ws = Nietotson Gz Me D. i; R ROUBLE JUDITH BUTLER FEMINISM AND THE SUBVERSION OF IDENTITYRowdee amp of oud, Chao & Hal 23 Wea Seer Publis i Grea Brisa by Roueie: Tt New eter Lane Lemon FeaP aE © 1990 by Routes, Chapman 8 Hal Priel in the Used Sexes of Artist Al is eset No arf is ook my Be vino epradid of| teed in any form a by any orn, men oer mean nw oe or rear inven, nding poco aol recoding ot seve seed seen obo em eo ‘rom the publishers. ms ary of Congres Cataloging in Pbician Data Bas, adh ‘ander rob: einsm and he sabes fib Jad nace 1 m—(Tioking nde) Inde den ISN bat50825; SBN 5.90889) {Feminism onphy. 2 Serle, Se ens tcl 4 ey chop) 5 Fenty cog ae enc J Hasta ie ris Library Cataloging in Pblicton Data ako ava Contents Prtace 1 Sabie of Sex\GenderDesee Women” as the Subject of Feminism 4 The Compulsory Onder of SexiGendenDesie liv Genders The Ciculae Rune of Contemporary Debate 1 Theorsing the Binary the Unitary, and Beyond 1 deni, Sex, and the Metaphysics of Substance i Language, Power, and the Strategies of Displacement 2 Prohibition, Psychoanalysis, and the Production ofthe eterosexeal Mat Structural’ Creal Exchange 4, Lacan, Riviere, and the States of Masquerade ‘ii Fro andthe Melancholia of Gener 1 Gender Complesty and the Limits of Identification 1 Retormalasing Prohibition a Power 3. Subversive Bodily Acs 1 "The Body Potties of Julia Kristeva {i Foucasy Herein, and the Politics ‘of Sexual Discontinuity iii Monique Wig: Bodily Disintegration and Fetive Sex I oily Inscriptions, PerformatveSebversons ‘Conclsion: From Parody to Polis Notes Index 93 m1. Ls oy 430 170Preface Contemporary feminist debates over the meanings of gender ead sime and again cen sens of trouble arf the ndeterminacy of fender might eventually culminate in the are of mins, Perhaps {rouble eed not cary sucha negative valence. To make trouble wy ‘within the reigning discourse of my childhood something one should never do precely because that would ge one‘ rouble, The rebelion and is reprimand scemed to be caught up inthe same termsy 3 ‘Phenomenon that gave nse to my ft eric insight go che sulle ruse of power The prevaing law threatened one sth rouble even purone'in ouble, lle heep one out of trouble. Hence, concluded {har touble's inevitable andthe task, how hes to make it what best ‘way to be in i As time went byy further ambigiisarsved on the erica scene I noted that trouble sometimes euphemized some fundamentally mysterious problem usually relate othe alleged mys: tery ofall things feminine. rad Beauvot who explained that to be 4 Noman with the terms ofa masclinst clare i to be a source fof mystery and unkowabiiy for men, and thi scemed confirmed Somehow when Trea Sartre for whom ll dese, peoblematialy presume as heteronenal and masculine, was defined 3 frowble For {hae maculine subject of desire, touble became a scandal with the Ssden intrusion, the unansspated agency of female sobject™ who Inexplicably reruns the glance, reverses the gay and contests the Placeand authorty ofthe masculine poston. The radial dependency Breas abet onthe mae rh” eden expones hu autonomy as illusory. Thar particlar dialectical reversal of power, however, could'e quit hold’ my aetion although others surly did. Power cemed fo be more than an exchange between subjects Of