A philosophical book on the current thinking (albeit 1990)
on gender roles, sexual orientation, and all that encompasses (political
viewpoints, language changes, and the intersectionality that exists between all
of the above) is featured in Gender
Trouble by Judith Butler. It
contains three parts, reads like three separate essays on the complex issues
related to women (a rebuttal to the feminist theorists on the categorization of
identity) and moves into a more progressive view on gender and identity. The author examines the works of
well-established theorists such as Simone de Beauvoir, Luce Irigaray, Claude
Levi-Strauss, Joan Riviere, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and Michael Foucault
to compare and contrast her thoughts on the topic. The book gives a view into the challenges of
generalizing the complexity of race, gender, and sexuality of females. I am usually more excited to read novels than
“text-book” philosophical reads, albeit an area in which I am pretty
unschooled. I’ll be honest, I needed to
strain and be very present to get through this book after completing two young
adult reads. One of my scholars scolded
me for not being as excited about this read.
This is a hard topic to get your mind around so that in itself made it
most challenging. Well, as I’ve noted
previously if I like the book, I can’t put it down. Thanks to the LGBTQ Office at NYU for
providing the book for me to read. I will say it opened my mind to the various
perspectives and intricacies on a topic that I have not spent a lot of time
reading. The author’s use of gaining
multiple perspectives and counter thoughts to her own demonstrated her depth of
research, I loved the reprinted version with a second forward to the original. I am always impressed when authors rethink
their position and let the reader know where they were “mentally” during the
first edition and how their learning has moved them a bit into a new
direction. A classic for feminist and
third-wave feminism. Not the kind of
book you read while on the beach.
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