Chapter 1, Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire, Section V, Identity, Sex and the Metaphysics of Substance Summary and Analysis

A worry arises that the idea of 'identity' has no meaning. Maybe we cannot even claim that objects are self-identical. And the idea of 'gender identity' is even more complex. Butler claims that 'intelligible' genders are those that produce and sustain coherence and continuity between sex, gender, sexual practice and sexual desires. The only valid notion of 'truth' of gender identity is rooted in the regularly practices that produce coherent gender identities which are themselves embedded in a pre-existing set of norms.

The idea of a 'matrix of intelligibility' must be further analyzed before gender identity can be understood, as a result. French feminist and post-structuralist theories produce different ideas of the social...