From a global icon, a bold, essential account of how a fear of gender is fuelling reactionary politics around the world
Judith Butler, the ground-breaking philosopher whose work has redefined how we think about gender and sexuality, confronts the attacks on gender that have become central to right-wing movements today. Global networks have formed 'anti-gender ideology movements' dedicated to circulating a fantasy that gender is a dangerous threat to families, local cultures, civilization - and even 'man' himself. Inflamed by the rhetoric of public figures, this movement has sought to abolish reproductive justice, undermine protections against violence, and strip trans and queer people of their rights.
But what, exactly, is so disturbing about gender? In this vital, courageous book, Butler carefully examines how 'gender' has become a phantasm for emerging authoritarian regimes, fascist formations and transexclusionary feminists, and the concrete ways in which this phantasm works. Operating in tandem with deceptive accounts of critical race theory and xenophobic panics about migration, the anti-gender movement demonizes struggles for equality and leaves millions of people vulnerable to subjugation.
An essential intervention into one of the most fraught issues of our moment, Who's Afraid of Gender? is a bold call to make a broad coalition with all those who struggle for equality and fight injustice. Imagining new possibilities for both freedom and solidarity, Butler offers us an essentially hopeful work that is both timely and timeless.
About the Author Judith Butler is a philosopher and Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley. Their books, including
Gender Trouble and
Bodies That Matter, have been translated into over twenty-five languages.
Industry Reviews
An argument for how a fear of gender is fuelling reactionary politics around the world from one of the leading authorities on the subject * Financial Times, What to Read in 2024 *
One of our foremost thinkers returns with an essential polemic on gender, an urgent frontline of the culture wars... Who's Afraid of Gender? calls for gender expression to be recognized as a basic human right, and for radical solidarity across our differences. With masterful analysis of where we've been and an inspiring vision for where we must go next, this book resounds like an impassioned depth charge * Esquire, Best Books of 2024 *
Timely... urgent... Butler's work contributes to a long and rich history... they draw attention to the ways that the issue of gender can bring people together instead of driving them apart -- Vicky Spratt * iNews *
Compelling... it is refreshing to see such a tribal issue interrogated with thoughtful research, as opposed to vicious fearmongering -- Emma Loffhagen * Evening Standard *
An appeal for gender diversity... this is the most accessible of Judith Butler's books so far, an intervention meant for a wide audience... urgent -- Finn Mackay * Guardian *
Both a clarifying exploration of how we got here and a clarion call for different, less fearful, less cramped ways of thinking about the world. With their signature critical focus on what we think of as 'natural' and 'artificial', Butler pins down the history behind the contemporary cultural battle over gender -- Eli Cugini * Dazed *
