{"id":991,"date":"2016-09-20T19:41:02","date_gmt":"2016-09-20T23:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/?p=991"},"modified":"2024-05-28T08:14:39","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T12:14:39","slug":"why-judith-butler-is-over-rated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/?p=991","title":{"rendered":"Why Judith Butler is Overrated"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of many reasons why Judith Butler is grossly overrated: Here&#8217;s a passage from her new book <em>Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly<\/em>, followed by 2 brief comments of mine, one a translation of Butler-ese into regular English.  Overall, she&#8217;s trying (and failing) to shape a theory of collective action.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[W]hen bodies assemble [in] public space (including virtual ones) they are exercising a plural and performative right to appear &#8230; that asserts and instates the body in the modes of the political field [to deliver] a bodily demand for a more livable set of economic, social, and political conditions no longer afflicted by induced forms of precarity&#8221; [the latter&#8217;s a word meaning in a continually &#8216;precarious&#8217; position due to economic, social, and political conditions.  I&#8217;m not criticizing Butler&#8217;s use of this word].<\/p>\n<p>a) translation:  &#8220;when bodies assemble they are protesting being hurt and are demanding change.&#8221;  To which i would add, &#8220;well, duh.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>b) this &#8220;theory&#8221; applies equally to a Donald Trump rally (at least, as its participants perceive it) as to a Take Back the Night rally in support of rape victims.  Therefore how is this &#8220;insight&#8221; at all useful, other than allowing people who read this kind of prose to feel they are theorizing (from a safe distance) support for activists elsewhere?<br \/>\n#grumpy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of many reasons why Judith Butler is grossly overrated: Here&#8217;s a passage from her new book Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly, followed by 2 brief comments of mine, one a translation of Butler-ese into regular English. Overall, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/?p=991\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[136,133,134,132,135,138,137],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=991"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":995,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991\/revisions\/995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}