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A review by lisztaffe
Who's Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler
4.0
“Who’s Afraid Of Gender” is an exploration of the rising animosity towards gender, a word that has come to embody everything from reproductive freedom, changing roles for women to different sexualities and transgender rights. Butler discusses this phenomenon from a multitude of view points: the origins of the antigender movement within Catholic circles, its global spread and how gender has come to encompass so many ideas, the legal disputes it has raised in Trump’s America and the rise of the TERF movement especially in the UK. But the work also deals with the philosophy and science of gender itself, its relation to sex, as well as the racial and colonial legacies tied up with our understanding of both and even what it means to talk about gender in a multilingual world.
Having watched the rise of “gender panic” in the last few years I was eager to read this book. Butler’s work is timely, level and often compassionate. They manage to pack an incredible breadth of topics into a relatively thin package. As someone who has been following these issues always only in isolated national instances, the summary of the development of the antigender movement and current trends is especially interesting, showing the full scope of the problem we face.
Looking at the topic of gender from so many different lenses was perhaps even more illuminating. Whether or not you agree with the conclusions Butler draws, opening yourself to thoroughly questioning your own assumptions is certainly worthwhile, and the thorough notes provide a springboard for further research.
An often mentioned issue with Bulter’s writing is that it can be rather difficult to navigate. And indeed, much of the text, especially the repetitions, could probably have been shortened without losing the meaning. This was a shame, because many of the points were both clear and poignant and, if the text had been a little tighter, might have been that much stronger.
This is not a book that is going to change anyone firmly on the anti-gender side’s mind. There’s too much reference to Marxism or psychoanalysis for anyone who is already staunchly opposed to “leftist academia” to be open to. But this also isn’t a book for them. It’s for those of us who see the growing trends and have been asking ourselves how we can counteract them. As Butler concludes, only together.
I thank Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Having watched the rise of “gender panic” in the last few years I was eager to read this book. Butler’s work is timely, level and often compassionate. They manage to pack an incredible breadth of topics into a relatively thin package. As someone who has been following these issues always only in isolated national instances, the summary of the development of the antigender movement and current trends is especially interesting, showing the full scope of the problem we face.
Looking at the topic of gender from so many different lenses was perhaps even more illuminating. Whether or not you agree with the conclusions Butler draws, opening yourself to thoroughly questioning your own assumptions is certainly worthwhile, and the thorough notes provide a springboard for further research.
An often mentioned issue with Bulter’s writing is that it can be rather difficult to navigate. And indeed, much of the text, especially the repetitions, could probably have been shortened without losing the meaning. This was a shame, because many of the points were both clear and poignant and, if the text had been a little tighter, might have been that much stronger.
This is not a book that is going to change anyone firmly on the anti-gender side’s mind. There’s too much reference to Marxism or psychoanalysis for anyone who is already staunchly opposed to “leftist academia” to be open to. But this also isn’t a book for them. It’s for those of us who see the growing trends and have been asking ourselves how we can counteract them. As Butler concludes, only together.
I thank Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.