Undoing Gender

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses violence, anti-gay bias, and transphobia.

“Certain humans are recognized as less than human, and that form of qualified recognition does not lead to a viable life. Certain humans are not recognized as human at all, and that leads to yet another order of unlivable life.”

Butler’s argument across the collection is for greater inclusivity in the term “human” and a reduction in violence at the border of who is considered “human” or “less than human.” This passage effectively outlines Butler’s argument, and it is important to read the entirety of the text through the lens of this perspective. The urgency of the call to action is linked to the optimism of the myriad humanity that can be unleashed through greater inclusivity.

“The very attribution of femininity to female bodies as if it were a natural or necessary property takes place within a normative framework in which the assignment of femininity to femaleness is one mechanism for the production of gender itself. Terms such as ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ are notoriously changeable; there are social histories for each term; their meanings change radically depending upon geopolitical boundaries and cultural constraints on who is imagining whom, and for what purpose.”

Referring to Butler’s Gender Trouble, this passage questions the origins of gender norms, noting how masculinity and femininity, while usually attributed to male and female, are not neatly categorized between the traditional binary of sex. This introduces the theme of Gender Performativity and the Social Construction of Identity. By including this in the Introduction, Butler ensures a foundation of knowledge for all readers regardless of their acquaintance with Gender Trouble.

“The category of the ‘human’ retains within itself the workings of the power differential of race as part of its own historicity. But the history of the category is not over, and the ‘human’ is not captured once and for all. That the category is crafted in time, and that it works through excluding a wide range of minorities means that its rearticulation will begin precisely at the point where the excluded speak to and from such a category.”

Butler’s argument regarding inclusion expands in this passage to encompass people who are minoritized because of race, as well as gender and sexuality. This introduces the theme of The Experiences and Exclusion of Marginalized Identities. The need to acknowledge those living at the fringe of inclusion allows Butler’s argument to expand until all humans are included within the “human.