October 4

I. Re-watching Judith Butler Together

• not performed BUT performative
• not internal reality BUT reproduced phenomena
• institutional powers and informal practices
• the police function of gendered norms
• cultural forms/norms ....but also freedom!

II. Whole Class Activities: Clarification Exercise
Was there a word, sentence, or paragraph that really tripped you up?  If so, let's air these together now as a way to begin our discussion of Gender Trouble.

III. Group Discussion Part I: Privilege Exercise... What do You take For Granted?  Why?  How?

1. Do the privilege activity. 
2. Take any one item at the very end and explain your answer more.
3. Share what you wrote on your worksheet with one another.
4. Discuss: Do you have heterosexual privilege?  When or when not?

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Click here for previous students' understandings/statements of Butler's Gender Trouble

Please look at the central issues bullet-listed on the left

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IV. Group Discussion Part II: WWJBS? (What Would Judith Butler Say?)
Let's ask WWJBS?  This line of critical theory offers us a different kind of lens into our conversations so far that push us to think about gender's performativity... including its heterosexist norms.  Here are questions inspired from your previous classes and writings:

1. Think back to the discussions of catcalling/sexual harrassment.  WWJBS?  How is gender performed here? Why and for whom?
2. Let's be clear here: we live in a world where it is actually DANGEROUS for gay couples to hold hands in public or for transmen and transwomen to even walk out the door.   WWJBS?  How is gender performed here? Why and for whom?
3. What does it mean to be a "woman"?  What does it mean to be a "man"? WWJBS?*
4. What do we do about "heterosexual privilege"?

Be ready to talk about these questions as a whole class.  Be ready to interrogate how/why these public gender performances are also heterosexist in nature.