"Gender is not something that one is, it is something one does, an act... a "doing" rather than a "being". There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; that identity is performatively constituted by the very "expressions" that are said to be its results. If the immutable character of sex is contested, perhaps this construct called 'sex' is as culturally constructed as gender; indeed, perhaps it was always already gender, with the consequence that the distinction between sex and gender turns out to be no distinction at all."
"To operate within the matrix of power is not the same as to replicate uncritically relations of domination."
Source: Judith Butler (2011). “Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity”, p.42, Routledge
About the author
Judith Butler
Philosopher, Gender Theorist
Judith Butler is a prominent philosopher and gender theorist known for her influential work on gender performativity and queer theory.
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"Gender is not something that one is, it is something one does, an act… a doing rather than a being."
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