brookes77, Judith Butler

It was a very powerful way to start off with quotes dehumanizing the female sex: " Strictly Speaking, 'women' cannot be said to exist"- Julia Kristeva. Butler explains how feminists and women are defined, is it political? He discusses how we define gender and what breaks up the different structures. " It is not enough to inquire into how women might become more fully represented in language and politics. Feminist critique ought also to understand how the category of ' women', the subject of feminism, is produced and restrained by the very structures of power through which emancipation is sought." (192) This is a very interesting argument because he is explaining that feminist, how are very intense in many ways, get there name from how intense and persistent they are that their message is sent out, and structures of power (the hegemonic class) takes these images of feminist who are fighting hard against this class and uses this t o their benefit, insulting feminist even more. So even because feminist are trying to make a stand, in the end, it inevitably comes back to haunt them in an offensive and insulting manner.

" ...the political problem that feminism encounters in the assumption that the term women denotes a common identity. Rather than a stable signifier that commands the assent of those whom it purports to describe and represent, women, even in the plural, has become a troublesome term, a site of contest, a cause for anxiety" (193) This shows that the feminist fight might be too overwhelming to the outer sphere in our culture. Casual things people say, do, or how they act are becoming problematic and it is becoming hard to have a definition for gender, as Butler explains. One must need "cultural intersections and political intersections" to understand. He then explains that feminist have a sense of "urgency" to spread their point in this mans world (patriarchy) but this is changing categories we have only known about. This is not write or wrong but is this feminist determination causing a major change?

Butler sums up his argument when he says " My suggestion is that the presumed universality and unity of the subject of feminism is effectively undermined by the constraints if the representational discourse in which it functions." - I think this is a very important statement because in a way he says that feminist have a right to fight to be noticed and defined not because they need to define males on a higher level but the way they are fighting and the urgent mentality is not doing any favors for how they are being represented in our culture.