Abstract: Being a representative of postmodern gender theorist, Judith Butler has greatly challenged the traditional gender theories through her famous gender performance theory since two decades ago. This theory, however, has been seldom applied empirically. This current study represents an intention to achieve this by interviewing upscale elites who enjoy special social advantage and show unique sincerity and flexibility when their narration is related to gender. This caters well to the theoretical core of gender performance theory. A contrast between gender performance theory and feminism methodology rises during the interview and the analysis. This provides an opportunity to reflect upon the latter’s potential “victim assumption” and “overattribution to gender” standpoints, their subject selection criteria, research angles and research intention which are encountering a crisis of legitimacy. Finally, an intention to bridge the two may offer some actual significance in gender research.

Key words: Judith Butler , gender performance theory ,  , feminism methodology