Judith Butler's "Undoing Gender" argues that "doing" one's gender can necessitate "undoing" dominant notions of personhood by challenging the regulation of gender and sexuality. The book examines how norms governing gender and sexuality constrain recognizable personhood, drawing on feminist and queer theory. Butler revisits her earlier concept of gender performativity, now situating the critique of gender norms within the framework of human persistence and survival.
The book addresses the regulation of sexuality and gender in psychology, aesthetics, and social policy, delving into issues of new kinship, psychoanalysis, the incest taboo, transgender experiences, intersex variations, diagnostic categories, social violence, and the tasks of social transformation. It discusses the "New Gender Politics" emerging from movements concerned with transgender, transsexuality, and intersex identities, and their relationship to feminist and queer theory.
Key concepts
- Gender Performativity — Butler reconsiders her earlier view on how gender is constructed through repeated actions and performances.
- New Gender Politics — A contemporary emergence of movements focused on transgender, transsexuality, and intersex issues.
- Recognizable Personhood — The social criteria and norms that determine who or what is considered a legitimate person.
- Regulation of Sexuality and Gender — How institutions like psychology, aesthetics, and social policy control and define sexual and gender expression.