Since time immemorial, each age has contributed in the formation of literary theories. Neo criticism which flowered in the 1940s marked its significance by breaking off from the then existing compartmentalized departments. It spreads it’s roots and gives birth to Cultural studies which penetrate deeper into the ellipsis and give birth to the Gender studies.

The word ‘gender’ echoes the conventional roles prescribed to an individual by the society which is designed by the essence of patriarchy. Patriarchy justifies it’s illogical and dominant functioning by deriving the definition of gender from culturally inferring of the term ‘sex.’ According to patriarchy, the combination of the chromosomes ushers certain biological features which is essentially not fluid. Thus affecting it’s impact on both orientation and identity. It advocates for the linear structure of sex followed by gender that results in desire.

The functioning of the linear structure leads to the establishment of a hegemonic power structure that functions by ‘othering.’ Through the technique of ‘divide and rule’, patriarchy destabilizes the harmonious living by dividing human between a man and a woman and further othering the woman. Literature which is a reflection of the society, marks how since the creation of the world, Eve, the woman is the slave to her master, Adam. René Descartes coined the existence and the functioning of the binaries of the mind and the body.

Following his footsteps, patriarchy consciously corrupted the mind to establish the secondary position of the woman in relation to the man as a glorified position to sustain the dichotomy. Culturally and socially the subordinate position of a woman has been glorified to the extend that she is reduced to a body which is to be owned by the mind of the man. However with Simone de Beauvoir’s words, “One is not born a woman, but becomes one” the notion of the existing and breathing concept of gender gets destabilized. The existing linear structure ended at desire. However, with the onset of the third wave of feminism, Butler reverses the structure and begins it with desire which further destabilizes the entire socially excepted structure.

It echoes the essence of ‘mess’ which leads post-structuralism to hammer the knell on the existing binaries leading to the fluidity of gender and broadening of the gender studies which now encompasses not only the study of feminism but also the study of transgender that gives voice to all the unheard voices that were being lost rather made to be lost in translation.

.    .    .