1. Overview Queer Theory continued Judith Butler Judith Halberstam
Sara Crawley

2. Judith Butler
Questioning the uses of identity and subjectivity for women and lesbians
Claiming an identity is “regulatory”
Whether it is a normative category (man/woman) or a rallying point for liberation (gay/lesbian)
Identity can “recolonize” us
She doesn’t totally reject labels, but argues that they must be “sites of necessary trouble”

3. Judith Butler Identity as “sites of necessary trouble”
Parody, imitation, drag
Don’t copy normative roles but exposes that is it all imitation
Gender, sex, and sexuality are “performances”, “compulsory performances”
We think of gender, sex, and sexuality as expressing something inherent
Yet these identities are the effects of our actions, not prior to our actions

4. Judith Butler
There is a need to render lesbians visible, but how do we do this without further regulation
How will the term be used?
“If I claim to be a lesbian, I ‘come out’ only to produce a new and different closet”
Gays and lesbians don’t imitate heterosexuality, but they show that it is constructed

5. Judith Halberstam- Female Masculinities
Constructing female masculinity
To show alternative masculinities
Masculinity is not solely related to or embedded in the male body
Masculinity studies have focused on men
Need to break the idea that masculinity is wed to maleness, power, and domination
We need to untangle masculinity from the oppression of women
We only “see” masculinity when it leaves the white, male, hetero body

6. Female Masculinities Alternative masculinities
Intervene in the process of creating normative categories
To “queer” and challenge gender conformity- create the idea of “gender preference”
Still no acceptance or even recognition of masculine women- only “tomboys”
Female masculinity is most threatening when it is coupled with lesbian desire
Need to pay attention to homophobia
Need to produce feminist, antiracist, and queer masculinities

7. Female Masculinities Terms
Transgender- gender variance that retains the birth body
Transsexual- gender variance that necessitates sex reassignment
Has been used as a show of gender transgression and gender conservatism
Identity- a process with multiple sites for becoming and being