A review by tuhmeeyur
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity by Judith Butler

4.5

extremely dense academic writing ; extremely relevant and defining theory. judith's work is one of those i find has inspired much of the work that inspires me. she's super intelligent, well-versed in the history of sex and gender, and curious. she asks a lot of questions that i don't even know if people would've asked before her. it is so hard to imagine a world without gender, even today when much of her theory has been expanded on and brought into the zeitgeist. now, her questions like "what is a woman?", "what is gender?", "what is sex?", "why do we categorize humans by sex?" are commonly discussed, at least among certain groups, but there are still unclear answers and differing opinions. her idea of performative gender as something defined not by some innate desire to express, but rather a social norm and the fear of being rejected from society, is another concept i had heard of and thought about, but can get fuzzy, even now. this is definitely a seminal work. one i can study many times and still a lot of it will likely go right over my head.