How does Butler's work apply to free speech debates?
My work on 'Excitable Speech' explores how certain utterances become performative, meaning they don't just describe reality but actively constitute it. Hate speech, for example, can have a performative effect by not only expressing prejudice but by actively silencing, ostracizing, and even constituting certain groups as targets. This doesn't mean we shouldn't protect speech, but it requires a more nuanced understanding of how language operates within power structures to produce harm and to differentially attribute social vulnerability.
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