“Butler reminds us that vulnerability is not all bad; it is what makes life possible. All bodies must be in some way open to the world and to others. They must be able to take in and give out: to eat, breathe, speak, be intimate. A body unable to do this could not be alive. Ultimately, Butler reminds us, often poetically, that to be fully ourselves, we need each other.”

This is Butler’s most important point. We are human beings dependent on each other for our very existence. Levinas and other existentialists make the same point, some maintaining that being in the sense of self-consciousness began with the encounter with the other. Given that we are an infinite mystery to each other, and to ourselves, the process of “being” never ends. All of our social constructs begin from there. Arguably even our sense of time and space is such a current social construct. One might even say that it is the ability to overcome our biology and choose new ways of being that makes us human.