The dissolution of the intercourse/gender distinction – effectively, the dissolution of sex into gender – in Butlerʼs Gender Trouble parallels the dissolution of the ontology/performativity distinction – successfully, the dissolution of ontology into performativity – or the dissolution of ʻbeingʼ into ʻeffectʼ. Yet is there a intercourse/gender distinction within the Second Sex and if not, what’s there? My suggestion is that the notion of ʻwomanʼ within the Second Sex will not be merely translatable into the class of ʻgenderʼ, indeed that it cuts across or problematizes the traditional intercourse/gender distinction. For both de Beauvoir and Butler, then, it’s the metaphysical substantialization of this mysterious thing, ʻwomanʼ or ʻfemininityʼ, that constitutes the thing of critical investigation, with the intention of its dissolution within the title of a political challenge of social change. She additionally needs to take duty for what lead up to it and not blame a social networking site for the rape.
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