A few years back, one of my favourite online content creators (Brittany Simon) posted a YouTube video titled \u201cI was raised as a boy.\u201d Within this short video (embedded below, if you\u2019d like to watch it!), several Butler-adjacent ideas are explored; most generally, however, Brittany\u2019s story illustrates the internal instability of \u201cgender,\u201d as a concept and as a term. She discusses how, as a child, her father made the decision to raise her \u201clike a boy.\u201d While her sister was treated more as a \u201cgirl,\u201d and was more encouraged toward femininity, Brittany\u2019s father actively exposed her to the realm of politics — something that he didn\u2019t otherwise do, in how he raised his other daughter. As Brittany later learned, this was a conscious decision by her \u201ctraditional\u201d father to raise her in a way that he actively associated with boys; Brittany had spent her childhood assuming that her father was simply raising her as an equal, rather than as a \u201cboy.\u201d As it seemed, despite raising her in a way that would likely be considered \u201cfeminist,\u201d Brittany\u2019s father continued to cling to his \u201ctraditional\u201d beliefs on gender and gender roles. He would even tell an adult Brittany that he now regrets raising her in the way that he did. (Largely a result of him learning that Brittany has a romantic and sexual preference for women\u2026 he now attributes his daughter\u2019s sexuality to his \u201cmasculine\u201d methods of rearing.)
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Essentially, this anecdote illustrates the illogical nature of traditional ideas of gender (and gender roles). It also intersects with Butler\u2019s idea of \u201ccompulsory heterosexuality,\u201d and the confusion that lesbians may cause to those who hold tight to the institution of \u201cgender,\u201d as a whole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n