Chapter 2, Prohibition, Psychoanalysis, and the Production of the Heterosexual Matrix, Introduction and Section I, Structuralism's Critical Exchange Summary and Analysis

Many feminists try to think of a point of origin for oppression, perhaps from pre-patriarchal cultures, so as to see masculine dominance as merely contingent, but rectifying the pre-patriarchal scheme is problematic as well because it suggests a clear definition of what a post-patriarchal culture might look like. Feminists often hope for a Utopian revolution against patriarchy, partly through socialist feminism and structuralist anthropology, such as Levi-Strauss's. The very idea of conceiving sex in this kind of concrete way supports domination.

The nature-culture separation obscures the difficulties fighting against oppressive culture and suggests that nature and originary power structures are always bad. To support these points, Butler discusses the...