31 years since the release of the esteemed Gender Trouble, Judith Butler sits down with The Guardian to bring the critique into the modern day.
The central concept of Butler's book was 'performativity' and how gender is a "negotiation" between cultural norms and our own realities. Gender is an assignment that is first designated at birth and then continually assigned to us, along with a slew of social expectations. We can hijack these powers however, Butler says, and form our own self-assignment.
Non-binary as an identity hadn't been established when Butler was writing Gender Trouble, but now they admit for the first time, "I don’t see how I cannot be in that category." |
The interview takes Butler back to the demonstrations from their youth, fighting against the policing of identity and the police themselves. These protests for fundamental human rights aligned Butler and their peers with "broader coalitions" and the need to be equally opposed to racism, economic injustice and colonialism. They are just as passionate about these wider international social issues now.
Butler has been at the centre of gender activism, both academic and non-academic, and today has more than earned the title of an "intellectual celebrity". |
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