For instance, some charities and NGOs provide safe spaces and specific facilities in order to improve women’s lives, especially in countries with unstable political situations. There are practical aspects to feminism as a political theory concerned with the recognition of women’s experiences of oppression, because many activists strive for material solutions in order to prevent women from getting hurt and being dehumanised. )), and are much more likely to be seriously hurt and experience higher rates of repeated victimisation than men. “Women paid £260,000 less than men over their careers – report.” The Guardian. For instance, women are paid £260,000 less throughout their whole career worldwide, according to The Guardian ((COLLINSON, Patrick. It is a fact that women have less power than men in every society and suffer more physical and psychological violence.

First and foremost, what is feminism? A rather simple definition of the Oxford dictionary states that “feminism is the belief that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men it also is the struggle to achieve this aim”. This article proposes to explore Butler’s understanding of sex and gender within feminist theory throughout her critical contributions in philosophy on the subject, which greatly impacted feminist studies in various academic fields.īefore going any further, it is important to consider some core aspects of feminist theory. Sex is the basis on which gender is built and not the contrary. Nonetheless, and contrary to many feminist thinkers who theorised gender as a social construct, Butler states that sex is also socially constituted, which could be confusing given that it has always been understood as ‘natural’, biological and untouched by cultural influence. Many theorists agree that gender is socially constructed and culturally informed by whom we interact with and by our habits. Indeed Butler assumes, as Woolf did before her, that gender is not fixed but always enacted within specific social situations.

The book had a tremendous impact on the LGTBQ+ ((Acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Trans, Queer people and others (such as intersex or asexual.))) community and many feminist circles right after its publication. In 1990, American philosopher Judith Butler, who teaches rhetoric and comparative literature at UC Berkeley whilst also being a specialist of German and French philosophy, published an academic book entitled Gender Trouble and subtitled Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. The gender debate poses certain questions about identity and subjectivity, and about how human behaviour depends on social construct. We are not born woman nor man, but instead we become one. Woolf was committed to nurturing this debate with Orlando and advocated in her fiction that gender could be temporary and chosen. Orlando deals with the questionable essence ((Essence here refers to a supposed universal and fixed set of characteristics that define human beings.)) of gender identity is gender a core aspect of who we are as individuals, or is it something moveable and enacted? Is gender, by default, the basic foundation for everyone’s identity after and even before birth? Many feminist thinkers tried to grasp the very meaning of gender as a culturally shaped notion in order to explain why women are granted less importance in society than men. In the end, she/he becomes a successful female writer in 1928, which is the year when Woolf finished writing Orlando. What is striking here is the fact that Woolf created a character who is challenging what gender and sex are as a woman, Orlando embarks on new adventures and comes to the realisation that his/her sex/gender are not that important in order to enjoy a fruitful life. The quote indicates that the Archduke and the main character “acted the parts of man and woman for ten minutes with great vigour” in order to assert for a given period of time their genders, until they make it appear natural (“and then fell into natural discourse”). Orlando shows the readers that sex and gender are enacted and not fixed by natural determinism. The protagonist decides to embrace his/her new life as female by accepting who he/she became without questioning how it happened. Readers follow Orlando’s love affairs and bold stories until, three quarters through the plot, he turns into a woman while working as an ambassador in Constantinople. Orlando, written in 1928 by Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), tells the story of a young nobleman during the Elizabethan era in England. In short, they acted the parts of man and woman for ten minutes with great vigour and then fell into natural discourse.” Virginia Woolf, Orlando (126)

“Orlando sipped the wine and the Archduke knelt and kissed her hand. Cet article a été rédigé dans le cadre d'un stage à l'ENS de Lyon.

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