Judith Butler's Gender Performativity, Part 2: What is 'Performativity?'

In this second installment on Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity, we're going to look at one of commonly misunderstood aspects of Butler's theory: the distinction between gender performance and gender performativity.

This video will look specifically at how Butler's theory of gender performatiity draws on philosopher J.L. Austin's concept of performative utterances, which was popularized in his book How to Do Things with Words.

Texts examined include the chapter "Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions" from Gender Trouble and the Preface to Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex.

[JonasMaria]

Thank you for your work, you explain everything so well! Me and Zac are now well informed.

[gabitzy]

This is so incredibly helpful!!! I’ve listened to many videos trying to understand this. Yours is by far the clearest and most likely to be remembered.

[AnnoyedKitten]

Thank you! I am right now doing a bachelor thesis in Literature around Queer readings and Butler is kinda essential to include in such a work. This explained SO much better what she actually means. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

[cassiecroix]

THANKS A LOT!!!!
i've been trying to ejemplify this for a thesis and your video saved me
Greets from Mexico

[Fernando-oxmo]

Great video. Thanks so much. I still find it difficult to get used to that singular they and it throws me out for a bit every time you say it, but I guess I´ll learn that too.

[vale]

I do not work on this field neither a similar one but you make people interested and happy to learn about it

[sophiecairns]

This was so formative and helpful!!!! Thank you!!!!

[calibratedape]

This is so insightful. I try to understand various gender theories for some time now, and as you said there is a lot of misconceptions rooted even in examples Butler gave herself. This explanation (and previous episode) were both in depth and compacted very well. Thanks!
Side note: YouTube's algorithm can be super useful if one trains it correctly ;)

[rgng]

Idk how you do it but you just make sense.
Have seen these definations so many times but only today are they making soo much sense.

[grybu_karas]

Amazing videos! Where is part three of this series?

[Alanoudsehli]

The video helps understanding deep topics in an easy way, thanks

[simran]

I really needed this video! Thank you so much for explaining this so simply!

[eijuude]

Excelent video! I pretty much had the idea of what Butler meant when I read Gender Trouble, but I wanst really abble to explain it to others. You were abble to make so clear that I'm confident I can make somene else understand it too. Great work!

[Gaby-rllq]

Thank you so much!!! This was so well explained! It was also really helpful to see the examples of Zac and Judith that you used. I feel like I have a better understanding of this topic now :)

[dislocational]

Thank you!! This is great! I am really enjoying your lectures. Do you have plan to make lectures on V. Flusser?

[falkilicious]

This video really helped me a lot, thank you!

[archangelcharlie]

This is the guidance I needed with this text. Thank you so much for this work. I am excited to see part three of this series!

Additional question - do you have any other recommendations of resources that would provide further assistance in queer studies? Any creators you follow or recommend, or papers and books you like?

Thanks again!

[Bob-wxop]

Great video. I am wondering how will Gender Performativity Theory react to preserve the integrity of subjectivity of a gender minority whose gender identity is fundamentally at odds with social recognitions out of cultural conventions.( e.g., a person who does what a culture thinks a typical cis man does but still nevertheless identify herself as female) Normatively, of course, the culture in question should move on as a whole, with gender cultural changes over time, but is there any theoretical instrument (relevant or related to Gender Performativity Theory) by which this person's inner identification of her gender can be theoretically valid?

[monicadaniels]

This is perhaps above my pay grade to understand, but to me you helped to explain her definition of what gender is. It would appear to not go into why someone deviates from the gender that society would assign to them. I am one such person. The world around me set in motion every expectation that my gender should be masculine/male, yet I found this to be an impossibility while keeping any sense of happiness or sanity. I don't know whether it is worth reading on with her further. Apparently she deviates from gender norms as well.

[camerongh_]

Oh my god the clouds have parted and the sky is blue again thank you so much