![]() ![]() Returning to the above, Judith Butler says that with sex and gender the same thing happens: by naming a person "man" or "woman", even before birth, what happens is not a verification but an accomplishment (in this gender case). According to the context in which they are stated, all of them can change the situation, attitudes, emotions, and even identity and / or the behavior of the subjects. Another example is the commitment that entails those statements formulated as a promise, a bet or an apology. One of the classic examples is that of pronouncing affirmatively before a marriage: saying 'yes I want' in the setting of a wedding implies an act beyond a verification, insofar as it has effects at the individual, relational, political, etc. On the one hand there are declarative statements, and on the other hand there are realizing or performative statements.Īustin argues that, far from the only task of issuing a statement is to make known the truth or falsity of a fact (note) There are statements that can have another function: Beyond describing things, these statements do things. įor the latter there is an important distinction between the different types of statements we use when communicating. To develop the theory of performativity and explain how it is that the staging of the genre ends up giving shape to the same genre, Butler retakes the theory of speech acts of the philosopher and linguist John Austin. ![]() Performativity in the theory of speech acts of Austin You may be interested: "The feminist theory of Simone de Beauvoir: what is woman?".And, finally, it defines gender not as an attribution of man or woman, but as a mise-en-scène (a performance) that can be as diverse as identities are. In his studies he returns from the works of Simone de Beauvoir, Witting and Rubin, to the critical theories of Michel Foucault, Lacan and Derrida, going through different philosophers and feminists.Īt the same time it establishes important critiques to the theories of feminism that had settled in binary and heterosexual gender models. ![]() The question is not so much about the type of identities prescribed by patriarchy, but through what power mechanisms we end up clinging to these identities, and how this is a way to keep us safe from exclusion, rejection or marginalization ( ibid).Īmong these questions emerge the proposals of Judith Butler, who has been one of the central theorists of contemporary feminism. These were "universal truths" because these sex-gender dimorphisms have historically established reference models to define us in one way or another (and in a way that is apparently stable, unquestionable and unique).Īt this time, a part of feminism begins to focus on the analysis of the "mechanisms of power", which are the coercive forms that are presented to us during socialization, and that allow us to cling defensively to a specific identity (Velasco, 2009). In this same framework, the "universal truths" of Western society are strongly questioned among them the binary logic of understanding bodies and sexual difference: woman / man and its cultural correlate: male / female. In the framework of "postmodernity" it becomes relevant the break with traditional ways of understanding identity, who used to present it as something fixed and stable. The contemporary context of feminist theories Related article: "Margaret Mead's gender theory".We will see below what is Butler's theory of gender performativity and what are some of its repercussions at a theoretical and political level. This has represented one of the most relevant and controversial works of the end of the century in social sciences as well as in philosophy, politics and activism. Broadly suggests that, in the dominant binary system, the genre is created through a series of acts deployed through categories such as "man" or "woman". Through this theory, he questions in an important way the apparent naturalness of the binary gender / gender system and analyzes its effects in terms of power. The theory of gender performativity of the American philosopher Judith Butler was proposed in the 1990s under the context of contemporary feminist theories and movements. ![]()
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