Feminist Literature

Judith Butler — Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory

Butler claims that those who do not properly “do” (perform) their gender are punished by regulatory social conventions to reinforce the mirage of gender essentialism. Gender is only real to the extent that it is performed. No matter how nuanced one individual’s gender is, the fact that one “does” gender at all is not an individual matter. Expressing “femaleness” is entirely different from expressing the diverse lived experiences of women.

Simone de Beauvoir — The Second Sex

Beauvoir interrogates what makes a woman, and explores why the question important in the first place. She defines gender as a historical situation, not a natural fact. Woman is perceived as the Other, defined in opposition to man. They are equal, yet woman becomes lesser once she becomes competition. Woman is the essential to only herself, but to society she is the inessential.

Betty Friedan — The Feminine Mystique

Education and meaningful work is the only way for women to avoid becoming trapped in the ‘feminine mystique,’ which is an artificial idea of femininity that confines women to living out archetypes. Friedan calls for a drastic rethinking of what it means to be feminine. She argues that challenge is what creates self-actualization. This book is considered the start of second wave feminism.

This text is available at the UMass Library.