I have to admit that for me it was really hard to understand Butler's reading. But, I believe both authors show the process of a child trying to define themselves or at least to try to understand themselves, There is a need to make sense of the world using the tools we have. In this case, the use of terms or social practices are the tools each person respectively had to make sense to what it was happening to them. Butler is having a problem in establishing how terms were shaping her belief in herself. In the Uncle article, he really does not know what is happening and he is only reacting.
In my opinion, both articles show the search of making sense of what is happening to us, and try to use a binary system to make us feel fit or unfitting a role in our society. The main thing that got my attention is the importance that labels can have for us, and even how this set of beliefs can shape the way we perceive ourselves. There is a need for approval, and a need to be accepted even if that means hiding some things from ourselves. Finally, at the end it is personal experiences that make us reshape terms or our own self-perception in order to have a better understanding.
I agree that people constantly feel a need for approval from others to help them constitute who they are. The Aretha Franklin example in Butler's essay is an interesting example of this, as she sings, "You make me feel like a natural woman." She needs a confirmation from a man to "feel like a woman." The fact that she "needs" this confirmation shows how gender is naturalized in our minds. I think this is why it is so hard for people to see others without considering their gender.
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