Critic speak is tough, but we've got you covered.
Quote :Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity
The notion of gender parody defended here does not assume that there is an original which such parodic identities imitate. Indeed, the parody is of the very notion of an original; just as the psychoanalytic notion of gender identification is constituted by a fantasy of a fantasy, the transfiguration of an Other who is always already a "figure" in that double sense, so gender parody reveals that the original identity after which gender fashions itself is an imitation without an origin. To be more precise, it is a production which, in effect—that is, in its effect—postures as an imitation.
Although feminist thinkers before Judith Butler had pointed out that cultural scripts shape what it means to be a "woman," Gender Trouble kicks that conversation up a notch by pointing out that not only is gender socially constructed, but, in a lot of ways, our bodies are too! Butler makes the point that when it comes to distinctions between "male" and "female" bodies, we can't assume that anything is "natural," or "just the way it is."
That's why she talks back against the guff from some feminists about things like drag, cross-dressing, and butch/femme style. She gets that those folks are worried that that kind of stuff just mocks femininity, or repeats the same old gender stereotypes that they've been trying to tear down. But what it's actually out to do is prove that gender is always a performance, even when we don't realize it. When men perform in drag, they're not parodying real women: they're parodying the assumption that natural "woman-ness" exists at all.
Most importantly, she says that if feminism really wants to be an inclusive movement, it needs to recognize that it isn't enough to fight for women's rights if heterosexual, cisgender women are the only "women" who qualify.