Judith Butler: Introduction and Thoughts

When I first heard about Judith Butler, is was in one of my classes with Dr. Plate at Lindenwood University. I believe I'd heard her name before, she sounded familiar--but I knew nothing about her.

I honestly thought Judith Butler was an older author in terms of Woolf and Plath eras. While looking her up, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Butler actually should be an idol of mine--and I'm excited to delve into a lot more research about her.

What she's saying in her novels, articles, and teaching--is all something I've thought deeply about and have had no idea how to put it into words. I am slowly introducing myself to Butler as I still want to form my own ideas without just adopting what she's saying.

There's philosophical questions on life and death, gender identity, and sex in general. Why is there such stigma on sex--regarding gender, exploration, or identity? There are so many answers to that: one, religion; two, societal norms (based on religion at one point too); what constitutes as "morality" and how does sex fit into it or break it? There is so much more to answer.

In one of my readings I did for my myth and travel literary course years ago, I did a lot of research into a Laguna-Pueblo Native American culture for one of my favorite readings. Gender and sexual relations was "loose" in terms of societal rules against it. Gender was fluid, sex was fluid, and a lot more that my memory cannot serve me right now.

This tribe was promoting the fluidity of sex and normalized it in their own culture long before Western civilizations even considered thinking and talking about it.

To digress, I find Judith Butler to be intriguing. She's taught at so many schools, she's taught so many different courses, and she's written a lot of nonfiction works that are fueling feminist movements and queer movements today. She's an inspiration.

This piece will be short--it's more of just bullet points of what I want to talk about more coming up. Sources: Judith Butler info: https://pact.egs.edu/biography/judith-butler/ Laguna-Pueblo Culture if you want to read more: https://www.lagunapueblo-nsn.gov/