Gender as social temporality: Butler (and Marx)

Abstract

This article addresses notions of temporality and gender performativity in Butler's early work on gender. This article is divided into four parts. First, it accounts for the role and nature of temporality in Butler's theory of gender performativity. Second, it shows some similarities and connections between the role played by temporality in Butler's theory of gender performativity and its role in Marx's analysis of capital. Third, it raises some criticisms of Butler's understanding of temporality and historicity, emphasizing, in particular, the lack of historicization of her own categories in both Gender Trouble and Bodies that Matter. This deficit is a consequence of an epistemological framework through which she operates, in particular, her understanding of practices and relationships.
social through linguistic concepts extrapolated from their theoretical context. The article concludes by referring to Kevin Floyd and Hennessy's analyzes of the formation of sexual identities as examples of a fruitful historicization of gender performativity, which helps in understanding the “abstract character” of the temporality of gender performativity.