Is Gender Troubled?

Judith Butler's proposals concerning gender have had a much greater impact than one would guess, given her arcane academic style. While many of her ideas have entered the popular public discourse, it is worth tracing those ideas back to the source and engaging them substantively. This seminar will read parts of the first chapter of Gender Trouble, Butler's break-out book, and try to come to a deeper understanding of her ideas. That will enable us to make more informed critiques. We will focus on what Butler means by feminism, compulsory sexuality, performativity, substances, and the discursive production of gender.

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Angela Franks is a theologian, speaker, writer, and mother of six. She serves as Professor of Theology at St. John’s Seminary in Boston. Her areas of specialty include the theology of the body, the New Evangelization, the Trinity, Christology, and the thought of John Paul II and Hans Urs von Balthasar.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash