On the Meaning of Sex: Thoughts about the New Definition of Woman
Kajsa Ekis Ekman
Translated by Kristina Mäki
A brilliant examination of the intellectually incoherent and anti-feminist character of gender identity theory
In this groundbreaking book, Swedish feminist and Marxist, Kajsa Ekis Ekman, traces the ideological roots of the new definition of woman. She shows how biological determinism is back – but minus the biology. So too are stereotypes: womanhood is no longer about having a vagina, but pink ribbons and dolls. Masculinity is no longer synonymous with having a penis but with war and machines. We are told being a woman is a gender identity that anyone can claim and that can only be determined by one’s own feelings.
In countries such as Norway, Canada, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand, self-identity laws have already been enacted that give anyone the right to change his or her legal sex. At the same time, the industry for gender reassignment surgery is growing at an unprecedented pace. Seven out of ten teenagers who seek interventions are now girls.
The new definition of sex has been hailed as progressive. But is it really? What ideology is expressed by it? What consequences will it have? And for whom?
FEBRUARY 2023 | ISBN 9781925950663 | Paperback | 152 x 228 pp | 380 pages
Praise for On the Meaning of Sex: Thoughts About the New Definition of Woman
On the Meaning of Sex by Kajsa Ekis Ekman is clearly written, thoroughly researched, and one of the most intelligent and impressive trawls through the madness of gender ideology to date. Anyone in two minds about whether or not trans orthodoxy causes harms won’t be after reading this book.
— Julie Bindel, journalist and author of The Pimping of Prostitution and Feminism for Women
Kajsa Ekis Ekman describes the ascent of gender essentialism, jettisoning us into a brave new world where those deemed insufficiently masculine or feminine are encouraged to take hormones and have surgery. It can only be hoped as many people as possible read this book and are made aware of the full horrors taking place in the guise of what purports to be a ‘progressive ideology’. Ekman’s clear analysis demonstrates how the trans movement is working to effectively dismantle feminism and guilt trip and coerce women into their own erasure. One day we will look back in wonder on a time when people were ready to recognise a person’s sex on the basis of their say-so, ignoring the evidence of their own senses and disregarding cautionary instincts developed to safeguard women and children from male sexual predators.
— Anna Kerr, Principal Solicitor, Feminist Legal Clinic
In this book, Kajsa Ekis Ekman uses her piercing intelligence to provide an excellent overview of how we have come to such a sorry pass, in which men who pretend to be women and their supporters have been able to smash feminism and overturn women’s rights. She focuses on issues that have not yet been treated by other feminist critics with such forensic attention, such as why ‘transmen’ are ignored and treated with contempt, as women always are, while their ‘brothers’, the transvestites, have become the pin-up girls of culture. In a gripping chapter on the creation of the ‘cis-person’, Ekman examines what happens to women when they are downgraded and erased by transgender politics, to great and frightening effect. Kajsa Ekis Ekman has written a fascinating book.
— Sheila Jeffreys, author of Penile Imperialism: The Male Sex Right and Women’s Subordination
Kajsa Ekis Ekman has provided what so many people confused by gender identity theory need: A critical assessment that is fair and blunt, analytically precise and unafraid of challenging both liberal AND patriarchal dogma. On the Meaning of Sex is a brilliant examination of the intellectually incoherent and anti-feminist ideas of gender identity theory. Ekman’s clear thinking and clear prose are a much-needed antidote to the muddled conversation about sex and gender in mainstream culture. Many of us encounter gender identity theory and think, “But that doesn’t make any sense.” Ekman’s account of history and science explains why in a way that helps everyone, including people who identify as trans.
— Robert Jensen, Emeritus Professor, University of Texas at Austin; author of The End of Patriarchy: Radical Feminism for Men
On The Meaning of Sex chronicles this century’s return of regressive stereotypes of women to western culture through a close examination of transgender ideology and the scientific hokum being churned out of academic institutions and corporate media that reverse the advances made by the Enlightenment where science has been erased by the cult of emotion and misogyny. Ekman brings a refreshing analysis to how the creation of the ‘trans person’ necessitates the conterminous invention of the ‘cis-person’ that together cannibalise the biological and political realities of women and girls in order to ‘gender wash’ male violence as ‘female’ within a movement that portrays itself as ‘progressive’ when it is anything but.
— Julian Vigo, anthropologist, journalist, writer, editor of Savage Minds
Read aurora linnea’s review of On the Meaning of Sex here.
Reviews
In Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House, Nora asserts her worth by saying, “I believe that I am first and foremost a human being”. In this forthright analysis of contemporary gender identity theory, Kajsa Ekman argues that we have lost sight of this fact.
…This is a book that will no doubt generate heated debate. Read the full review.
—Nine Media (Sydney Morning Herald/The Age)A clear, comprehensive, and sharp-witted takedown of the manic hodgepodge of reversals transgender ideology proffers in place of good sense, On the Meaning of Sex should be on the shelf of all students of feminist defiance seeking to develop their arsenal of at-the-ready counterarguments against the new doublespeak regime. Read the full review.
—Review by aurora linnea, Women's Liberation Radio News
FIVE STAR AMAZON READER REVIEW Ekman covers literally every aspect of the gender identity philosophy, and easily exposes just how incoherent (at best) and misogynistic (at worse) every layer of is. It's a great book if you know nothing of the topic, or if you have been following it for awhile. I thought I was well-read on the issues, but was continually impressed with her laser-like precision and astute analysis. As you can tell, I absolutely loved this book! If you enjoy critiques and debunking of pseudo-intellectualism, pseudoscience, anti-scientific ideologies, weird beliefs, and religion you’ll find this an interesting, insightful, and amusing read (though often maddening as well). It absolutely deserves to be on the shelf of every skeptic. I can’t recommend it enough!
Hormone hoax: We are not being told the truth about gender medicine. Read an extract from On the Meaning of Sex on Gender Clinic News here.
On the Meaning of Sex: On the New Definition of Woman by Kajsa Ekis Ekman discussed by Kajsa Ekis Ekman and Ana Julia Di Lisio
Kajsa Ekis Ekman speaks on International Women's Day about On the Meaning of Sex: Thoughts About the New Definition of Woman published by Spinifex Press in 2023. You can watch the full launch here.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part 1: Seventy-One Genders — A Revolution in the Making
1. “We’re Expanding the Concept of What It Means to Be Human”
2. “Transwomen Are Women – But What Is a Woman?”
3. Boys Climb Trees, Girls Make Bead Necklaces: The Return of Stereotypes
4. Chasing the Gendered Brain
5. Gender Is in the Eye of the Beholder
6. 2007: The Order of Modernity
7. 2017: The Gender-Congruent Person
8. Help – My Son Loves Pink!
9. An Invisible Theory
10. The History of Sex: One-Sex and Two-Sex Theories
11. Return of the One-Sex Theory
12. What Happens to Biological Determinism When There Is No Body?
13. How Feminism Started Loving Gender
14. How Patriarchy Incorporated Its Dissidents
Part 2: One Pill Makes You a Girl, One Pill Makes You a Boy — The 71 Genders Become Two
15. When States Reassign Their Citizens’ Sex
16. “Doctors are Salivating at the Prospect of Applying Puberty Blockers”
17. They Will Probably Become Infertile, But That’s the Price You Pay – The New Era of Sterilisations
18. When States Convert Homosexuals
19. What Is a Man without a Penis?
20. Younger, Faster, Happier?
21. Hormone Evangelists in the Pharmaceutical Industry
22. Tumblr, Trans and Trauma – Testimonies from Teens
23. Mastectomy or Death: Harnessing the Threat of Suicide
24. The Industry Under Pressure
Part 3: The One Sex Theory
25. A Tale of Trans People?
26. Woman: A Dangerous Word
27. Vagina: A Dangerous Word
28. The Creation of the Cis-Person – or How We Fell in Love with Gender Roles
29. Gender Self-Identification
30. A Room of One’s Own
31. Unspeakable Violence
32. Every Man’s Right
33. Invisible Trans Men
34. Open Female Spaces, Closed Male Spaces
35. “The End of Women’s Sport as We Know It”
36. “It Started with the Realisation that Women Do Not Exist” – A Fatal Blow to Equality Policies
37. “She Deserves a Kick in the Ovaries”
38. Sex, Race, Class, or … An Exception to Intersectionality
39. Nature/Nurture – A Dialectical View
40. Notes on the Word ‘Woman’
References
Index