Notes on Butler from April 13th.

Judith Butler (Introduction to Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”)

Definitions of Sex, Gender, and Material

- Materiality of the body – the physical substance of my body

- “Sex” as something different than both material and gender – so where does it fit in?

- “Sex is between the legs, gender is between the ears” (she is saying it is more complicated than this because material is between the legs, gender is between the ears, sex is somewhere in between)

- Perhaps also, that this sex is what I choose to present but society won’t let me perform that gender

- Runner in South Africa who’s gender is materially questionable (if she isn’t performing it, and we still can’t locate her

FINAL study group for the year: May 11th!

Spring has sprung and we are nearing the end of the 2009-2010 season here at Dancemakers. The time has come for our last Thinking Out Loud study group for the year.

For the first half of study group we will be revisiting the dense but exciting world of Judith Butler by discussing the introduction in her book Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex which you can get by clicking here. Just read the introduction (up to page 12 in the "book", which is really page 12-23 of the word document). We're then going to back to the very first article we looked at, Paulo Freire's Act of Study which you can get here. Aaaarg has changed their website around a bit, so if you get confused with the downloading process, and would rather just have a hard copy, we have them available here at the Dancemakers office.

The idea is that - by returning to Freire - we will have a chance to revisit the impetus for the study group, evaluate our inaugural year, and think about how we might want to shape next year's study group to keep us all interested and excited.

Study group meets at 6:30 at Dancemakers. We’ll be in the office - for a cozy, intimate last night together for the season. Snacks and beer/wine as per usual. Maybe more beer/wine since it will be a so long of sorts, and a celebration of a year of being together while we think about challenging ideas and talk on the fly.

Join us! And please RSVP if you can.