Judith Butler’s Bodies that Matter: on the Discursive limits of "Gender"

The book: Bodies that Matter” is a feminist philosophical effort to consider “The body”. Judith Butler, who’s the writer of the book, also used this book as a medium to answer the criticism of her last book titled Gender Trouble. Judith was smart enough to take this opportunity to argue with a few philosophers who were feminists, who concluded that the body is only a matter, by the matter they meant that a material body that has a sexual requirement. Butler showed a different perspective, she showed that the body cannot function or exist outside the cultural construction. Judith states that the materiality of the body is itself a construct; it can be cultural, historical, or social. Judith has particularly raised the question that “is there a method through which the materiality of the body can be linked to the performativity of gender” (Butler, 1993:1). It is a question that projects more questions to the mind in relation to the materiality of the body which is assumed to be “ugly”. However, the writer confesses and considers the fact that the materiality of the body isn't easy to differentiate from its surroundings or environment.

“Not only did bodies tend to indicate a world beyond themselves, but this movement beyond their own boundaries, a movement of the boundary itself, appeared to be quite central to what bodies ‘are’” (Butler, 1993: ix)

The book certainly helped to clear out the few ideas which were not clearly stated in the book “Gender Trouble”. The writer has emphasized here that the performativity of the gender will not imply an agency that would easily allow one to put and take it as the one pleases, as it is a dialogue with the Spivak’s elaboration of deconstruction in which the idea of free play as dismissed. Performativity is a repetitive reiteration that requires a coherent identity that the cost of the complexity, it is not based on the antagonizing the one who performs but it is distinct which results in the shattering of the matrix.

What is needed in terms of further discussion here is the materiality of sex. The reader does concur and understand Judith's dismissal of the idea that sex is a tabula tasa that is free of identity. Sex then also adds the perception through the discourse, it has made sense of the discursively. But where is the differentiation? How can one draw a line? Which part should be considered of the materiality to be understood as which is significant to sexuality? To state that the understanding of sex is shaped due to the discourse is one thing, but it does require clarification to the extent that geniality should dictate sexuality.

On the contrary, the reader does admire the suggestion made by Judith that a project which is worth pursuing is the alternative to the imaginary schemas for constructing sites for pleasure. The idea was introduced by Elizabeth Grosz's reading of desire in Spinoza which led to a call for the zones of pleasure, the reader liked that thought.

However, the reader did get confused about Judith’s insistence on psychoanalysis as a tool for empowerment. It felt really far, that Lacan’s phallogocentric discourse is bluntly heterosexist, essential, and sexist. The reader enjoyed the writer’s take on it, and there is some left credit to the idea of reversal, although the reader doesn't agree that this is the best way to deal with contemporary issues. It feels that psychoanalysis has lost its charm in making sense of how we perceive the world.

Although there were a few instances in the book that said too much in a few sentences, it does feel and project that Judith successfully considers and sees both sides of the issue and greatly helps to navigate through the minefield with a new look at how the sexuality plays the role in determining how can we consider yourself.

Judith also has successfully talked about the categorization of the woman.

    “The category of women does not become useless through deconstruction, but becomes one whose uses are no longer reified as ‘referents,’ and which stand a chance of being opened up, indeed, of coming to signify in ways that none of us can predict in advance” (Butler, 1993: 29)

Judith has specified that maternity of the body exists. The book also discloses the famous concept of performativity, it is a notion that gender is a kind of performance, it projects that something that some do rather is, it is an argument which helps to lead to the thought that bodies and the gender are totally two different concepts. The book aids to separate the discourse and social norm from its biology, Judith reconstructs the thought that gender is rather something that is what a person is born with rather than something which is acquired.

It should be noted that gender performativity for the writer is not something that a particular person acts but is a ritualized norm that a person blindly follows. In being a man, one actually acts in a manner that projects masculinity, the performance is ever replayed. To be the ultimate male, there isn’t a single act of masculinity that is needed to be performed. Gender is not only done but is constantly remade. To conclude, Bodies that matter is the norm. opposing it as it serves to expose, it helps to break down thus observing the feel of the body from the constraints of the disclose. It suggests that the possibility of both uses of the term woman at the same time can be critique or subject. Overall, it is a worth reading book, although Judith is much stronger in terms of citizenship and immigration than sexuality. It's evident that her lexicon makes a fair bit of her writing inaccessible.  the reader personally likes the depth of the book, it was rewarding. It was indeed provocative, engaging and one of the best books the reader worked through.