by Justine Chapalay The group FEMEN is mainly known for its topless feminist manifestations but once will not hurt, I will not focus on its controversial methods and rather point at the paradoxes of the movement, which claims to be global but nevertheless excludes and despises certain categories of women. Indeed, as I read several … Continue reading
Femen: a product of postfeminism
by Melie Fellay Needless to explain the ambiguity of a movement which, to fight against patriarchy, complies to the male gaze by self-objectification and lack of speech consistency: Femen show themselves as sexual objects with no intellectual potential. And when they associate themselves with feminism, a similar mechanism is activated, as this of the backlash: … Continue reading
Femen: What exactly are they fighting for?
by Joei Chan Femen is a feminist Ukrainian protest group founded in 2008 that organizes, most of the time, topless protests against sexual exploitation, religious institutions and dictatorship. While I applaud their determination to destroy patriarchy and free women in the world, I cannot say that I agree with how they do it. … Continue reading
Femen: a Revolutionary Feminist Movement or a Publicity Stunt?
by Ambre Nobengo Since it has been created in 2008, the Ukrainian movement Femen is everywhere. On TV, in the newspapers, the goal of its members is to convey a feminist message with their naked bodies. And it works. We can see them everywhere and most of all see and listen to their declarations … Continue reading
FEMEN and the Risk of a “sextremist” Objectification
by Clara Favre FEMEN, an active and somehow radical feminist group, founded in 2008 has been highly criticized by both media and feminist themselves. All sorts of critiques have been addressed regarding their supposedly ambiguous racist and controversial message. Nevertheless, besides all these critiques, can FEMEN be actually considered as a feminist movement? And if … Continue reading
The Group Femen: Antithesis of Feminism
by Laetitia Scarbonchi Often today’s claims emerge through violent, provocative, one-shot and media-centred actions in order to get attention. However, the counterpart is that the message behind seems to lose its weight and power as well as its sense. The group Femen epitomises this phenomenon. Indeed, women of the group undress themselves and use their … Continue reading
The Femen Movement : Pseudo-Feminist and Arrogant
by Sabrina Gerber What is Femen and what are their ideas? Can Femen really claim itself to be the “new” generation of the feminist movement? Is Femen really a feminist movement at all? Does it improve the feminist fight or degenerate it? Is nudity a good way to protest against the exploitation of women? … Continue reading
Femen: the black sheep of feminism?
by Audrey Freiburghaus Femen is a controversial feminist movement. When we read articles about it, we become aware of a lot of ambiguities and contradictions within their ideology. As there are lots of things to debate, I decided to discuss their nudity. Indeed, Femen uses nakedness as a weapon to shame “people who ran … Continue reading
Femen’s Modern Militantism Raises Spears
by Sandra Vuilleumier It is strange how a few women appearing topless – admittedly, with slogans painted over themselves – can cause such a violent wave of hate. “They are arrogant,” says Mona Chollet in ‘Le Monde Diplomatique,’ amongst quite a few more disparaging remark about this new, wild movement. “I have no idea how … Continue reading
FEMEN: A Contradictory Movement
by Jonathan Stark The feminist group Femen relies on extreme and even dangerous practices to convey its messages; for instance, after showing their bare backs with protesting messages written on them, the members took a step ahead in provocation and started to show their breasts. However, the group still shows some contradictions in … Continue reading
Call Me Crazy When I Say FEMEN’s Discourse is Sterile
by Natalia Reichert How meaningful and productive is FEMEN’s fight against the oppressive patriarchy? To be very honest, all that I knew about Femen until recently is that they were a bunch of pretty women running around naked with flowers in their hair. I couldn’t say much more about them because all I’d remember from … Continue reading
FEMEN, representing every woman ?
by Serena Baehler Femen was founded in 2008 in Ukraine by young women who wanted to raise awareness against sex tourism. They became famous all around the world because they decided to write their demonstration slogans on their naked breasts instead of the usual paper board. In an article she wrote for The Guardian, Inna … Continue reading
A Strictly Performative Model of Gender?
by Claudia Nazroo Judith Butler’s text Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory draws on phenomenological and theatrical theories of acts in order to show how feminist theory needs to provide a radical critique of gender constitution in order to take full account of the “way in which oppression … Continue reading
Gender as an Act and not as an Essence
by Ambre Nobengo In her article about “Performative acts and Gender Constitution”, Judith Butler argues that gender is not an essence as such but is rather determined by acts performed in a period of time. Thus, she observes that gender has become more a cultural matter, rather than a natural one. Including the social … Continue reading
Gender as a performance in Rodrigo Garcia’s Albert Nobbs
by Clara Favre Judith Butler’s performative theory of gender deconstructs the usual representation of gender which is supposed to be a sort of discrete, naturalized category. Butler supports her points with different theories such as theatrical, anthropological, philosophical and phenomenological theories. Butler focuses on different acts, culturally constructed, that are performed in everyday life. … Continue reading
Gender construction in Albert Nobbs
by Laetitia Scarbonchi In her article “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” Judith Butler demonstrates her theory on gender identity. Indeed, she argues that gender is constructed through a “repetition of acts”, it is “constituted in time”(519) and without acts there would not be any gender. More than … Continue reading
Albert Nobbs or the performance of one’s life analysed through Butler’s Gender Theory
by Sabrina Gerber According to Butler, gender is constituted through a “stylized repetition of acts”, (Butler, 519) which evolve with time. Therefore it is not stable and is not based on natural physiological differences between men and women. It is constructed and performed through the body, its stylization, gestures and movements, which embody cultural … Continue reading
“Why Aren’t you in a Fancy Dress?”: Constructing Gendered Identity in Rodrigo García’s Albert Nobbs
by Justine Chapalay In her article entitled “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” (1988), Judith Butler mainly argues that “the body becomes its gender through a series of acts which are renewed, revised and consolidated through time” (Butler: 523). Using John Searle’s ‘speech acts’ theory as a starting … Continue reading
Are you a “he” or a “she”?
by Melie Fellay In her article “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory”, Judith Butler argues that gender is the result of a series of acts performed by each of us every day, which assimilate us to either one of two categories: male or female. Butler highlights the difference … Continue reading
Be Who You Are: Gender as Performance in Albert Nobbs
by Mathieu Dick Judith Butler’s article deals with the theories of performance and acting as gender markers. She uses Simone de Beauvoir’s own words to explain her position on gender. For Butler, gender “is in no way a stable identity […]; but it is an identity tenuously constituted in time – an identity instituted through … Continue reading
Gender and Identity
by Sakina Ben Saida Associating gender to identity, as if being a man or woman already constitues identity is a theory that Judith Butler disconstructs in her article entitled “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: an Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory“. In the contrary, and according to phenomenology discourse she interprets the relation between gender … Continue reading
Gender Performance and Gender Roles
by Elsa Delacretaz Judith Butler argues in her article that genders are performative and culturally constructed. She starts from the division of biological sex and gender theorized by feminists and uses phenomenology to ground her theory. She highlights that “gender identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo” (Butler, 520), emphasizing throughout … Continue reading
Albert Nobbs, or the ideal man
by Virginia Fugate For every gender, there is a « good » and a « bad » way of being, in relation to culture and society. Gender is communicated with the help of the body, and is basically what people have to do – whether they want it or not – to fit in a certain category. … Continue reading
Albert Nobbs: An Exemplification of Judith Butler’s Theory of Gender
by Alexa Pittet In her essay “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” (1988), Judith Butler discusses how gender is socially constituted, basing herself on Simone de Beauvoir’s argument that “’woman’, and by extension, any gender, is an historical situation rather than a natural fact” (520). In other words, … Continue reading
Albert Nobbs: Life as a Performance
by Fanny Freysinger Judith Butler’s article deals with the difference between sex and gender and explains how identity is being constructed over the years. In fact, she argues that biology does not determine one’s true self, for it is only a matter of physical appearance. Behavior instead, is of a greater impact on personality, … Continue reading
Feminist Theories and Fiction 