In "Gender Trouble," queer theorist Judith Butler argues that gender is not a concrete, definable entity, but instead is an amalgamation of individual practices that come together to create gender categories. For Butler, gender is something that you "perform" or "do," not something that you "are." With this argument, Butler muddies binaristic and rigid understandings of gender and sex, illuminating how practices of deviance reshape gendered norms.

The objects in this resource explore behavior, aesthetics, and forms of intimacy that resist hegemonic gender structures. Rather than merely reifying dominant systems, these objects beg the viewer to question the validity of normative practice and bodily presentation. What makes gender real? What are the results when gender is played with or rejected on the whole? How can gender be used as a tool of the state, how can it be used as a form of resistance?