Apply Judith Butler and Derek Rucus

Apply Judith Butler and Derek Rucus to 500 days of summer.


Judith Butler says that gender is a performance constructed and reinforced through media and culture. It doesnt matter about your physical differences gender wise, its about how you think and the way you act. Applying these to 500 days of summer shows that the two characters of the film, Tom and Summer have subverted gender roles. Tom is quite feminine whereas Summer is quite masculine. However Butler would argue that the two gender roles in a relationship have not been subverted but just attached to opposite genders since her theory suggests that gender is a performance construct.

Derek Rucus says that a gay male spectator can only derive scopophilic pleasure from men. If applied into 500 days of summer, an example would be when Tom looks over the cubicle to see Summer. He is looking directly at the gay male spectator with a romantic gaze. Another example is the bus scene where they all look at Summer and her measurements