Empowering Quotes By Judith Butler On Feminism, Gender And Sexuality

Gender roles are prominent in every person's life. If you are a woman, you are expected to dress, behave and talk in a certain way, perform certain duties while keep yourself miles away from what is considered to be a masculine domain. But, is it possible that the gendered roles have nothing to do with our biology but our internalised ideas male dominance? The answers to these questions form the crux of the feminist theory by Judith Butler.

Born on February 24, 1956, Judith Butler is an American Gender Theorist and Philosopher. Her theories cover the genres of political philosophy, feminist theory, queer theory, cultural theory and literary theory. Her theories deconstruct the normative ideas of gender, sex and sexuality. Some of her notable works include Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Undoing Gender, Bodies That Matter: On The Discursive Limits of Sex among others.

She is widely credited for her theory on gender performativity (gender is a performance and not a biological category), representation of women in politics and language, gender and sexuality, desire, feminist theories and theories of lesbianism, gay and homosexuality. She has also been vocal about contemporary political and cultural issues.

Here are some empowering quotes by Judith Butler that will definitely strike new conversations:

On Gender Roles

“Masculine and feminine roles are not biologically fixed but socially constructed.”

"There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; …(gender) identity is performatively constituted by the very “expressions” that are said to be its results."

On Sexuality: It Does Not Depend On Gender

"A man who reads effeminate may well be consistently heterosexual, and another one might be gay. We can't read sexuality off of gender."

On Feminism

"I am much more open about categories of gender, and my feminism has been about women's safety from violence, increased literacy, decreased poverty and more equality."

“If one is ‘woman’ that is surely not all one is; the term fails to be exhaustive,…because gender intersects with racial, class, ethnic, sexual, and regional modalities of discursively constituted identities”.

Powerful quotes by the very badass Judith Butler

"I would say that I'm a feminist theorist before I'm a queer theorist or a gay and lesbian theorist."

"Sexual harassment law is very important. But I think it would be a mistake if the sexual harassment law movement is the only way in which feminism is known in the media."