Judith Butler Quotes

Judith Butler is an American philosopher whose Gender Trouble made the performative theory of gender central to contemporary feminism, queer theory, and political thought. Drawing on Foucault, Lacan, and speech-act theory, Butler argued that gender is not the expression of a prior identity but a citational practice that produces the effect of substance through repeated stylization of the body. The quotes below are attributed to Judith Butler, organized by topic.

Judith Butler on Knowledge

“Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity" (1990)”
There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; that identity is performatively constituted by the very "expressions" that are said to be its results.
“If the immutable character of sex is contested, perhaps this construct called ‘sex’ is as culturally constructed as gender; indeed, perhaps it was always already gender, with the consequence that the distinction between sex and gender turns out to be no distinction at all.”
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity" (1990)
“Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity" (1990)”
If the immutable character of sex is contested, perhaps this construct called ‘sex’ is as culturally constructed as gender; indeed, perhaps it was always already gender, with the consequence that the distinction between sex and gender turns out to be no distinction at all.
“Gender is a kind of imitation for which there is no original; in fact, it is a kind of imitation that produces the very notion of the original as an effect and consequence of the imitation itself.”
Imitation and Gender Insubordination" in Inside/Out (1991) edited by Diana Fuss
“Imitation and Gender Insubordination" in Inside/Out (1991) edited by Diana Fuss”
Gender is a kind of imitation for which there is no original; in fact, it is a kind of imitation that produces the very notion of the original as an effect and consequence of the imitation itself.
“Indeed it may be only by risking the incoherence of identity that connection is possible.”
Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex" (1993)
“Perhaps the promise of phallus is always dissatisfying in some way.”
The Lesbian Phallus and the Morphological Imaginary" (1993), later published in The Judith Butler Reader (2004) edited by Sarah Salih with Judith Butler
“The Lesbian Phallus and the Morphological Imaginary" (1993), later published in The Judith Butler Reader (2004) edited by Sarah Salih with Judith Butler”
Perhaps the promise of phallus is always dissatisfying in some way.

Read all Judith Butler quotes on Knowledge

Judith Butler on Love

Attributed to Judith Butler:

“Let's face it. We're undone by each other. And if we're not, we're missing something.”
Attributed to Judith Butler:

“We are, from the start, given over to the other.”

Judith Butler on Mind

Attributed to Judith Butler:

“Gender is the repeated stylization of the body, a set of repeated acts that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance.”
“There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; that identity is performatively constituted by the very expressions that are said to be its results.”
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity" (1990)

Judith Butler on Nature

“Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex" (1993)”
Indeed it may be only by risking the incoherence of identity that connection is possible.

Judith Butler on Politics

Attributed to Judith Butler:

“To be a body is to be exposed to social crafting and form.”

Judith Butler on Time

“Further Reflections on the Conversations of Our Time" (1997), which received first place in the Philosophy and Literature Bad Writing Contest”
The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoret