Judith Butler
With “Gender Trouble” Butler changed how the world thinks about gender – and became a target for those who fear it.
Judith Butler grew up in a Jewish family in Cleveland, Ohio, and studied philosophy at Yale. They have taught at the University of California, Berkeley, since 1993.
Their book “Gender Trouble” (1990) became one of the most influential works of the late 20th century. Butler argued that gender is not something we are, but something we do – produced by repeated acts and norms. This idea of “gender performativity” became a foundation of queer theory and changed debates in philosophy, literature, law and politics. In later books Butler wrote about the body, mourning, violence and vulnerability.
Butler has long been open about being a lesbian, and has described themself as non-binary; they use the pronouns “they” and “she”. Their partner is the political theorist Wendy Brown.
Their work has made them a hate figure for opponents of gender studies: in 2017 protesters in São Paulo burned an effigy of Butler. In 2024 they responded with “Who’s Afraid of Gender?”, an analysis of the international anti-gender movement.