Big Think Berkeley professor explains gender theory | Judith Butler
Sep 16, 2025
Join Judith Butler, a renowned post-structuralist philosopher and queer theorist from UC Berkeley, as she delves into the complexities of gender. Butler challenges traditional views, proposing that gender is not fixed but a fluid construct shaped by cultural contexts. She emphasizes the importance of understanding gender performativity and its implications for queer and trans rights. Butler advocates for inclusivity and justice, urging society to embrace a broader dialogue on identity to foster equality and freedom for all.
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Sex Versus Gender Distinction
- Judith Butler distinguishes sex as an assigned medical/legal category from gender as cultural, historical, and psychic formation.
- She argues biology doesn't determine identity in a final way and we have agency over gendered life.
Formative Activism And Historical Awareness
- Butler recounts growing up in 1960s activist circles and studying philosophy in high school.
- She learned to broaden concern for justice beyond her own Jewish community to all groups targeted by genocide.
Queer Theory's Early Questions
- Butler situates queer theory in the 1970s–80s and critiques feminist strains that essentialize women via motherhood or heterosexual sexual difference.
- She emphasizes questioning what society makes of us and what we can make of ourselves.
