Analysis #6 - Feminism and Butler

First off, feminism is a difficult subject to par down to a simple analysis, without getting to far in depth. Butler's most influential book, Gender Trouble, takes the misconceptions of feminism and goes into depth about the distinction between sex and gender. While sex is biological and gender is a social construction, but society places them separately rather than as one.
This opens the argument about what are the biological differences and the social differences between man and woman. Before the 20th century, where women began to exert themselves beyond social norms, more than before, women were considered the "fairer sex", in essence the "weaker sex". Though there is then the argument about the fact that the female body has to deal with a great deal more after puberty than a male body does. Menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, etc. These "trials" are some of the more painful, as well as natural incidences in a woman's life that men never experience. Despite these well known facts, women were held in a position that kept them from having the same power as men outside the home, but at times not even giving much if any power within the home. A woman was supposed to act a certain way, dress a certain way, behave a certain way, but were never allowed to make decisions like the men in their lives did. This even went to the point that women had to publish their writings under pseudonyms so that their work would simply be published.
In today's society, many women now hold positions both in the home and at work that once belonged many times to men, bring much equality to the two sexes and genders.
Towards the end of Gender Trouble, Butler brings up the fact that gender has no real factuality:
 "Gender can be neither true nor false, neither real nor apparent, neither original nor derived. As credible bearers of those attributes, however, genders can also be rendered thoroughly and radically incredible" (p. 2553, Butler).
Such theories on feminism alone can be wide and varied. Even books like American Psycho, later made into a film, are more often than not looked upon as plays upon women, as having no real value to society, since they were either presented as "Barbies" in the form of Patrick's fiancee or as prostitutes. This is but one take on the subject, as are many of the takes on theories by theorists the world over.

Works Cited
Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: Norton, 2001. Print.