This one's a real doozy, but it's worth taking for a spin. After all, Judith Butler's work, from Gender Trouble onwards, has inspired some pretty huge controversies in contemporary feminism, not to mention in gender studies and queer theory, too! Wouldn't you just love to weigh in?
Before you get too far, riddle yourself this: why does Judith Butler think that a feminist critique of essentialism is long overdue?
And don't forget to ponder this: does Judith Butler think that people can perform their genders however they please, or are our performances regulated somehow?