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And by the way, Donald Trump is a misogynist, says the distinguished scholar.
Cisgender women won’t be erased by the inclusion of trans women, says Judith Butler, one of the leading scholars of feminism and gender theory.
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Butler, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, recently gave a wide-ranging interview to Spanish newspaper El Pais,discussing transgender rights, the need to support young people exploring gender, the misogyny of Donald Trump, and more. In their latest book, Who’s Afraid of Gender, Butler, who is nonbinary, wrote of “a ‘phantasm’ created to stoke fears about gender,” interviewer Iker Seisdedos observed. He asked if Butler understands “the concerns of feminists who think that gender could result in the erasure of women.”
“Some feminists, I think unwittingly, have allied themselves in places like the U.K. and Spain with the far right when it comes to instigating this phantasm about gender. I understand those fears, but that doesn’t mean that I think they’re based on knowledge,” Butler replied. “Perhaps those feminists need a better understanding of who trans people are. Womanhood won’t be erased just because we open the category and invite some more people in. This is a moment for expanding alliances, not to have sectarian struggles about bathrooms.” The interview took place the same day U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson announced he would bar trans people, including newly elected Congresswoman Sarah McBride, from House-controlled restrooms aligning with their gender identity.
Cis women know what it’s like to struggled for bodily autonomy, with many U.S. states having banned or severely restricted abortion, and to face violence, Butler added. So they should sympathize with trans people’s efforts to get the health care they need and be safe from violence, they noted.
Butler also supported education about gender issues. “Young people should be able to take time to find their own way,” they said. “If you teach gender in school that doesn’t mean you’re telling them that they should become homosexual or trans. Not providing support to gender non-conforming youth strikes me as an act of cruelty. I don’t think every time a kid says, oh, I want hormones, you rush to the doctor. But you also don’t refuse the idea.”
Butler went on to say that Trump’s anti-trans rhetoric wasn’t the main reason for his victory over Kamala Harris; he exploited voters’ other fears and anxieties as well. Misogyny and racism played a role too, they said. Butler did not agree with Harris on some issues but did vote for her.
“We have a pernicious history of misogyny, which is being celebrated in the person of Trump,” Butler said. “Guilty of sexual crimes, he has done more than any other American person to demean and degrade women as a class.” If people say they can live with racism and misogyny in a candidate because he might be better for the economy, “even if they’re not enthusiastic racists, the more the enthusiastic racists and the fascists become stronger,” Butler said.
“People want to go back to the idea of being a white country or the idea of the patriarchal family, the principle that marriages are for heterosexuals,” they continued. “I call it a nostalgic fury for an impossible past. … As a consequence of that, they’re furiously turning against some of the most vulnerable people in this country, stripping of them of rights as they fear that the same will be done to them.”
