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2 Recommended Readings

Introductory Reading Suggestions:

Below is a short list of accessible and thought-provoking readings that can help instructors and students better understand the background of gender theory and apply it to contemporary contexts. You may want to draw from this section if your course is not already heavily focusing on gender theory, your students are in the early stages of their degree paths, or a significant portion of your students are unfamiliar with the humanities.

“Biological Science Rejects the Sex Binary, and That’s Good for Humanity” (2024) by Agustín Fuentes. The Scientist.

“The Intersectionality Wars” (2019) by Jane Coaston. Vox.

“Berkeley professor explains gender theory” (2023) by Judith Butler. Big Think.

“The Gender Binary is White Supremacy” (2023) by Migrants’ Rights Network.

Mid-Level Reading Suggestions:

These texts don’t focus exclusively on gender abolition, instead presenting more general ideas that are essential to the theoretical base and historical justification of this theory. These texts may be incorporated as a challenge to later-stage undergraduates or as a way to approach gender abolition from an interdisciplinary perspective. Some of these texts might be instrumental in helping instructors grapple with the significance of this theory for individual and social identity production.

“Introduction: Mapping Social Reproduction Theory” (2017) by Tithi Bhattacharya. Social Reproduction Theory: Remapping Class, Recentering Oppression.

“Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” (1988) by Judith Butler. The Johns Hopkins University Press.

“The Coloniality of Gender” (2008) by María Lugones. Feminisms in Movement.

Readings on Gender Abolition:

These selections primarily focus on gender abolition with ranging levels of jargon and abstract concepts. The scholars in this section not only theorize on our dominant gender system, but also incorporate material paths to pursuing liberation. Belinsky’s piece may be an easier introduction for students, followed by Escalante’s pieces, and finally diving into a range of readings from What is Gender Nihilism? A Reader.

“Gender Nihilism: An Anti-Manifesto” (2015) by Alyson Escalante. The Anarchist Library.

“Beyond Negativity: What Comes After Gender Nihilism?” (2018) by Alyson Escalante. Medium.

“Gender and Family Abolition as an Expansive and not Reductive Process” (2019) by Zoe Belinsky. Medium.

What Is Gender Nihilism? A Reader (2016) by various authors. Internet Archive.

    • “Gender Nihilism” by Aidan Rowe | pg. 341 – 347
    • “History of Sexuality, Volume 1” & “Introduction to Herculine Barbin” by Michel Foucault | pg. 13 – 19
    • “One is Not Born a Woman” by Monique Wittig | pg. 33 – 47
    • “Against Gender, Against Society (This is What a Feminist Looks Like)” by Nila | pg. 350 – 356
    • “Romancing the Transgender Native: Rethinking the Use of the “Third Gender” Concept” by Evan B. Towle and Lynn Marie Morgan | pg. 127 – 136
    • “An Insurrectional Practice Against Gender” by Lupa | pg. 261 – 266
    • “Against the Gendered Nightmare: Fragments on Domestication” by baedan | pg. 267 – 298
    • “Wildfire: Toward Anonymous War on Civilization” | pg. 299 – 306

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Collaging the Queer: An Abstract Self-Portraiture Workshop on Gender Abolition and Identity Creation Copyright © by Jazmyne Olson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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