Judith Butler

Judith Butler is an American philosopher whose theory of gender performativity — the idea that gender is enacted rather than innate — transformed feminist theory, queer studies, and political philosophy. Their work draws on Foucault, psychoanalysis, and speech act theory.

Butler's Gender Trouble argued that there is no pre-discursive gendered self — gender is constituted through repeated performances that create the illusion of an inner essence. Their later work on precarity, grievability, and the politics of the street extended their analysis to questions of global justice and vulnerability.