Flexner Book Club Blog

2011 Mary Flexner Lecturer: Judith Butler

December 8, 2011
by Mary Zaborskis
Comments Off on Academic Alliances

Academic Alliances

When I began this blogging journey back in July, I could not have anticipated how dynamic the conversations we’ve had in this digital realm would be. Looking over my own entries, it’s exciting to see the range of issues touched … Continue reading

October 13, 2011
by Mary Zaborskis
Comments Off on Queer Children: Losing What’s Been Lived?

Queer Children: Losing What’s Been Lived?

I’ve found Judith Butler’s theory on melancholia and it’s relation to gender, sexuality, and gender performativity as outlined in “Melancholy Gender/Refused Identification” useful in some of my own research on queer children in literature. Bryn Mawr’s Hanna Holborn Gray Fellowship … Continue reading

September 16, 2011
by Mary Zaborskis
Comments Off on Now You See It, Now You Don’t

Now You See It, Now You Don’t

In Judith Butler’s “Endangered/Endangering: Schematic Racism and White Paranoia,” she unpacks another illusion for us: the difference between “seeing” and “reading.” We often think we’re doing the former, which suggests a neutral way of viewing an object, but more often … Continue reading

September 2, 2011
by Mary Zaborskis
Comments Off on Can We Have Gendered Means Without Gendered Ends?

Can We Have Gendered Means Without Gendered Ends?

In Jose Esteban Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity, he describes political philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s theory of gesture—that is, action and that which constitutes performance—as “means without ends” (91). In other words, gesture is something that … Continue reading

August 19, 2011
by Mary Zaborskis
Comments Off on “Don’t Be a Drag, Just Be a Queen [or a Grand Supreme]”-Lady Gaga

“Don’t Be a Drag, Just Be a Queen [or a Grand Supreme]”-Lady Gaga

I should probably be embarrassed to admit in a public forum that over the course of this summer,  I have become incredibly addicted to the fascinatingly disturbing TLC program Toddlers & Tiaras (sadly,  the season finale was last week, but … Continue reading