Undoing Gender (Butler, 2004) review and Gender theory applied to Plastic Bodies

Résumé du document

The theory of gender developed by Judith Butler applied to the works of Sheila Press Bright Plastic Bodies reveals a differentiated interpretation of what our society can still call toy, but it should rather call artefact. An artifact as it is a witness of our civilization, but also object that challenges (in the althusserian sense of the term). The gendered toy informs us about the orientation that society gives to its subjects, social and sexual orientation. When we know that this orientation generates inequalities of wealth and heritage (s) (with multiple meanings that gave to this term), the analysis of the stakes put in place in the diffusion of these toys raises question.

Extraits

[...] On advice and with support Therapeutics of Dr. Money, of the Gender Identity Institute Baltimore, David is raised as a girl and named Brenda. This feminine identity does not correspond not feel like he's being, another medical team remakes him a boy (thanks to hormone intake and surgery). David will commit suicide after these successive assignments of gender in which he does not recognize himself. Chapter IV discusses the rules in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders that authorize or not surgeries sexual transformation. [...]

[...] Bright reminds us that the action figure has become a point of intersection for adult pleasures and childish fantasies, and through this breaking down of barriers emerges one of most overlooked symbols of media convergence and artistic renewal. Bibliography Betty, Lou Maybee Barbie' s Hawaiian Holiday. New York, NY: Random House. LIFE Magazine November 24. MATTEL INC, TOYMAKERS. "You May Already Have Won the Toys your Children Want for Christmas". Accessed February 17 via Google Books. McDonough, Yona Zeldis The Barbie Chronicles: A Living Doll Turns Forty. New York, NY: Touchstone. [...]

[...] Judith Butler locates flaws that manifest at the margin the more general disruption of this regime of power. At the same time, she submits to the question the normative injunctions that constitute the sexual subjects. We never manage to comply with the norms completely: between gender and sexuality, there is always play. Power does not just repress; In this performative game he opens up the possibility of inventing new formations of the subject. The philosopher reads Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan and Claude Lévi-Strauss, but also Simone de Beauvoir, Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva and Monique Wittig, in order to think, with and against them, sex, gender and sexuality - our desires and our pleasures. [...]

[...] That is why a cleavage between life of gender and life of desire is neither easy nor fast. What does the genre want? If the question may seem strange, this feeling diminishes when one realizes that the social norms that constitute our existence carry desires that are not foundational of our individuality. The problem is further complicated by the fact that the viability of our individuality essentially depends on these social norms. Plastic Bodies by Sheila Pree Bright Artistic gendered toys ? [...]

[...] Judith Butler is coming out late "Closet" . After an indifference of almost twenty years, six of his works have been recently translated into French. Indifference even gave way to eagerness Undoing the genre brings together articles and lectures from 2000 to 2005. To understand the title and the words of Judith Butler, some very brief information preliminary. Since Anne Oakley differentiated, in 1972, sex (biological) and gender (culturally constructed), these terms and their relationships have been the subject of successive reassessments. [...]