Gender Trouble

Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990; second edition 1999) is a book by the philosopher Judith Butler, in which the author argues that gender is a kind of improvised performance. The work is influential in feminism, women’s studies, and lesbian and gay studies, and has also enjoyed widespread popularity outside traditional academic circles. Butler’s ideas about gender came to be seen as foundational to queer theory and the advancing of dissident sexual practices during the 1990s.