Judith Butler facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Judith Butler
Butler in March 2012
Born	Judith Pamela Butler February 24, 1956 (1956-02-24) Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Alma mater	Yale University
Partner(s)	Wendy Brown
Era	20th-/21st-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Continental philosophy third-wave feminism critical theory queer theory postmodernism post-structuralism performative turn
Institutions	University of California, Berkeley
Doctoral advisor	Maurice Natanson
Main interests	Feminist theory political philosophy ethics psychoanalysis phenomenology discourse embodiment sexuality gender theory Jewish philosophy
Notable ideas	Gender as social construction gender performativity
Influences Karl Marx Michel Foucault Louis Althusser Theodor Adorno J. L. Austin Luce Irigaray Monique Wittig Emmanuel Lévinas Jacques Derrida Jacques Lacan Sigmund Freud Søren Kierkegaard Friedrich Nietzsche G. W. F. Hegel Simone de Beauvoir
Influenced Susan Stryker Sandy Stone Jasbir Puar Andrea Smith Pussy Riot

Judith Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American philosopher. She was born in Ohio. She got her Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale University in 1984. She lives in Berkeley, California, with her partner Wendy Brown. In 1990 Gender Trouble was published by Routledge. It is considered one of the key works of contemporary feminism. In the book Butler talks about her theory of gender performativity which is something you "perform" rather than an expression of human biology.

Early life

Butler was born in Ohio. She went to Hebrew school. She studied Philosophy at Yale University.