The Gender That Is None: Some Daring Reflections on the Concept of Gender in Beauvoir, Irigaray, and Butler

In her article, “The Gender that is None: Some Daring Reflections on the Concept of Gender in Beauvoir, Irigaray, and Butler,” Silvia Stoller discusses three classics of feminist research. She aims to shed light on little-noticed parts of the work of Simone de Beauvoir, Luce Irigaray, and Judith Butler. Although all three are considered different theorists, they overlap at one point: one finds in their writings the idea that gender is basically not fully determinable, as in Irigaray and Butler, or that gender is basically not that important, as in Beauvoir. Whereas one expects gender theorists to foreground gender unequivocally, gender instead seems to somehow disappear, as is shown by three selected passages from their major works.