Judith Butler

Judith Pamela Butler is a cisgender American philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminist, queer theory, and literary theory. Her 1990 book Gender Trouble introduced the idea of performing or "doing" gender and criticized the gender binary.

In 2012 she was presented with the Theodor W. Adorno Award for outstanding achievement in philosophy.

In 2013, Darin Barney of McGill University wrote that: "Butler's work on gender, sex, sexuality, queerness, feminism, bodies, political speech and ethics has changed the way scholars all over the world think, talk and write about identity, subjectivity, power and politics. It has also changed the lives of countless people whose bodies, genders, sexualities and desires have made them subject to violence, exclusion and oppression."

Butler is a lesbian and lives with her partner Wendy Brown, a political theorist; they have a son together.

Published works

 * Gender Trouble (1990)
 * Imitation and Gender Insubordination (1990)
 * Bodies That Matter (1993)
 * Excitable Speech (1997)
 * Undoing Gender (2004)
 * Giving an Account of Oneself (2005)