Judith Butler warns world is ‘witnessing restoration of patriarchy and racism’

Academic, feminist philosopher and gender studies scholar Judith Butler has issued a bleak prophesy about the future of the world.

Butler who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, is best-known for their landmark book Gender Trouble which posited the theory that gender is a social construct, rather than inherently biological, and is performative.

The book was foundational in the field of queer theory and has been widely cited in other literature and on film.

Speaking at an event at the Reina Sofía Museum, in Madrid, hosted by El País, to mark the tenth anniversary of the Spanish newspaper’s “Ideas’ supplement, Butler said: “We are witnessing the restoration of patriarchy, nationalism, racism and capitalist individualism. It is the nostalgic fury of right-wing movements that want to return to an idealised past, one that perhaps never truly existed, and to re-establish hierarchical orders.

“We need to revive a Marxist analysis in light of the new social movements. We must commit to saying what we want to see realised, and not just complain about what is going wrong.”

Butler went on to talk about trans issues, having previously said abandoning transgender rights was tantamount to operating within a fascist logic.

“Everyone who thinks trans people should live however they want are building bridges,” they said. “In fact, there are many bridges being built but then there are groups that say they don’t want bridges.

“We can debate hormones or surgery but gender assignment is a form of coercion that we must name and resist. We have to support young people, not tell them that they can’t experiment or imagine how to live [in] their bodies in the world. Let’s leave that path open.”

Butler, who is Jewish, also spoke about how, after condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza, they became one of the academics placed on a blacklist as part of the Trump administration’s investigation into alleged antisemitic incidents.

“I received a message from the legal department [of the University of California, Berkeley], saying my name is on that list. No one has filed a complaint against me in my three decades at the university… but they wouldn’t let me see the file or know what the accusation was.

“It’s a Kafkaesque world where you want to know the accusation but no one tells you.

“If you denounce the genocide the Israeli government is carrying out, you are a terrorist. If you denounce violence, you are violent or they associate you with Hamas, even if you have never shown support for it.

“We must stand together, not as heroic individuals, but in solidarity.”

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