Let's talk about Judith Butler

[EnderD_503]

Originally Posted by Novelafemme

Queer theorists like Judith Butler are relatively new to the world of transgender issues. She, like author/Chicana activist Cherrie Moraga, are quite forthcoming about their individual struggles with transphobia. For latent second wave feminists like them, the struggle is very internal and often goes against their anti-assimilation backgrounds. I am not saying they are right or wrong, rather inserting a bit of information that might shed some light.

added: by anti-assimilation I mean that some people feel transgender males have divorced themselves from the feminist community by "assimilating" into the heterosexual world. NOT ME! But "some people"

Yeah, both Butler and Halberstam seem to still carry these opinions about transguys, in particular. You can see them trying to work through it in their later works, but it still shines through pretty strong. They both also have trouble seeing transmen as transmen, instead of "biological women" with a "gender identification" that makes them fully identify as male. Again...yeah...they have their theories definitely have their problems. That isn't to say there isn't something useful to be taken out of it, as a lot of what they say about performativity and hetero/homonormativity is still very useful in the post-marriage rights/post-homo age of successful white gay dudes who think no one undergoes oppression anymore.