Judith Butler from 'Gender Trouble'

"Rather than a stable signifier that commands the assent of those whom it purports to describe and represent, women, even in the plural, has become a troublesome term, a site of contest, a cause for anxiety."

We are separated often by race,class, ethnicity, and gender. The political assumption is that there must be a universal basis for Feminism according to Butler. Feminism is associated with the notion of oppression and even masculine domination. Butler explains how the claims of a patriarchal society are no longer as credible as they once were, and how feminism is misunderstood.

In my opinion the term women, is troublesome. It is troublesome in the sense that women are still separate from men in terms of what they have the ability to accomplish. I am not a feminist, I feel if I were I would understand more of what Butler is trying to accomplish with her piece.

"The identity of the feminist subject ought not to be the foundation of feminist politics, if the formation of the subject takes place within a field of power regularly buried through the assertion of the foundation."

In my opinion she is trying to say that the feminist's identity ashould not control their identity as representing themselves.