Gender Trouble, first published in 1990 by Routledge with the title Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, is an academic piece by American philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler. The book is one of the many in her series on gender theory and is preceded by Subjects of Desire and followed by Bodies That Matter.
Since its first edition in 1990, the book has gone on the become an influential text in gender studies and has been championed by both feminists and the LGBTQ+ community especially in the United States. Butler's arguments at that time were also highly unusual and unorthodox, straying from traditional ideas on gender theory at that time. In the book, Butler also examines and critiques the gender theories of other preeminent philosophers including the works of Simone de Beauvoir, Luce Irigaray, Jacques Lacan, and Michel Foucault.
The book was largely well received by academics and non-academics of that time alike. Gender Trouble is also widely considered to have elevated Butler's standing in feminist, gender theory, and queer circles.
