On The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind (2020). What is it to be nonviolent in political activity? Is it to eschew violence in all circumstances, or just not to be the aggressor? While Judith is not ruling out all excuses that violence is needed for self-defense, she sees this excuse as perniciously expansive due to the nature of what we might consider part of Continue Reading …
Ep. 236: Judith Butler Interview: “The Force of Nonviolence” (Citizen Edition)
On The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind (2020). What is it to be nonviolent in political activity? Is it to eschew violence in all circumstances, or just not to be the aggressor? While Judith is not ruling out all excuses that violence is needed for self-defense, she sees this excuse as perniciously expansive due to the nature of what we might consider part of Continue Reading …
Ep. 235: Judith Butler’s “Gender Trouble” (Part Three)
Concluding on Gender Trouble (1990). It's a different day, and we've trimmed down to just Mark, Wes, and Seth to cover the latter portions of our assigned reading, especially part I, section v: "Identity, Set, and the Metaphysics of Substance," and part III, section iv: "Subversive Bodily Acts: Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions." We also added two articles Continue Reading …
Ep. 235: Judith Butler’s “Gender Trouble” (Part Two)
More Gender Trouble (1990) with Jennifer Hansen. We get into the metaphysics of substance (are gender and sex attributes that a person has, or is there a better way to describe the situation?), performatives, and what Butler sees as the available mechanisms for changing gender norms. We compare the different views of femininity within male-defined conceptual space according Continue Reading …
Ep. 235: Judith Butler’s “Gender Trouble” (Citizen Edition)
On Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990). Is gender socially constructed, and if so, how? Butler describes gender not as an essential quality of a person, but as "performed," as habits of acting in certain ways in accordance with customs. But it's not that we can simply recognize that customs could have been different and so throw out gender Continue Reading …
Ep. 235: Judith Butler’s “Gender Trouble” (Part One)
On Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990). Is gender socially constructed, and if so, how? Butler describes gender not as an essential quality of a person, but as "performed," as habits of acting in certain ways in accordance with customs. But it's not that we can simply recognize that customs could have been different and so throw out gender Continue Reading …