[lbo-talk] Butler

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Wed Jun 4 10:01:46 PDT 2008


On Jun 4, 2008, at 12:48 PM, Seth Ackerman wrote:


> No, this is the same mistake Butler makes! Dressing a child in
> gender-ambiguous clothes does not undermine the stability of
> *biological* distinctions between the sexes. It undermines *socially*
> constructed gender distinctions.

Part of her point is how deeply invested people are in making this distinction. If you play with the dressing conventions, or ignore them, then it's as if people have nothing to hold on to and it makes them nervous. They really really want there to be some physical ground to the social distinction.

Doug



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