminization are relatively absent, in pursuit of the comprehension of the dynamics of defeminization – a phenomenon involving a change in gender performance – I extended the coverage of my review and perused the seminal works of Judith Butler, the proponent of the concepts of gender performance and performativity of gender. Judith Butler’s works are considered major contributions to Queer Theory, a collection of intellectual works focusing on the social constructedness of concepts such as sex, gender, and sexuality (Gauntlett, 1998; Spargo, 1999). Queer theorists question the established links between the three aforementioned concepts and claim that gender and sexuality are independent …show more content…

Compulsory heterosexuality and the taboo against homosexuality is incorporated in gender norms (Spargo, 1998; Butler, 1990). Acts are labeled masculine or feminine to institute a system of gender so that social institutions can claim that acts are biologically-inherent for males or females. Through this system, heterosexuality can be justified as the biologically-inherent, gender-typical sexual orientation. As such, a male individual, merely because of his homosexuality, becomes perceived as unmasculine, feminine, gender-atypical. Following the same logic, a female individual, merely because of her homosexuality, becomes regarded as unfeminine, masculine, …show more content…

Considering that the individual simply imitates the existing ideals, gender performance, therefore, is not characterized by choice or voluntarism (Butler, 1990). As Butler puts it, every act by the individual is performed “within a highly rigid regulatory frame… set by the various forces that police the social appearance of gender (1990, p. 43-44).” People, when behaving and performing acts, are expected to adhere to the existing norms of gender; males should perform masculine acts while females, feminine. Highlighting the restrictiveness of such norms, Butler, in the interview with Kotz (1992) shared: “Performativity has to do with repetition, very often with the repetition of oppressive and painful gender norms to force them to resignify. This is not freedom, but a question of how to work the trap that one is inevitably in (p.

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