My latest for UnHerd: Judith Butler is out promoting a new book, the first the notoriously enigmatic theorist has ever written with actual readers in mind. Who’s Afraid of Gender? explores what Butler characterises as a global movement animated by the “phantasm of gender”, which “collects and displaces anxieties and fears of destruction, resulting in a movement that demonizes struggles for equality, fuels aggressive nationalism, and leaves millions of people vulnerable to subjugation”. Or, to put it more succinctly, how everyone who disagrees with Butler — from Viktor Orbán to Julie Bindel — is probably just a fascist.
Thank you for reporting on this. Her blasé and dismissive attitude towards to any and all legitimate concerns in the new book - be it sports, single sex spaces, concerns about medicalising children or violence against women and girls - is abhorrent, particularly when she then goes on to lump everyone together in one "fascist" mob. Phantasms indeed.
Butler has blood on her hands. Fledgling young women and men (teens, twenty-somethings, disproportionately autistic or gay or just finding their way toward adulthood) have healthy body parts cut off because of the insanity she sowed and continues shamelessly to spread.
Did she have enough remnant of conscience to touch on those kinds of outcomes of her navel-gazing musings? How do the physical losses, the resultant curtailing of life opportunities tally in her cost/benefit non-analysis?
Thanks for letting us know she's still selling her snake oil unashamedly, Eliza. Most wouldn't dare say that the Empress of Gender is wearing no clothes, and is up to no good.
Thanks for this, Eliza. KQED and Forum disappoint again and again to interrogate gender ideology and "gender affirming care" - even when callers get through the screeners (which is rare). I have tried!
At 27 minutes into the interview, the host brings in a question from a listener named Lisa, who asks Butler to comment on Lisa’s observation that people in the “queer” community often exhibit the same gender essentialism that Butler accuses the right wing of exhibiting. Butler is clearly caught on the back foot by the question, and seems to be at a loss as to how to answer it. So what does Butler do? She deliberately avoids Lisa’s question by misinterpreting it, saying nothing about the “queer” community and instead accusing gender-critical feminists of essentializing gender.
Great story. I'm about a third of the way through "Who's Afraid of Gender?" and am surprised (should I be?) at how little Butler interrogates the arguments of gender-critical people; people who are directly arguing with the "Gender Trouble" thesis. "The anti-gender advocates are largely committed to not reading critically," Butler writes. Really? Physician, heal themself.
“She gives little consideration to the possible existence of legitimate grievances, such as female athletes who are being asked to accept inequality in their own sporting leagues and who must contend with the “expansive nature” of certain men’s entitlement.” 😂 Quite.
Question: is Butler a uniquely awful philosopher, or is it just that now that women, ethnic minorities, and working-class-background people can become philosophers, the status of it has lowered enough that we can finally be honest about how onanistic and problematic it is as a profession? 😅😬 Maybe professional-philosopher is a job that only makes sense in a non-democracy? Isn’t that the point of democracy- that we the people are supposed to do this idea-exploration ourselves and not rely on a ruling class of elites for our thinking?
Thanks for the note. I stopped reading nonsense academia in the 90’s, they’re incredibly stereotyped writing, but they still cause trouble don’t they.
The world is changing. I built a few dozen books last weekend refuting Butler in her own language to examine her ideas.
The most interesting was the Nancy Drew book which in one section pointed out that if gender is a performance “a mask” there remains a biological human behind the mask with an unchanging biological reality of sex.
I heard her a bit! It was all about how silly for people to think their child will turn queer after a mild exposure, and how funny for us old people sincerely trying to get the pronouns right. Have to keep humbly trying! I have so many family members who love npr, so it helps me feel where they are at and how they experience things.
Thank you for reporting on this. Her blasé and dismissive attitude towards to any and all legitimate concerns in the new book - be it sports, single sex spaces, concerns about medicalising children or violence against women and girls - is abhorrent, particularly when she then goes on to lump everyone together in one "fascist" mob. Phantasms indeed.
In her defense - I dare say Ms. Butler couldn't find her own arse if she used both hands.
Butler has blood on her hands. Fledgling young women and men (teens, twenty-somethings, disproportionately autistic or gay or just finding their way toward adulthood) have healthy body parts cut off because of the insanity she sowed and continues shamelessly to spread.
Did she have enough remnant of conscience to touch on those kinds of outcomes of her navel-gazing musings? How do the physical losses, the resultant curtailing of life opportunities tally in her cost/benefit non-analysis?
Thanks for letting us know she's still selling her snake oil unashamedly, Eliza. Most wouldn't dare say that the Empress of Gender is wearing no clothes, and is up to no good.
Thanks for this, Eliza. KQED and Forum disappoint again and again to interrogate gender ideology and "gender affirming care" - even when callers get through the screeners (which is rare). I have tried!
At 27 minutes into the interview, the host brings in a question from a listener named Lisa, who asks Butler to comment on Lisa’s observation that people in the “queer” community often exhibit the same gender essentialism that Butler accuses the right wing of exhibiting. Butler is clearly caught on the back foot by the question, and seems to be at a loss as to how to answer it. So what does Butler do? She deliberately avoids Lisa’s question by misinterpreting it, saying nothing about the “queer” community and instead accusing gender-critical feminists of essentializing gender.
Great story. I'm about a third of the way through "Who's Afraid of Gender?" and am surprised (should I be?) at how little Butler interrogates the arguments of gender-critical people; people who are directly arguing with the "Gender Trouble" thesis. "The anti-gender advocates are largely committed to not reading critically," Butler writes. Really? Physician, heal themself.
“She gives little consideration to the possible existence of legitimate grievances, such as female athletes who are being asked to accept inequality in their own sporting leagues and who must contend with the “expansive nature” of certain men’s entitlement.” 😂 Quite.
Question: is Butler a uniquely awful philosopher, or is it just that now that women, ethnic minorities, and working-class-background people can become philosophers, the status of it has lowered enough that we can finally be honest about how onanistic and problematic it is as a profession? 😅😬 Maybe professional-philosopher is a job that only makes sense in a non-democracy? Isn’t that the point of democracy- that we the people are supposed to do this idea-exploration ourselves and not rely on a ruling class of elites for our thinking?
I listened to the whole hour. What the hell is trans asterisk? I assume she means this " trans* ". Are people now identifying as punctuation marks?
Thanks for the note. I stopped reading nonsense academia in the 90’s, they’re incredibly stereotyped writing, but they still cause trouble don’t they.
The world is changing. I built a few dozen books last weekend refuting Butler in her own language to examine her ideas.
The most interesting was the Nancy Drew book which in one section pointed out that if gender is a performance “a mask” there remains a biological human behind the mask with an unchanging biological reality of sex.
The Butler rebuttal PDF:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/5vwtrgnc06kipela6muug/Butler_112233full.pdf?rlkey=39zh8v4p2dsluni0xznlt1k8j&dl=0
Butler gently refuted by Nancy Drew PDF:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/l64vkkcs9q1z3hzt5tyi1/ButlerDrew_112233full.pdf?rlkey=d1k8968emvlmvkhw9i6s1hm61&dl=0
I have not had time to read Sontag pulling Butler apart, nor Dawkins. I wish I read Spanish for the Allende edition.
Does she actually define gender? My guess is no.
Good article on Ms Nutbar Butler.
I heard her a bit! It was all about how silly for people to think their child will turn queer after a mild exposure, and how funny for us old people sincerely trying to get the pronouns right. Have to keep humbly trying! I have so many family members who love npr, so it helps me feel where they are at and how they experience things.
I just saw that she will be speaking in Chicago on April 9th. I live too far away, but I wonder if she will be taking questions.