Butler’s Constructivism

This chapter discusses Butler’s constructivist assumptions in terms of their epistemological implications. What does Butler mean by the “materialization” of bodies? Sect. 3.1 deals with the construction of gender identities in Butler’s work. They are discursively produced, and at the same time real and material. Sect. 3.2 examines Butler’s fragmentary metaphysics, initially based on the common misunderstandings of the same. The traditional dualistic assumptions about the relationship between form/idea and matter are at the center of the critique. Added to this is the barely reflected basic assumption that “reality” can be equated with a world as it exists independently of us, which Kant has already revised. However, Butler also seeks to overcome Kant’s dubious thing-in -itself as an “outside” of discourse.