Judith Butler et la fabrique discursive du sexe

Abstract

J. Butler adopts the notion of performativity introduced by J. L. Austin in his philosophy of language, and proposes an ultra-constructivist conception of human sexuality in which she dismantles the idea that gender is dependent on sex. She contests the notion that sexual division is founded in biology, holding that it is, rather, performatively constituted and, therefore, merely the result of a normative discourse which manufactures sexuality while claiming to describe it. This paper aims to demonstrate that, while certain statements may, indeed, be performative - and thus do what they say - such performativity is contingent on a number of conditions which J. Butler generally tends to overlook. These conditions mean that it is impossible to view performativity as affecting biological reality, even if it can certainly generate the social definition of sexual identity. © 2003 Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques.