or anyone who has been trying to figure out what on earth is going on with gender and sexuality these days, this is the book for you. Although the author, Kathleen Stock OBE, was a little known professor of philosopher at the University of Sussex when she first put her head above the parapet, she is now considered a leading voice for gender critical feminists.
It feels surprising that the concept of what it is to be a woman is a hot-button topic in the first quarter of the twenty-first century, but this has gripped public consciousness and, in this context, Stock’s clearsighted analysis of how gender identity theory negatively impacts women and girls feels radical – and even slightly dangerous.
Reading the book I felt an intense sense of relief that finally a comprehensive account of gender identity theory was presented and explored with both clarity and depth. This is a concise book and Stock doesn’t waste any time repeating many of the extraordinary stories related to gender controversies, instead she focuses on the academic challenges that form the background to these stories and casts a critical eye upon them.
Although it might have been interesting to hear interviews with people such as Maria McLachlan, Keira Bell, Barra Kerr or Lisa Littman, Stock instead chooses to evaluate the concepts that affect women rather than the narratives that add colour.
Stock examines four main axioms of trans activism: everyone has an inner gender identity; our gender identity might not match our biological sex; gender identity is what makes you a man, a woman or another gender, and finally, and perhaps most crucially, the existence of trans people means that everyone is morally obliged to acknowledge and legally protect gender identity instead of biological sex. As a philosopher and as a feminist, Stock outlines throughout the book why, in her view, this emphasis on gender identity instead of biological sex carries a heavy burden for women.
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