>This is more or less describes Butler's activism. She is notorious for
>quibbling at conferences about being referred to as a woman or lesbian.
>Perhaps it is self-mockery, but I would not rule out the possibility that
>she actually sees this as politics. For example, at the Freud conference
>here at Yale last year someone referred to "the three women" on the panel
>and Butler grabbed the mike to report that, while the others may have
>identified themselves as women, she had not. People kind of giggled, and
>she succesfully flustered the questioner enough to evade his/her question.
>But I thought, what a drag! This is political speech?
It's sort of like those whiteness guys who refuse the appellation. Isn't there a story about Ted Allen reacting to a cabbie who was going on in a racist manner about "us white guys" by claiming he's not white? An approach that has its limits I'd guess.
Doug