It’s hard to dislike Judith Butler. If you’ve ever taken a Gender Studies class, you’ve probably read their work at one point or another. The term “gender performativity” is practically ubiquitous in queer, trans, and feminist theory discourse, and we have Butler’s 1990 book Gender Trouble to thank for that.
Over the years, Butler has used their popularity to push back against the anti-trans moral panic, arguing that trans-exclusionary radical feminism “is actually a fringe movement” seeking a false sense of legitimacy. Now, Butler is taking the fight against transphobia one step further. Their upcoming book takes aim at some of the most misogynistic, transphobic, and violent movements targeting marginalized gender identities. And queer readers are very eager to hear everything Butler has to say about fascism and TERFs.
What is Judith Butler’s new book?
Who’s Afraid of Gender? dives deep into the “anti-gender ideology movements,” arguing that these groups “are dedicated to circulating a fantasy that gender is a dangerous, perhaps diabolical, threat to families, local cultures, civilization—and even ‘man’ himself.” To this end, Butler argues that the very concept of “gender” is treated as a specter from the far-right, used by “emerging authoritarian regimes, fascist formations, and trans-exclusionary feminists” so that gender “collects and displaces anxieties and fears of destruction.”
“Inflamed by the rhetoric of public figures, this movement has sought to nullify reproductive justice, undermine protections against sexual and gender violence, and strip trans and queer people of their rights to pursue a life without fear of violence,” publisher FSG writes in the book’s advertising copy. “Operating in tandem with deceptive accounts of ‘critical race theory’ and xenophobic panics about migration, the anti-gender movement demonizes struggles for equality, fuels aggressive nationalism, and leaves millions of people vulnerable to subjugation.”
In short, Butler’s book will be a total takedown of TERFdom, far-right anti-trans moral panics, anti-abortion movements, and all the related, interconnected struggles caught up in fascist gender anxiety. Theorists, writers, and the general queer public are gobbling up the book’s premise, hailing it as one of the most important upcoming queer theory works yet. As Maintenance Phase and If Books Could Kill podcast host Michael Hobbes put it: “hell yeah.”
Who’s Afraid of Gender? hits store shelves on March 19, 2024. The book comes in three separate iterations, including a $30 hardcover edition and an ebook at half the price. You can pre-order Butler’s new book ahead of time by heading to the book’s listing on the Macmillan Publishers website.
(featured image: Aldara Zarraoa, Getty Images)
