Judith Butler discusses their new book "Who’s Afraid of Gender?" published by Farrar Straus Giroux. Named a "Most Anticipated Book of 2024" by Time, Elle, Kirkus, Literary Hub, The Millions, & Electric Literature.

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Judith Butler, the groundbreaking thinker whose iconic book "Gender Trouble" redefined how we think about gender & 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—& even “man” himself. Inflamed by the rhetoric of public figures, this movement has sought to nullify reproductive justice, undermine protections against sexual & gender violence, & strip trans & 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, & transexclusionary feminists. In their vital, courageous new book, Butler illuminates the concrete ways that this phantasm of “gender” collects & displaces anxieties & fears of destruction. Operating in tandem with deceptive accounts of “critical race theory” & xenophobic panics about migration, the anti-gender movement demonizes struggles for equality, fuels aggressive nationalism, & 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 & to make a broad coalition with all those whose struggle for equality is linked with fighting injustice. Imagining new possibilities for both freedom & solidarity, Butler offers us a hopeful work of social and political analysis that is both timely and timeless.

Judith Butler is the author of several books including "Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity," "Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of 'Sex'," "The Psychic Life of Power: Theories of Subjection, Excitable Speech, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly," & "The Force of Non-Violence." In addition to numerous academic honors & publications, Butler has published editorials & reviews in The Guardian, The New Statesman, The Nation, Time Magazine, the London Review of Books, & in a wide range of journals, newspapers, radio & podcast programs throughout Europe, Latin America, Central & South Asia, & South Africa. They live in Berkeley.

Maggie Nelson is the author of several acclaimed books of poetry & prose, including "Like Love: Essays and Conversations" (2024), the national bestseller "On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint" (2021), National Book Critics Circle Award winner and international bestseller "The Argonauts" (2015), "The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning" (2011), "Bluets" (2009; named by Bookforum as one of the top 10 best books of the past 20 years), "The Red Parts: Autobiography of a Trial" (2007), & "Women, the New York School, & Other True Abstractions" (2007), "Something Bright, Then Holes" (2007), & "Jane: A Murder" (2005; finalist, the PEN/ Martha Albrand Art of the Memoir). A recipient of a 2016 MacArthur “genius” Fellowship, she is currently a professor of English at the University of Southern California.

Originally broadcast from City Lights' Poetry Room on Thursday, March 28, 2024. Hosted by Peter Maravelis. Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation. citylights.com/foundation