Reconsidering Sex And Gender

This dissertation is a linearized study of performativity advanced by the post-feminist Judith Butler in which her thoughts of sex/gender are criticized and reconsidered. In fact, women's identity has experienced the deconstruction as well as the reconstruction in her works. Although she has caused trouble for gender, she also tries to explain this gender trouble. Her efforts are highly praised for the reconstruction of female identity.Adopting the linearized methodology to research on performativity, the author of this dissertation traces the sources of this theory; interprets its production and place and researches on the related criticism as well.Part one of this dissertation mainly concerns the production of performativity that reveals the interior mechanism in which the discrimination against women is still operational. Marxism, Hegelianism and theories of the second wave of feminism are key sources which lead to the very formation of performativity. In part two of the essay, the author of this dissertation totally focuses on Gender Trouble, where she tries to illustrate how subversion of identity is realized through performativity. In Part Three, Judith Butler's second book, Bodies that Matter reclarifies her idea that performativity is established on iterability. And the last part intends to summarize this theory as well as recapitulate other feminists'criticism.In conclusion, performativity focuses on the deconstruction of femininity and the female identity, through which feminists can seek for a way of the reconstruction.