Where is democratic process or popular sovereignty for the endangered population? It cannot be "given" or "allocated" by some other power without that same power claiming the right to withdraw what it gives. Judith Butler More Quotes by Judith Butler More Quotes From Judith Butler What we need are poems that interrogate the world of pronouns, open up possibilities of language and life; forms of politics that support and encourage self-affirmation. Judith Butler supportselfneeds In the first instance, performativity must be understood not as a singular or deliberate ‘act,’ but, rather, as the reiterative and citational practice by which discourse produces the effects that it names Judith Butler practicenamesfirsts Indeed it may be only by risking the incoherence of identity that connection is possible. Judith Butler connectionsidentitymay I think we are affected by others in all kinds of ways. I do understand what it's like to wish to control the conditions under which we can be affected by other human beings, but none of us really are. Judith Butler wishwaythinking Gender is an identity tenuously constituted in time, instituted in an exterior space through a stylized repetition of acts. Judith Butler genderspaceidentity All of those who inhabit the world have a right to be here by virtue of their being here at all. To be here means you have a right to be here. Judith Butler virtuemeanworld We have to be able track the ways in which fear, for instance, is monopolised by state and media institutions, ways in which fear is actually promoted and distributed as a way of bolstering the need for greater security and militarisation. Judith Butler securitytrack I must say, I feel the reception of my work is none of my business. Judith Butler receptionfeels I think we have to accept a wide variety of positions on gender. Some want to be gender-free, but others want to be free really to be a gender that is crucial to who they are. Judith Butler genderwantthinking Whether or not we continue to enforce a universal conception of human rights at moments of outrage and incomprehension, precisely when we think that others have taken themselves out of the human community as we know it, is a test of our very humanity. Judith Butler takenrightsthinking Everyone has a set of presuppositions: what gender is, what it's not. And they may not write them out or they may not be in theoretical books published by Routledge, but they have a theory. Judith Butler writingmaybook We cannot choose with whom we cohabit the world. Judith Butler world If we are trying to account for mobilization, we have to ask, under what conditions do outraged forms of knowing lead to social mobilizations and movements? So awareness alone does not suffice, and neither does outrage. Judith Butler knowingdoetrying You're an evolving and transforming person, right? And how do we capture that dynamics of sexuality in that complex sense? There may be times when someone feels oneself more overly masculine or maybe more feminine, or where the terms themselves become confused, where passivity and activity also don't maintain their usual meaning. Judith Butler confusedusualmay When we say gender is performed, we usually mean that weve taken on a role or were acting in some way and that our acting or our role playing is crucial to the gender that we are and the gender that we present to the world. Judith Butler actingtakenmean I do not deny certain kinds of biological differences. But I always ask under what conditions, under what discursive and institutional conditions, do certain biological differences - and they're not necessary ones, given the anomalous state of bodies in the world - become the salient characteristics of sex. Judith Butler differencessexworld I think there is a demand. The demand is for a radical economic and political restructuring of the world. And most people would say that's impossible. And it may or may not be achieved, but I think that's less important than articulating what a just and fair world can be. Judith Butler politicalpeoplethinking Let's face it. We're undone by each other. And if we're not, we're missing something. If this seems so clearly the case with grief, it is only because it was already the case with desire. One does not always stay intact. Judith Butler griefmissingdesire No matter what someone else has done, it still matters how we treat people. It matters to our humanity that we treat offenders according to standards that we recognize as just. Justice is not revenge - it's deciding for a solution that is oriented towards peace, peace being the harder but more human way of reacting to injury. That is the very basis of the idea of rights. Judith Butler revengerightsideas I do think it's important that we experiment with new vocabularies. That new words help us conceptualize our social existence in a different way. Judith Butler vocabularyimportantthinking
