127 Quotes by Judith Butler

We must be undone in order to do ourselves: we must be part of a larger social fabric of existence in order to create who we are.

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.

Possibility is not a luxury; it is as crucial as bread.

Lezbiyenlik pek açık bir şekilde yasaklanmış değildir, çünkü düşünülebilir, tasavvur edilebilir olana (gerçek ve adlandırılabilir olan şeyleri düzenleyen kültürel anlaşılabilirlik kalıbına) girmenin bir yolunu bulabilmiş dahi sayılmaz. Öyleyse, lezbiyenin var olmadığı bir siyasal bağlamda nasıl bir 'lezbiyen' olunacaktır? Bu, lezbiyenliğe karşı şiddetin kısmen lezbiyenliği söylemin kendisinden dışlayarak sürdüren bir siyasal söylemde mi söz konusu olacaktır?

The effect of gender is produced through the stylization of the body and, hence, must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements, and styles of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self. This formulation moves the conception of gender off the ground of a substantial model of identity to one that requires a conception of gender as a constituted social temporality.

That the power regimes of heterosexism and phallogocentrism seek to augment themselves through a constant repetition of their logic, their metaphysic, and their naturalized ontologies does not imply that repetition itself ought to be stopped—as if it could be. If repetition is bound to persist as the mechanism of the cultural reproduction of identities, then the crucial question emerges: What kind of subversive repetition might call into question the regulatory practice of identity itself?

Precisely because a living being may die, it is necessary to care for that being so that it may live. Only under conditions in which the loss would matter does the value of the life appear. Thus, grievability is a presupposition for the life that matters.

Thus the successful bid to gain access to marriage effectively strengthens marital status as a state-sanctioned condition for the exercise of certain kinds of rights and entitlements; it strengthens the hand of the state in the regulation of human sexual behavior; and it emboldens the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate forms of partnership and kinship.

Without grievability, there is no life, or, rather, there is something living that is other than life. Instead, "there is a life that will never have been lived," sustained by no regard, no testimony, and ungrieved when lost. The apprehension of grievability precedes and makes possible the apprehension of precarious life. Grievability precedes and makes possible the apprehension of the living being as living, exposed to non-life from the start.