The Sociology Book

59

power in society is exerted by the
imposition of social norms, and in
particular that not only our gender
but our sexuality is shaped by the
culture in which we live. Just as
de Beauvoir had brought the issue
of gender into the social sphere,
Foucault broadened the debate
significantly to include sexual
orientation, and indeed the whole
of sexual behavior.
The generation after Foucault
grew up in an era marked by a
relaxation of sexual mores: the “free
love” of the 1960s, acceptance

(or at least, decriminalization) of

homosexuality in many countries,

and the sexual liberation brought

by the Women’s Lib movement.

Gender identities

Among the “baby boomers” of the

post-war generation was US scholar

Judith Butler, who took these ideas

yet further. While accepting de

Beauvoir’s main point that gender

is a social construct, Butler felt that

traditional feminism ignores the

wider implications of this notion,

and merely reinforces male and

female stereotypes. Gender is

not as simple, she contends, as

masculinity and femininity, nor

is sexuality as simple as gay and

straight. Gender and sexuality are

neither as polarized in this way,

nor as fixed and unchanging as

we have come to believe, but

can be fluid, covering a whole

spectrum of gender identities. ❯❯

See also: Michel Foucault 52–55; 302–03 ■ Margaret Mead 176–77
Adrienne Rich 304–09 ■ Jeffrey Weeks 324–25 ■ Steven Seidman 326–31

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY

Gender is an impersonation...

becoming gendered involves

impersonating an ideal that

nobody actually inhabits.

Judith Butler

Gay Pride events, which were

first held in the US in 1971 to protest

against persecution of gays, challenged

the notion that sexuality was confined

to masculinity and femininity.

Judith Butler

One of the most influential

figures in feminist and

LGBTI issues from the 1990s

onward, Judith Butler has

also been a prominent activist

in anti-war, anti-capitalism,

and anti-racism movements.

Her parents were of Russian

and Hungarian Jewish

descent. She studied at

Yale University, where she

received her doctorate in

philosophy in 1984. In 1993,

after teaching at various

universities, she took up

a post at the University of

California, Berkeley, and

was appointed Maxine Elliot

Professor of Rhetoric and

Comparative Literature in

1998. Other posts include
      chair of the board of the
      International Gay and Lesbian
      Human Rights Commission.
      She was awarded the Theodor
      W. Adorno Prize in 2012.
      Butler lives with her partner,
      the political theorist Wendy
      Brown, in California.

Key works

1990 Gender Trouble:

Feminism and the Subversion

of Identity

1993 Bodies That Matter: On

the Discursive Limits of “Sex”

2004 Undoing Gender