In this episode, we turn to the conclusion of the book: From Parody to Politics (pp. 181–190). Here, Butler draws together the major threads of her argument to show how subversive performances—particularly parody and drag—can reveal the artificiality of gender norms and open space for political transformation.

We explore how parody is not merely mockery, but a powerful strategy to expose the performative nature of identity. By troubling the assumed coherence of sex, gender, and desire, Butler argues for a politics that resists the compulsion to normalize—and instead embraces the instability and multiplicity of gendered life.

Join us as we close our exploration of Gender Trouble by asking: What happens when we stop trying to define gender—and start performing it on our own terms?

Welcome to the 4th episode of Gender Trouble, the podcast where we dive deep into Judith Butler’s seminal work, Gender Trouble—a radical rethinking of feminism, identity, and the very meaning of gender.

In this episode, we explore Section 3: Subversive Bodily Acts (pp. 101–180), where Butler develops her influential theory of gender performativity. We examine how gender is not something we are, but something we enact—repeatedly, through stylized acts, gestures, and behaviors that create the illusion of a stable identity.

Drawing from phenomenology, feminist theory, and queer performance, Butler challenges the idea of a naturalized gendered body and opens up new possibilities for resistance. From the politics of drag to the instability of identity itself, we look at how performance can expose the constructed nature of gender—and subvert it.

Welcome to our third episode of Gender Trouble, the podcast where we dive deep into Judith Butler’s iconic challenge to identity, normativity, and the very meaning of gender. In this series, we explore how gender isn’t what we are—but what we do, again and again.

Today, we turn to the second section of Gender Trouble: Prohibition, Psychoanalysis, and the Production of the Heterosexual Matrix (pp. 45–100). Here, Butler brings together Freud, Lacan, and Foucault to examine how gender and sexuality are shaped not by inner truths, but by cultural prohibitions and psychic structures. We unpack the concept of the "heterosexual matrix"—the grid that organizes bodies, desires, and identities—and consider how power works through language, repression, and the formation of the subject itself.

In this episode, we explore the first chapter of Gender Trouble, “Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire” (pages 3–44). Butler interrogates the assumed coherence between sex, gender, and desire, raising a critical question: Who qualifies as a subject of feminism? Drawing from Foucault, Kristeva, Lacan, and Wittig, she deconstructs the binary frameworks that have shaped feminist thought and opens up a space to rethink what it means to be gendered. Join us as we unpack the destabilization of identity, the critique of representational politics, and the performative nature of gender itself.

In our very first episode of Gender Trouble, we begin where Judith Butler begins—at the thresholds of the text itself. Focusing on the Prefaces from the 1990 and 1999 editions, we trace Butler’s motivations, the political and theoretical context of the book’s emergence, and how Gender Trouble unexpectedly became a cornerstone of queer theory. What does it mean to trouble gender? Why revisit and revise the introduction nearly a decade later? And how does Butler grapple with the unintended uses and readings of her work? Join us as we set the stage for a journey into performativity, identity, and the subversive potential of doing gender differently.