Judith Butler For Andrew and Daniel Judith Butler From Norms to Politics Moya Lloyd polity Copyright © Moya Lloyd 2007 The right of Moya Lloyd to be identifi ed as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published in 2007 by Polity Press Polity Press 65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK Polity Press 350 Main Street Malden, MA 02148, USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN-13: 978-07456-2611-6 ISBN-13: 978-07456-2612-3 (pb) A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Typeset in 10.5 on 12 pt Palatino by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong Printed and bound in India by Replica Press PVT Ltd The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate. Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition. For further information on Polity, visit our website: www.polity.co.uk Key Contemporary Thinkers Jeremy Ahearne, Michel de Certeau: Interpretation and its Other Peter Burke, The French Historical Revolution: The Annales School, 1929–1989 Michael Caesar, Umberto Eco: Philosophy, Semiotics and the Work of Fiction M. J. Cain, Fodor: Language, Mind and Philosophy Rosemary Cowan, Cornel West: The Politics of Redemption Colin Davis, Levinas: An Introduction Andreas Due, Deleuze Maximilian de Gaynesford, John McDowell Matthew Elton, Daniel Dennett: Reconciling Science and our Self-Conception Simon Evnine, Donald Davidson Chris Fleming, René Girard: Violence and Mimesis Edward Fullbrook and Kate Fullbrook, Simone de Beauvoir: A Critical Introduction Andrew Gamble, Hayek: The Iron Cage of Liberty Nigel Gibson, Fanon: The Postcolonial Imagination Graeme Gilloch, Walter Benjamin: Critical Constellations Karen Green, Dummett: Philosophy of Language Espen Hammer, Stanley Cavell: Skepticism, Subjectivity, and the Ordinary Phillip Hansen, Hannah Arendt: Politics, History and Citizenship Sean Homer, Fredric Jameson: Marxism, Hermeneutics, Postmodernism Christopher Hookway, Quine: Language, Experience and Reality Christina Howells, Derrida: Deconstruction from Phenomenology to Ethics Fred Inglis, Clifford Geertz: Culture, Custom and Ethics Simon Jarvis, Adorno: A Critical Introduction Sarah Kay, Žižek: A Critical Introduction Douglas Kellner, Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Post-Modernism and Beyond Valerie Kennedy, Edward Said: A Critical Introduction Chandran Kukathas and Philip Pettit, Rawls: A Theory of Justice and its Critics Moya Lloyd, Judith Butler: From Norms to Politics James McGilvray, Chomsky: Language, Mind, and Politics Lois McNay, Foucault: A Critical Introduction Philip Manning, Erving Goffman and Modern Sociology Michael Moriarty, Roland Barthes Stephen Morton, Gayatri Spivak Dermot Moran, Edmund Husserl Harold W. Noonan, Frege: A Critical Introduction James R. O’Shea, Wilfrid Sellars: Naturalism with a Normative Turn William Outhwaite, Habermas: A Critical Introduction Kari Palonen, Quentin Skinner: History, Politics, Rhetoric John Preston, Feyerabend: Philosophy, Science and Society Chris Rojek, Stuart Hall Susan Sellers, Hélène Cixous: Authorship, Autobiography and Love Wes Sharrock and Rupert Read, Kuhn: Philosopher of Scientific Revolutions David Silverman, Harvey Sacks: Social Science and Conversation Analysis Dennis Smith, Zygmunt Bauman: Prophet of Postmodernity Nicholas H. Smith, Charles Taylor: Meaning, Morals and Modernity Felix Stalder, Manuel Castells: The Theory of the Network Society Geoffrey Stokes, Popper: Philosophy, Politics and Scientific Method Georgia Warnke, Gadamer: Hermeneutics, Tradition and Reason James Williams, Lyotard: Towards a Postmodern Philosophy Jonathan Wolff, Robert Nozick: Property, Justice and the Minimal State Contents Abbreviations x Acknowledgements xii 1 Introduction 1 Feminism, identity and difference 4 From homosexual to gay and lesbian to queer 7 The infl uence of poststructuralism 10 Hegel and desiring subjects 13 Postscript 23 2 Rethinking Sex and Gender 25 The trouble with women 25 Feminism and the sex/gender debate 28 Denaturalizing sex and gender 30 Cultural intelligibility – contesting heteronormativity 33 From phenomenology to performativity 36 Performing gender 42 Women in/and feminism 44 Conclusion 46 3 Towards a Subversive Gender Politics 49 From parody to politics 50 Subversive gender politics 51 Performativity and subversion 54 viii Contents Free will versus determinism 57 Enter iterability 61 The ambivalence of drag 66 The matter of bodies 68 Politicizing abjection – making bodies matter 74 Conclusion 76 4 Psychoanalysis and the Gendered Subject 78 Gender Trouble and psychoanalysis 79 Rubin and ‘The Traffi c in Women’ 80 Freud and Oedipus 82 Melancholic gender identifi cations 83 Melancholia and performativity 85 Lacan and Oedipus 88 Assuming sex 89 Locating resistance 91 Kinship matters 93 Psychic subjectivity 97 Passionate attachment and primary dependency 99 Resisting Butler 102 Conclusion 105 5 ‘Talking Back’ – Resignifi cation and Politics 107 Words that Wound 108 The force of the performative 110 Opposing sovereign performatives 113 A linguistic account of subjectivity 115 Linguistic subjectivity and responsibility 118 Revisiting agency – politics and resignifi cation 120 Against the state 126 Conclusion 133 6 What Makes for a Liveable Life? 134 Normative violence and questions of liveability 135 Corporeal vulnerability 138 Mourning and grief 141 Questions of recognition 143 What’s wrong with ‘desiring the state’s desire’? 146 The politics of radical democracy 148