The body problem for Judith Butler

Abstract

The article takes as its starting point the type of criticism that Butler receives for the lack of political and moral purposiveness in her theories. Faced with the accusation that the deconstruction of the subject and the body would create a situation of immobility, our objective is to investigate the image of the body in her texts and how this image participates in the elaboration of her ethical and political philosophy. Firstly, we outline his notion of corporeality present in the discussion around the idea of ​​a “sexualized body” according to which it is the discourses that make this body intelligible and meaningful based on gender marks. Butler explains this process through performativity, through which matter acquires reality. However, does not mean the devaluation of matter and the body, but a way of understanding them based on the processes through which they may or may not matter. Based on this understanding, we analyze the emergence of a body ontology based on notion of relationality and intersubjectivity. We conclude, then, that it is possible to glimpse an ethical and political theory in Butler based on idea of interdependence, which emerges from a reconfiguration of the notions of ontology and corporeality, to guide other ways of coexistence and co-responsibility.