Comments on Whipping Girl: Julia Serano on Judith Butler

Thanks! regarding Blanchard, in all of his past w...

2015-10-22T12:58:49.581-07:00

Thanks!

regarding Blanchard, in all of his past writings on the subject, he never once even considers or raises the possibility that cisgender women might also (to some degree) experience FEFs. Presumably this is why he never used cisgender female controls in any of his research studies - because he did not think it was even possible.

So while he never states that FEFs are trans-specific, he clearly assumed they were.

it does take a tremendous discourse to clarify sup...

2015-10-22T11:47:43.762-07:00

it does take a tremendous discourse to clarify support, criticism, (dis)agreement with another, and students like us may become a bit lost. Thank you for the poop on you and J.Butler.
Apropos make plain the details: where does Blanchard state or suggest that FEF are specific to trans?

Namaste- Thanks Julia. I appreciate your honest a...

2015-10-20T12:43:41.739-07:00

Namaste-

Thanks Julia. I appreciate your honest attempts at evolving out loud. Your work is refreshing in that you seem to be doing your best to articulate your experiences from the heart. Keep up the fine work--all we can do in life is find out what it means to go deeper in our own individual truths, and watching this unfold in your work makes each publication expansive and interesting.

-Be Well and Take Care!

First, thanks for the kind words about Whipping Gi...

2015-09-14T11:32:32.963-07:00

First, thanks for the kind words about Whipping Girl!

And yes, that is the proper reading of performance/performativity in Butler's work. People who focus on "all gender is drag/performance" fail to note that (in addition to speech acts) Butler also talks a lot about interpellation - that is, when society "hails" us as something (e.g., as a "girl" in the example above), and how we are constantly compelled to respond as such. So it's not merely that we, as individuals, are "performing" maleness and femaleness, but rather it's kind of like a big social dance (my language, not Butler's) where we are all constantly interpellating other people while responding to interpellations ourselves. And all of these constant citations create the impression that gender is simply "real" and "natural."

At least that's my understanding/interpretation of Butler. And I definitely agree with all this - this is a huge aspect of how gender works. But I feel that there is more to gender than *just* this (as I have tried to articulate in my writings).

It doesn't surprise me that people misinterpre...

2015-09-14T08:49:06.140-07:00

It doesn't surprise me that people misinterpret Judith Butler's work. I tried to read _Gender_Trouble_ and got lost before the end of the first paragraph. It is _not_ light reading! At least, not for me. (Maybe it is for other people.)

Anyway, I saw an interesting explanation of the word "performance," as Judith Butler was using it, in Will's post "Let's talk about Gender Baby" on SkepChick (URL = http://skepchick.org/2015/07/lets-talk-about-gender-baby/). It made a lot of sense, to me, at least:

(begin quote)
... A performative speech act is an utterance that does what it says, versus a constative utterance, which is descriptive....

So, for example, “I’m sorry” is a performative utterance because saying it actually does the act of apologizing. It is not a simple descriptive statement. You can disagree that I actually mean it, or you can reject it, but regardless of those things I have still apologized. On the other hand, if I say “the dog is brown,” that is a descriptive statement and is subject to true/false verification—me saying that does not make the dog brown.

Butler’s argument was that gender is performative in this sense. Gender is something that we do, an action or set of actions that continuously (re)enact, (re)inscribe, (re)produce, resist, reference, etc., the social meanings we attribute to bodies, behaviors, and ideas, rather than something that we are or have deep down inside of us.
(end quote)

BTW, many thanks for _Whipping Girl_ . It put into words a lot of things I've been thinking and feeling, some for most of my life, some only since I started viewing myself as trans (2 years ago.) And it's a lot more readable than _Gender_Trouble_.

Thanks so much for writing this. I hope it reaches...

2015-09-12T02:11:46.239-07:00

Thanks so much for writing this. I hope it reaches a wider audience than you anticipate. Even with my very slight acquaintance with your and Butler's work, I found this post really informative. You both come across as having integrity, too.