Devin B’s Reviews > Who’s Afraid of Gender? > Status Update

(Updated page # to % because I’m reading an e-book; it doesn’t have the same page #s as the physical book.) There’s a fair amount of valuable info here on the UK’s TERFism. As far as key people in the movement, I think that there is a great amount of focus placed on JKR. she is a key figure, but is one of the only ones l most US citizens know and I’d appreciate getting a more holistic view on the movement

I’m through a decent portion of chapter 5. I’m fairly familiar with the material in this chapter and would be interested in reading the resources Butler used to extrapolate on TERFs in the UK.

So far still pretty good. Contrary to one review I read, Butler does provide some advice (at least in chapter 4) that could be used to address the consequences of the phantasm of gender (e.g. laws and Supreme Court decisions that enforce transphobia and pro-life sexism in the US). However, the advice is more aimed at activists, and may be less useful to those who have loved ones that believe in phantasms about gender

Chapter 2 didn’t expand much beyond what was covered/set up in chapter 1. They broke down specific arguments articulated by the Vatican and authors influencing global politics about gender. A bit iterative but needless to say some things may bear repeating. Overall this chapter serves to further illustrate the counter factual global narrative about gender and sexuality. Still more historical than theory heavy IMO.

Finished chapter 1 finally. Since the last update, I quickly reviewed some responses from other people on Goodreads that were a bit more critical of Butler (not for lack of agreeing with their ideas but for being disappointed with the limited theoretical work in the book). I can see what this person meant, and with that being said I don’t think this book is necessarily curated with people who agree with it in mind.

it is providing a lot more context for the gender question in the global political arena. Learning a lot more about the work of rightwing think tanks in the global south, particularly in rhetoric surrounding various genocides in the past three decades, and sodomy laws that enforce the death penalty.

Hoping that I can manage to finish this in the next few days (it’s due soon 😭)