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If you want a challenge, and want to read some really dense academic deconstruction of gender and gender roles, I recommend Judith Butler, specifically "Gender

If you want a challenge, and want to read some really dense academic deconstruction of gender and gender roles, I recommend Judith Butler, specifically "Gender Trouble" and "Undoing Gender". And hopefully someday Kahn Academy will do a video series explaining her work in laymans terms. :) EDIT: Can't reply, so I'm responding to the comment below here: Symmetry: no room for the reality of Gender Disphoria or cases like David Reimer's Actually, Judith Butler's book, "Undoing Gender" is specifically about the case of David Reimer. I'm definitely not going to say that her work is without flaws, there are many, but she's one of the foremost gender theorists out there, so I think her work is worth exploring.

corin_ 16y ago
How dense? I'm interested enough to want to read more than fluff pieces, but I suspect not interested enough to read something really dense, That said, given it's most likely too subjective for you to really be able to say whether her writing would interest me, if I were to to buy one of them first, which would you suggest?
Symmetry 16y ago
I was actually rather unimpressed with what I was able to discover about her work in the admittedly small amount of research I was able to do just now. I'd certainly agree that sex and gender aren't ontologically basic, but its a large leap from there to saying that they're just performative. I'd go so far as to say that Judith Butlers work looks like the sort of thing when you try to fit reality into harsh black and white qualitative logic, when you could easily look at circumstances quantitatively, say "continuous bimodal distribution" and be done with it. More practically, the brief synopsis of Judith Butler's works I've seen seem to leave no room for the reality of Gender Disphoria or cases like David Reimer's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_dysphoria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_dysphoria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer and in the Googling I've been able to do all I can find is either transgendered people being annoyed at "Gender Trouble" or people who have read it saying that they don't see how transsexuality can exist. If there's some official reconciliation I'd be happy to hear about it but I haven't found any evidence of such. EDIT: Ah, I see - should have searched harder. If "her new book constitutes a reconsideration of her earlier view on gender performativity" as the Amazon review says then thats welcome and I'm glad to see her change her mind about the things I found objectionable. I still doubt that I would find her work interesting, but you can consider me mollified.

corin_ 16y ago

How dense? I'm interested enough to want to read more than fluff pieces, but I suspect not interested enough to read something really dense, That said, given it's most likely too subjective for you to really be able to say whether her writing would interest me, if I were to to buy one of them first, which would you suggest?

Symmetry 16y ago

I was actually rather unimpressed with what I was able to discover about her work in the admittedly small amount of research I was able to do just now. I'd certainly agree that sex and gender aren't ontologically basic, but its a large leap from there to saying that they're just performative. I'd go so far as to say that Judith Butlers work looks like the sort of thing when you try to fit reality into harsh black and white qualitative logic, when you could easily look at circumstances quantitatively, say "continuous bimodal distribution" and be done with it. More practically, the brief synopsis of Judith Butler's works I've seen seem to leave no room for the reality of Gender Disphoria or cases like David Reimer's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_dysphoria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_dysphoria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer and in the Googling I've been able to do all I can find is either transgendered people being annoyed at "Gender Trouble" or people who have read it saying that they don't see how transsexuality can exist. If there's some official reconciliation I'd be happy to hear about it but I haven't found any evidence of such. EDIT: Ah, I see - should have searched harder. If "her new book constitutes a reconsideration of her earlier view on gender performativity" as the Amazon review says then thats welcome and I'm glad to see her change her mind about the things I found objectionable. I still doubt that I would find her work interesting, but you can consider me mollified.