Judith Butler – the iconic figure who, with the groundbreaking book Gender Trouble, redefines our understanding of gender and sexuality, engages here not with a new theory but with the attacks on gender that have taken center stage in today’s conservative and reactionary movements.

Global networks, authoritarian regimes, fascist formations, and even transphobic feminists are turning against the "gender ideology," spreading a fantasy that portrays gender as a dangerous, perhaps even diabolical threat to families, local cultures, civilization, and humanity itself. Fuelled by the rhetoric of public figures, this movement aims to abolish reproductive justice, undermine any protection from sexual and gender-based violence, and strip trans and queer individuals of their right to live without fear of oppression, exclusion, and violence.

Gathering and shifting anxieties and fears of destruction, operating in conjunction with misleading interpretations of "critical race theory" and xenophobic panics regarding migration, it demonizes struggles for equality, fuels aggressive nationalism, and makes millions of people vulnerable.

The book is a bold call to refuse any alliance with authoritarian movements and to form a broader coalition with individuals and groups whose struggle for equality is linked to the fight against all forms of injustice.