International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2024

The Critiques of Butler’s Conceptual Reconstruction of Gender and Their Implications

(Abstract)

Fan Xuan

For resisting the biological determinism and emphasizing the social construction of gender, feminism brought great political value in this conception. However, it caused a dualism between sex and gender which limited the early gender studies to unembodied ones. American feminist philosopher Judith Butler reconstructed gender from the post-modernist perspective, trying to cancel the nature of sex and explaining the dynamic of gender with sexuality, for the aim of “opening up possibility for gender.” This radical reconstruction received critiques from body studies and feminist philosophy which question the theoretical perspective, focus, methodology, and political stance. The current paper reviews these critiques to look for inspirations for the gender sociology.