Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex

“For if I were to argue that genders are performative, that could mean that I thought that one woke in the morning, perused the closet or some more open space for the gender of choice, donned that gender for the day, and then restored the garment to its place at night. Such a willful and instrumental subject, one who decides on its gender, is clearly not its gender from the start and fails to realize that its existence is already decided by gender. Certainly, such a theory would restore a figure of a choosing subject—humanist—at the center of a project whose emphasis on construction seems to be quite opposed to such a notion.”

Butler critiques the misconception that a performative understanding of gender implies a willful and active subject who consciously chooses their gender each day. This understanding of her widely used concept of performativity is still prevalent in academic and activist circles. Butler does not align with such an understanding of a choosing and performing subject, which she associates with humanism—a system of thought defined by its focus on a rational, individualist subject that is detached from nature. Butler argues that such an iteration of performativity contradicts the emphasis on gender’s construction by reinstating a figure of a “choosing subject,” undermining the foundational concept of her argument.

“It is not enough to argue that there is no prediscursive ‘sex’ that acts as the stable point of reference on which, or in relation to which, the cultural construction of gender proceeds. To claim that sex is already gendered, already constructed, is not yet to explain in which way the ‘materiality’ of sex is forcibly produced.”

In this quote from the Preface, Butler underscores the need to delve into the processes and forces that shape the materiality of sex within the context of gender construction. This quote announces her analysis of the complicated relationship between gender and sex as part of a dynamic of mutual reiteration. At the same time, Butler insists on the concreteness and materiality of sex outside its social signification.