Butler's Concept Research Articles

'If You Don't Kiss Me, You're Dumped': Boys, boyfriends and heterosexualised masculinities in the primary school

This paper explores the primary school as a key social and cultural site for the production of heterosexualities and utilises Judith Butler's concept of the 'heterosexual matrix' to explore the regulation of hetero/sexuality and in particular the inter-connectedness of heterosexuality, homosexuality and hegemonic masculinity. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork from a study of children's constructions of their gender and sexual identities it explores the different ways in which Year 6 (10/11-year-old) boys engage with, practise and occupy 'heterosexualities' and how integral, yet complex and contradictory heterosexual performances are to the production of 'proper' boys. For example, constructing heterosexualised masculinities through boyfriend/girlfriend discourses is especially problematic for boys when intimacy with girls can be simultaneously contaminating and masculinity confirming. The paper also illustrates how primary school boys define and produce their heterosexualities through various public projections of (hetero)sexual fantasies, imagined (hetero)sexual futures, misogynistic objectifications of girls and women, and homophobic/anti-gay performances towards boys and sexualised forms of harassment towards girls.

Bodies, Revolutions, and Magic: Cultural Nationalism and Racial Fetishism

We might consider race in accordance with Judith Butler's useful conception of gender as constructed in terms of a corporeal style; in this sense the racialized body is also made meaningful through "the legacy of sedimented acts rather than a predetermined or foreclosed structure, essence or fact, whether natural, cultural, or linguistic". The particular ways in which we perceive, interpret, and value racial difference in the United States today can be understood as a kind of 'performance' that takes its significance from not one but, in fact, many layers of social meaning that history has deposited on bodies. Some of these meanings are determined by racist ideologies disguised as "natural" or "biological" hierarchies of difference, "punitively regulated cultural fictions that are alternately embodied and disguised under duress"; others present somewhat more optimistic possibilities for racial performance.

Gender: The Impossibility of Meaning

This paper offers an antiessentialist, psychoanalytic account of gender by arguing against Butler's deconstructive critique of gender essentialism. We develop an alternative to Butler's conception of gender as performative by focusing on those aspects of gender that resist meaning and representation. Using Lacan's concept of the real, we argue that any viable theory of gender must account for the limit conditions of cultural discourses that constitute subjectivity and sociality. Once gender is understood in terms not of proliferating possibilities for meaning, but of a certain impossibility of meaning, then gender's bearing on human relationality requires reconceptualizing. Claiming that various cultural narratives about gender (including traditional psychoanalytic narratives) should be recognized as symptomatic attempts to come to terms with a fundamental impossibility at the heart of sexual difference, we conclude by suggesting ways in which psychoanalysis may productively illuminate the failures of meaning that structure human relationality.

Reconfiguring Gender with John Dewey: Habit, Bodies, and Cultural Change

This paper demonstrates how John Dewey's notion of habit can help us understand gender as a constitutive structure of bodily existence. Bringing Dewey's pragmatism in conjunction with Judith Butler's concept of performativity, 1 provide an account of how rigid binary configurations of gender might be transformed at the level of both individual habit and cultural construct.

Reconfiguring Gender with John Dewey: Habit, Bodies, and Cultural Change

This paper demonstrates how John Dewey's notion of habit can help us understand gender as a constitutive structure of bodily existence. Bringing Dewey's pragmatism in conjunction with Judith Butler's concept of performativity, 1 provide an account of how rigid binary configurations of gender might be transformed at the level of both individual habit and cultural construct.

Bodies (and Spaces) do Matter: The limits of performativity

This article explores the insights and limitations within geography of Judith Butler's concept of 'performativity'. As a processual, non-foundational approach to identity, many feminist and post-structuralist geographers have incorporated performativity into their work on the intersections between gender, sexuality, ethnicity, space and place. Yet few have explicitly undertaken a close and critical reading of Butler's theory. The author argues that performativity ontologically assumes an abstracted subject (i.e. abstracted as a subject position in a given discourse) and thus provides no space for theorizing conscious reflexivity, negotiation or agency in the doing of identity. Butler posits a subject abstracted from personal, lived experience as well as from its historical and geographical embeddedness. Uncritically transcribing this abstracted subject into geography limits how we can conceptualize the linkages between emerging identities, social change and spatially-embedded, intentional human practice. A more thoughtful and nuanced use of performativity would allow geographers to map how concrete subjects (individual or collective) do identity in relation to various discursive processes (e.g. those that constitute race, class, sexuality and gender), to other subjects, and to layers of institutions and practices.

The ‘New’ Men's Magazines and the Performance of Masculinity

In Australia in the 1990s, following on from the phenomenon of the ‘new woman's magazine', a new market in lifestyle magazines for men has emerged, distinct from magazines such as Penthouse, Playboy and Picture. This paper examines the phenomenon of the ‘new’ men's magazines, and argues that these magazines are a site in which contemporary performances of masculinities can be analysed, just as feminist and other analyses have examined and critiqued the production of feminine subjectivities through women's magazines. We introduce the market positioning and profile of these magazines, then analyse shifts in the available discourses for constructing masculine subjectivities as they are exemplified in one of the most successful of these magazines, Ralph. Making use of Judith Butler's concept of performance and her critique of Pierre Bourdieu's notion of the habitus, toe analyse a story in Ralph, concluding that Ralph's performances of ‘stereotypical’ masculinity are self-conscious ‘over-performances’ of a set of discourses and subjectivities which it recognises are already in a sense obsolete.

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Research on gender and language is often inhibited by the fact that many writers/researchers lack either linguistic training or insights into modern theories of gender. In my article, I criticize some of the research on gender and language for being a gender conservative practice in itself, designed to preserve rather than challenge the patriarchal power structure of society, due to its focus on "feminine and masculine language styles". Instead, we ought to let modern feminist theories of gender guide what questions to ask and how to understand the results of the analysis of spöken interaction. This means focusing on structures of power instead of "feminine" and "masculine" language, and by this develop an analysis which we can call a feminist conversational analysis. Judith Butler's concept of performativity enables us to view sex/gender as a process or activity rather than a personal attribute. By using language in a sex-specific way we become women and men rather than express some inborn difference. This does not mean that we are free to perform the gender of our own choice, since we all are attributed one, and only one of the two genders, normally at birth. We are not free to choose the way to perform that gender either, since the characteristics of each gender is regulated through the heterosexual matrix. This explains why the linguistic analysis of language and gender cannot produce easy answers and advice on "how to talk like a man to get power" or the like. Since each individual depends on structures of ideology, the project of creating a gender neutral or non-oppressive language is part of the political project of feminist struggle and not anything the single individual can achieve by changing the way she talks.

Spilling All Over the “Wide Fields of Our Passions”: Frye, Butler, Wittgenstein and the Context(s) of Attention, Intention and Identity (Or: From Arm Wrestling Duck to Abject Being to Lesbian Feminist)

I argue for a Wittgensteinian reading of Judith Butler's performative conception of identity in light of Marilyn Frye's analysis of lesbian as nonexistent and Butler's analysis of abject. I suggest that the attempt to articulate a performative lesbian identity must take seriously the contexts within which abjection is vital to maintaining gender, exposing the intimate link between context and the formulation of intention, and shedding light on possible lesbian identities irreducible to abjection.

The “mock‐macho” situation comedy: Hegemonic masculinity and its reiteration

This essay examines how Home Improvement and Coach play off the stereotypes of conventional masculinity in order to describe how these texts work to reiterate hegemonic masculinity. The analysis focuses on how the “mock‐macho” sitcom takes masculinity as an object of its own discourse and induces pleasure in the realization of masculinity as a gender performance. This study suggests some of the features and complexities of this discursive strategy and draws on Butler's (1990) concept of “gender parody” to theorize “mock‐macho” gender performances and their comic effectivity. The essay concludes with an assessment of the ambivalent gender politics of “mock‐macho” situation comedies.

Subversion despite contingency? Judith butler's concept of a radical democratic movement from a system theory perspective

(1997). Subversion despite contingency? Judith butler's concept of a radical democratic movement from a system theory perspective. International Review of Sociology: Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 147-153.

Development of tourism in swaziland

The paper analyzes the development of tourism in Swaziland with specific reference to Butler's concept of a tourism destination area cycle. Tourism in this African Kingdom evolved in five stages: exploration, inactivity, transition, truncated development, and decline and attempted rejuvenation. Its divergence from Butler's ideal type is analyzed in some detail, but is attributed primarily to external factors beyond Swazi control. Initial tourism developments occurred while the country was a British colony and, as in Lesotho and Botswana, with which Swaziland is compared, further expansion was conditioned by the country's position as a periphery of the Republic of South Africa.

Parody and Pacifist Transformations in Maxine Hong Kingston's Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book

There is subversive laughter in the pastiche-effect of parodic practices in which the original, the and the are themselves constituted as effects. - Judith Butler, Gender Trouble The epigraph might have easily been written to describe the technique of Maxine Hong Kingston's Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book. In fact, the quote comes at the end of Butler's book-length critique of feminist politics which assumes that universal identity is necessary for effective political action. This insistence on real or authentic unifying definition of women overlooks (or perhaps, underemphasizes) the social, cultural and economic differences that combine with gender in the shaping of women's experiences. Judith Butler asserts that feminism should not insist on the need for articulating foundationalist frame (the preoccupation with defining an essential and thus unifying characteristic for all women) prior to political action, but rather, should recognize that gender identities are constructed through political practice. An equally divisive monologism can be seen in the identity politics practiced by many within ethnic communities. One need only look as far as the debate spawned by Kingston's The Woman Warrior to see how individuals can get caught between two such unifying groups and find themselves not doubly represented but, rather, twice denied individual identity and agency. Parody, through its ability to question notions of the or authentic, can be read as defensive mechanism in Tripmaster Monkey, protecting the text from the antagonisms provoked by Kingston's earlier work and, beyond that, as positive gesture towards healing the rift between the various communities with which Kingston and her work is connected. This essay will explore Kingston's use of parody in confronting the conflicting desires of individuality and community by focusing on how it works to question and subvert monologic constructions of identity pertaining to her male protagonist, Wittman Ah Sing. It will also examine her use of parody not only as tool for dismantling foundationalist notions of identity and community but as model for building an inclusive community that is made up of individual identities rather than in opposition to an individual's identity. I am using parody in the sense of form of mimicry or imitation which, while requiring degree of similarity to be recognized in connection with the thing parodied, also contains the imperative for difference, something distinguishing it from the object of the parody.(1) The seemingly paradoxical coexistence of similarity and difference, imitation and originality, commonality and uniqueness is at the heart of Kingston's novel. This definition of parody is informed by Judith Butler's concept of gender parody which does not assume that there is an which such parodic identities imitate. Indeed, the parody is of the very notion of an (138). In this concept of parody, the act of mimesis asserts relationship or membership in tradition with the thing copied even as it questions the authenticity or original status of the thing copied. This essay will analyze parody on the textual plane of Tripmaster Monkey but will also rely on the work of Judith Butler in terms of her analysis of identity formation to analyze the politics of Kingston's parodic practices and their relationship to community formation. To discuss the text in terms of community, one must first place the novel within the context of the reception Kingston's work has received in its several reading communities. The feminist community has largely embraced Kingston's work. Yet many within predominantly white readership have appropriated The Woman Warrior as catalogue of sexism in Chinese and Chinese-American culture. In her essay French Feminism in an International Frame, Gayatri Spivak describes the trap that Western-trained feminist academics often fall into when they think about women in cultural context different from their own as a web of information retrieval inspired at best by 'what can I do for them? …

Using Life Review to Facilitate Self-Actualization in Elderly Women

This article explores the effect of life review discussions on the self-actualization process in a group of elderly women. The information can be used by health care professionals in helping the aged attain their optimum potential. The conceptual framework was developed from Maslow's self-actualization which was measured by Shostrum's Personal Orientation Inventory. Robert Butler's concept of life review provided structure for the reminiscing experiences. Seven life review sessions, conducted in an uncontrolled environment, focused on facilitating continued growth and expansion of the participants' inner selves. The group process also provided socialization opportunities and fostered cohesiveness among group members by developing a sense of belonging through shared experiences.

Tourism in small island nations: a fragile dependence

Butler (1980) has suggested that visits to particular tourist areas follow an asymptotic curve, marked by slow initial growth, then rapid growth, stability, and decline or rejuvenation. Lundberg (1980) has provided a similar model of tourism development which has six phases: rapid growth, short-run success, awareness of problems, tourism recession, serious difficulties, and reflection. This paper examines whether Butler's concept of a tourist area cycle of evolution and Lundberg's model of tourism development fit the pattern of international tourist arrivals for four case studies in the Caribbean region. It then explores the implications of this pattern for tourism in general and Caribbean tourism in particular.

The Life Review in Five Short Stories about Characters Facing Death

Five modern short stories about people facing death illustrate and connect various observations of and theories about the dying process developed by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and Robert N. Butler. Kubler-Ross's observations of the fifth stage of the dying process–acceptance–are illustrated in the dying characters' desire to withdraw from their loved ones and to be left alone. Butler's concept of the life review is then applicable. In response to the imminence of their deaths, the characters survey their past, attempting to reintegrate their life's experiences. Their life reviews do not become a form of reminiscing to escape the pressures of physical pain, mental anguish, and/or confusion; rather, they take the form of reveries and selective memories of past incidents and events, pleasant and unpleasant, in the distant or recent past. Their reminiscences result in consequences for the main characters that are either positive, ambiguous, or self-destructive.

Death and the ?life review? in Halakhah

Coping with old age involves resolving the task of "integrity versus despair," which demands a nondefensive confrontation with the inevitability of death. Halakhah (Jewish ethics) also considered this task critical in later years of life, spoke of death's inevitability, and attempted to discourage denial of death. The Jewish approach seems compatible with Butler's concept of "life review" as a reconciliation with death and a reintegration of one's identity that occurs throughout later years. While the Eriksonian goal is confronting old age with a certain capacity for "wisdom," the rabbis maintained that such wisdom must culminate in the creative act of repentance.

Metric variability of the postcanine dentition in colobus monkeys.

AbstractThe postcanine dentition of three species of colobus monkeys (Colobus polykomos polykomos, Procolobus badius badius and Procolobus verus) is compared metrically for three characters: interdental relations, sexual dimorphism and interspecific relations. Interdental relations reveal that the postcanine teeth represent a single morphogenetic field, which supports Butler's concept on the nature of the differentiation and variability of mammalian dentition. However, comparisons of the coefficients of variation show that interdental differences are not significant, except in a few cases. Also, sex differences in variability are not significant. However, comparisons of the means reveal highly significant sex differences, particularly in the dimensions of the first lower premolar in all three species. The analysis of interspecific relations of the postcanine dentition supports the current idea about the systematics of colobus monkeys. The findings are discussed with comparative data from other cercopithecoids and hominoids.