Resources and References for Teaching Butler’s Who’s Afraid of Gender?
In the Spring of 2025, I taught Judith Butler’s Who’s Afraid of Gender? As I was teaching it, I compiled links to news articles as well as political and ecclesiastical documents for us to use in considering Butler’s case that gender functions as a phantasm of all of our fears and anxieties regarding climate crisis, the breakdown of the nation-state, the exposure of capitalism’s project of alienation. I share this list in case others would find it useful. There are many more references in the notes, but I think these are the highlights.

Of General Interest
The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap
Anti-Gender Politics in the Populist Movement
The Right Goes After Queer Theory
A May 2023 Encapsulation of the International Anti-Gender Movement
On the Church
Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the World
Francis strongly criticizes gender theory, comparing it to nuclear arms
Catholic Education: “Male and Female He Created Them”
International Gender in Politics
Women and Equal Rights Under Giorgia Meloni
The Anti-Gender Offensive as State Policy
Prime Minister Orban at Budapest World Congress of Families
American Scott Lively teaching anti-gay theology in Uganda
South Korean President Capitalizing on Anti-Feminist Backlash
The New Age of Politics and Gender in the Hindutva movement
Domestic U.S. Gender Documents
White House EO ‘Defending Women from Gender Ideology’
Texas Gov. Abbott Letter to CPS on Gender Affirming Care
NYTimes on Gender Ideology from Trump to Orban
Gender and Transgender Policy Debate Resources
What is Gender Critical Feminism and Why is Everyone So Mad About It, Holly Lawford-Smith
MacKinnon’s Amicus Brief on Sexual Violence Against Men
AMA to States: Stop Interfering in Health Care of Transgender Children
The Yogyakarta Principles on Gender Identity




