College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Department of Religion
RELI 109 homepage

Paper # 2 -- due May 12

Choose ONE of the following options.

Option One:

Transgress a norm regarding gender or sexuality. Write a 5-8 page paper in which you use Butler's notion of performativity to analyze what you learned.

One person's transgression is often another's norm. Thus the point of view here is your own experience: what would be a transgression of a norm regarding gender or sexuality (or some combination thereof) FOR YOU? It must be a public, embodied experiment: no thought experiments, please. You must do something with your body-mind in the world (where world can be as big or as small as you like as long as it includes someone who does not know that you are doing an exercise for a class).

CAREFUL: Papers that do not substantially cite Butler's text and think about her word choice will not earn a passing grade. 

Option Two:

This option is for people who do not want, or whose schedule does not permit them, to do Option One.

Your task in this paper is to explore how scholars use a theoretical lens (in our case, Judith Butler).

Read the following two articles: (Hofstra has both: use the catalog!)
1) Marc R. Poirier, "The Cultural Property Claim within the Same-Sex Marriage Controversy" Columbia Journal of Gender and Law 17/3 (2008): 343-418.
2) Marc Poirier, "Same-Sex Marriage, Identity Processes, and the Kulturkampf: Why Federalism is not the Main Event" Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review 17/2 (Spring 2008): 387-420.

How does he use Butler? That is, what work does he use her to do?

Paper #2 is worth 25% of your final grade!