On Sun, 13 Aug 2000 00:31:48 -0400 Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> wrote:
> Butler (wrongly) doesn't think that gender can be abolished. Her philosophy
_conserves_ gender.
Yes and no. First, I don't think gender will ever be abolished. Can it be abolished? Well, sure, it isn't *impossible* but it certainly won't happen drawing on the social resources we have thus far. I supsect gender will never go away... and Dennis gave some pretty good examples of why it won't. As for Butler's philosophy conserving gender... I'm not completely sure. Does the willful transgression of consensus make consensus go away? Yes, in fact it does... not the idea of consensus - but the actual possibility of consensus disappears when people refuse to agree out of principle. So Butler certainly destablizes the concept of gender. In her first book she recommends drag, but this lends itself to appropriation by the fashion industry and so on and so on, which is certainly no friend of the elimination of body modification ad infinum.
ken