“We don't exist unless there is someone who can see us existing, what we say has no meaning until someone can understand, while to be surrounded by friends is constantly to have our identity confirmed; their knowledge and care for us have the power to pull us from our numbness. In small comments, many of them teasing, they reveal they know our foibles and except them and so, in turn, accept that we have a place in the world.” KnowsWorldCareTurnsAcceptingIdentityCommentPlaces In The WorldTeaseNumbnessFoiblesSurrounded By Friends Author:Alain de Botton
“Gender is not something that one is, it is something one does, an act... a "doing" rather than a "being". There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; that identity is performatively constituted by the very "expressions" that are said to be its results. If the immutable character of sex is contested, perhaps this construct called 'sex' is as culturally constructed as gender; indeed, perhaps it was always already gender, with the consequence that the distinction between sex and gender turns out to be no distinction at all.” IfsDoeSaidCharacterTurnsSexResultsBehindsIdentityExpressionConsequenceGenderDistinctionConstructsBeing ThereGender IdentitySex And Gender Author:Judith Butler