Gender Identity: Lies and Dangers
Thousands of pages of books, millions of characters in tweets and hundreds of blogs have been devoted to explaining the distinction between sex and gender, but far from clarifying anything, bewilderment for ordinary people is only growing.
The concept of gender is central to a vaguely progressive-looking set of ideas based on the maxim that people possess a so-called ‘gender identity’. The real problem arises when this nebulous concept, bandied about with different and even incompatible meanings by different groups, is used as a prop to introduce policies that mark a huge setback for the rights of women and girls. The general public, watching the controversy from the sidelines, is confused by conflicting claims about whose rights are being infringed.
In this incisive book, Laura Lecuona sets the record straight by reviewing the origin of the current uses of the key term gender and exploring the main theories of transgenderism. She discusses what lies behind the claims about pronoun usage and warns about the consequences of promoting the recognition of so-called transgender children. She points out the collateral damage arising from this activism, from the perpetuation of sexist roles to limitations on freedom of speech. She dares to confront the accusations of transphobia that often inhibit those who question the foundations of this financially-driven and increasingly dominant ideology and shows the devastating effects transactivism is having on women, both socially and politically.
Gender Identity: Lies and Dangers is essential reading for the urgently needed conversation we need to have about whose interests are being served with the advancement of transgender ideology and what this means for women’s sex-based rights.
Laura Lecuona’s book is remarkable in scope and a dose of political sanity that is badly needed.
—Janice G. Raymond
FEBRUARY 2024 | ISBN 9781925950908 | Paperback | 378 pages
Endorsements
Rigorous, comprehensive and admirably lucid, Gender Identity: Lies and Dangers is an authoritative and powerful account of the ‘gender identity’ movement and its devastating impact on women and children. Informed by and building on foundational works by writers like Janice Raymond and Sheila Jeffreys, Lecuona’s compellingly argued exposition restores radical feminist analysis to its rightful place at the forefront of understanding the fundamentally political nature of transgenderism.
— Julia Long, author of Anti-Porn: The Resurgence of Anti-Pornography FeminismThis is a beautiful book. The prose is elegant, pellucidly clear, and gripping. The reader gets carried along through a very thorough compendium of the present state of the debate and politics surrounding men’s practice of claiming something called a female ‘gender identity’. There are no dry or boring moments, despite the potential complexity of the arguments. Rather there is a splendidly colourful and persuasive language which makes the book a pleasure to read. Enjoy!
— Sheila Jeffreys, author of Penile Imperialism: The Male Sex Right and Women’s SubordinationA rigorous interpretation of a feminist tradition that presents the reader with an invaluable analysis and compendium of writers who have challenged the transgender juggernaut. Lecuona’s book is remarkable in scope, an impressive contribution in its own right and a dose of political sanity that is badly needed. Her achievement does justice to all those women who walk with her in this critical journey.
— Janice Raymond, author of Doublethink: A Feminist Challenge to TransgenderismIt is encouraging to read more and more excellent, well-researched and unapologetically, radically feminist books critiquing the ideology of gender identity. Through her incisive analysis of its reach into Mexico and Spain, Laura Lecuona demonstrates just how globally entrenched this dangerously absurd ideology has become. We should all heed her call to break its stranglehold and “start rebuilding the feminism that was taken from us.”
— Bronwyn Winter, Professor Emerita of Transnational Studies and lifelong feminist activist, author of The Political Economy of Same-Sex Marriage: A Feminist Critique
