Who's Afraid of Gender?

By Judith Butler

Book Overview

National Bestseller. Named a Best Book of 2024 by NPR, Harper's Bazaar, W, and Esquire.

"A profoundly urgent intervention." --Naomi Klein

"A timely must-read for anyone actively invested in reimagining collective futurity." --Claudia Rankine

From a global icon, a bold, essential account of how a fear of gender is fueling reactionary politics around the world.

Judith Butler, the groundbreaking thinker whose iconic book Gender Trouble 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" that are dedicated to circulating a fantasy that gender is a dangerous, perhaps diabolical, threat to families, local cultures, civilization--and even "man" himself. 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.

The aim of Who's Afraid of Gender? is not to offer a new theory of gender but to examine how "gender" has become a phantasm for emerging authoritarian regimes, fascist formations, and trans-exclusionary feminists. In their vital, courageous new book, Butler illuminates the concrete ways that this phantasm of "gender" collects and displaces anxieties and fears of destruction. 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.

An essential intervention into one of the most fraught issues of our moment, Who's Afraid of Gender? is a bold call to refuse the alliance with authoritarian movements and to make a broad coalition with all those whose struggle for equality is linked with fighting injustice. Imagining new possibilities for both freedom and solidarity, Butler offers us a hopeful work of social and political analysis that is both timely and timeless--a book whose verve and rigor only they could deliver.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250371910
• ISBN13: 9781250371911
• Release Date: February 2025
• Publisher: Picador USA
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Incredible insight, though not easily accessible to the average reader

I value and admire everything that was researched and written in this book. I was intrigued by all the threads that tied everything together and of course how important it is to have everything measured and sourced. My only gripe was a kind of large one for me, in that I found the book to be incredibly dense and academic. At times it was difficult to stay focused when I felt like things were being repeated or that things were not succinct. I listened to the audiobook and bought a physical copy to refer back to (it arrived in great condition), and the amount of times the word "phantasm" came up became almost annoying to me, I started to lose meaning of the word. It took me a few months to finally finish the audiobook, and I found the conclusion to be exactly what I was holding out for: my questions of what do we do with this information, why are people on the right so worked up over gender politics, and how can I use the things brought up in this book in discussions during conversations around gender politics. I found all of them to be answered throughout and especially at the end, which is amazing. It was also very eye-opening to see just how much gender politics can be connected to civil rights and racial discrimination for non-white communities. I think this is an invaluable book if you're interested to learn about the threads, histories, and modern discussions regarding the topic of gender and "gender ideology" - so I highly recommend it - but I also know it's not an easy read. If anything else, it would be great to have as a quick reference for specific arguments or talking points.