Who's Afraid of Gender?

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 *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 *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 *Because Butler is a human rights activist, as well as a theorist, the urgent point conveyed by this book is the same as it is in all their work: why are so many people seemingly happy to give away their power to increasingly authoritarian forces? And why are they so confident that this power will never be used against them? * 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 *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 *This book is Judith Butler’s response to the demonisation and politicisation of gender theory… Across the globe, Butler claims, fascist passions are being stirred… Whatever political cause is being served by these passions, it is certainly not freedom… in order to have necessarily difficult debates about the right to bodily autonomy we need to identify what is a real threat to freedoms and what isn’t – Lyndsey Stonebridge * New Statesman *One of America’s foremost theorists and philosophers, known for their influential work in gender studies, queer theory and third-wave feminism, has returned with an investigation into why gender has become one of the fraught issues of the moment * iNews, Best New Books, March 2024 *A vital read by one of the greatest living third-wave feminist philosophers, Judith Butler navigates the tumultuous realm of gender identity in order to reveal just how straightforward it really is. Butler questions what it is society finds so disturbing about gender, tracing the history of gender politics through their invaluable theoretical lens * Evening Standard *

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.