Gender Trouble Audiobook By Judith Butler cover art

Gender Trouble

Feminism and the Subversion of Identity

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Gender Trouble

By: Judith Butler
Narrated by: Emily Beresford
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One of the most talked-about scholarly works of the past 50 years, Judith Butler's Gender Trouble is as celebrated as it is controversial. Arguing that traditional feminism is wrong to look to a natural, "essential" notion of the female, or indeed of sex or gender, Butler starts by questioning the category "woman" and continues in this vein with examinations of "the masculine" and "the feminine."

Best known however, but also most often misinterpreted, is Butler's concept of gender as a reiterated social performance rather than the expression of a prior reality. Thrilling and provocative, few other academic works have roused passions to the same extent.

©2006 Routledge (P)2018 Tantor Gender Studies Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Sciences

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Featured Article All the Audiobooks in The White Lotus and What Listeners Really Thought
Groundbreaking Perspectives • Complex Gender Analysis • Excellent Narration • Logical Deconstruction • Powerful Ideas
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I enjoyed this book as it gives a clear and logical rationale for the deconstruction of sex and gender as identities of oppression. I’d highly recommend this book to anybody who is politically active or even not

Deep insight into gender

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great book, great adjustments made as time/society progresses. dense academic language, like an ivory wall keeps people from learning about these topics tho!

ivory wall

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This is an excellent book with great narration. However, I believe it’s best read rather than listened to, as it allows more time to absorb the author’s arguments. As a non-native English speaker with a strong command of the language and familiarity with similar texts, I still found it challenging to follow the arguments in an audio format. Native speakers may have an easier time, but for non-native speakers, I’d recommend reading instead of listening.

Great Narration and Content, but too complex to follow audibly – better to read

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Seriously. Why do they make Judith Butler sound like that? (like kind of a C word)

Why do they make Judith Butler sound like that?

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I am delighted by how many excellent theoretical works Audible has produced this year. It lets me read a little outside my field, painlessly.

Essential theory

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Butler’s writings on gender as being performatively-constructed are groundbreaking for contemporary feminism & queer theory. Much of the text consists of critical readings of psychoanalyst, feminist, and post-structural writings. Gender Trouble is infamously wordy, although Butler attributes this to her goal of demonstrating how language shapes cultural possibilities. The narrator was ok.

Important (If Verbose) Read

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How do you frame a theoretical analysis of a discursive matrix from inside that matrix itself with being subsumed? This way.

Literary masterpiece AND scholastic excellence

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...but I’m much better at listening than reading. I’ve been hoping Gender Trouble would come out in audio for about 7 years, after trying several times to struggle through print.

Lots of people say the language is difficult. And sure: it’s a book a lot about philosophy. I’ve had to listen through several times, but I find the narration makes it pretty easy. And I feel grateful to finally have the chance to encounter Butler’s words and powerful perspectives.

The one suggestion I would make to audible: please cut it into smaller chunks. The audio is cut into 9 sections, the first 4 mapping to the two prefaces and starts of the first two chapters, and the final 5 mapping to some place in the middle of chapter 2, the starts of chapter 3, ch 3 section 3, ch 3 section 4, and the conclusion. I found it helpful to listen to each section multiple times before moving on, but difficult to do so, given audible’s large audio chunks. It might benefit listeners to cut along each section of a chapter, instead of doing so only at the end.

Please keep ‘em coming, Tantor!

Been wanting for a long time to read Gender Trouble

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This book aged so well! It is truly ageless and timeless.

The analyses and conclusions of this work is so persuasive and cogent.

Awesome Read

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Butler is thorough in her exploration of gender and this book has the essence of why gender is so complex. Takes only about 10 or 20 listens to put it all together. Admittedly, she could simplify the idea but I think that would take away from the central reality that the grammar of gender is NOT at all simple and the language Butler uses to get this across to readers drives the point.

Loved the book and feel it should be a required text for every college student of our age. Hopefully, in the future, high school students will be able to tackle it with ease. (Perhaps I'm too hopeful.)

Wonderfully Logical

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