Who's Afraid of Gender?

By: Judith Butler

Narrated by: Judith Butler

Long-listed, Esquire Magazine Best Books of the Year, 2024

Long-listed, NPR Best Book of the Year, 2024

This program is read by the author.

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by Time, Elle, Kirkus, Literary Hub, The Millions, Electric Literature, and them.

"A profoundly urgent intervention.”—Naomi Klein

"A timely must-read for anyone actively invested in re-imagining collective futurity.”—Claudia Rankine

From a global icon, a bold, essential account of how a fear of gender is fueling reactionary politics around the world.

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

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 Judith Butler (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“A brilliant writer and thinker, Butler . . . offers a long-needed text clarifying confusion by design . . . Their newest offering is urgent, returning breathable air into a toxic cloud . . . The result is exhilarating and life-changing.”—Booklist (starred review)

"[A] trenchant polemic . . . Thoughtful and powerfully assured, this is an essential take on an ongoing political battle."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A wonderfully thoughtful and impassioned book on a critically important centerpiece of contemporary authoritarianism and patriarchy. A master class in how gender has been weaponized in support of conservative values and authoritarian regimes.”—Kirkus Reviews

A gripping and thorough analysis of anti-gender ideology in the 21st century

I found this work by Judith Butler to be an indispensable tool in understanding the various frameworks of the global anti-gender movement. A must-read for anyone seeking to gain a better understanding of this issue!

Needed this as an American woman for understanding gender

Needed this as an American woman for understanding gender in 2025. Eye opening for me as a feminist, I intend to support Trans Rights having heard this book..... I understand the struggle with new clarity..... we're stronger together, thank you Judith Butler. My civil rights attorney friend recommended this book and believes you're a modern day genius..... I agree!

Very Timely

Judith Butler never fails to reveal issues surrounding gender in ways that are simultaneously eye opening and capable of inspiring fruitful discussions.

Excellent

Excellent book, and bravery more important than now. I highly recommend it. it covers a lot of areas, but Butler did a great job of explaining things in a digestible way, even though the issue discussed are anything but easy.

The answer is clear.

Butler’s perspective on the centrality of gender for the global far right is spot on. As a family scholar myself, I emphatically nodded along as they presented their argument.