Not Born but Made: A Review of Judith Butler’s Gender Theory

This paper looks at Judith Butler's important essay “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution” from 1988. She challenges the idea that gender is something we are born with. According to Butler, we form our gender through repeated actions influenced by social expectations. Her argument, based on feminist and philosophical concepts, questions the usual link between sex and gender. This paper explains Butler's points and further analyzes how these points relate to contemporary conversations about gender, identity, and self-expression. It also acknowledges some shortcomings in her argument regarding lack of attention to how race, class, and colonialism structure gendered experiences. Nevertheless, Butler's theory is still powerful and respectable in considering gender as something fluid, social constructed and participatory.