What is Gender-Critical Feminism? (And why is everyone so mad about it?)

Gender-critical feminists are described in popular media outlets as 'anti-trans activists', focused on 'exclud[ing] trans women from the ranks of women', because they are obsessed with 'phantom', 'imaginary', or 'statistically tiny' incidences of violence perpetrated by this minority group against women (Saul 2020; Hay 2019; Dawson 2020; Solnit 2020; Finlayson, Jenkins, & Worsdale 2018). But gender critical feminism is not about transwomen, and this popular mischaracterisation centres men in the narrative of a movement created by women, for women, and about women. In this talk I introduce gender critical feminism, explain its roots in the radical feminism of the second wave, and answer some of the most common objections against it.

*Note: in this video I refer to 9 million witches being burned alive, this number comes from Andrea Dworkin's 1974 book 'Woman Hating', but the total is now thought to be significantly lower.

For those who prefer to read, there's an essay version of this talk here:

For anyone looking for more, my book ~Gender-Critical Feminism~ was published with Oxford University Press in 2022. You can get 30% off with the discount code ASFLYQ6. Link here:

[ruthless]

having spent a while watching videos whoch critique 'TERFs' I can't help but think this is about intellectual laziness and dishonesty. You will never see such an unbiased and objective run down on those sneering, smug videos.
thanks for this x

[UteHeggenTranswidowHeals]

as ex wife of M2F, who is finally starting to recover from narcissistic abuse, I very appreciate this analysis. I have literally been told that I must stop telling my own personal history with accuracy. My own autobiography is being stolen from me.

[eeven]

I believe gender critical feminism to be more about the protection of women and feminism’s desires then about trans people. In fact I believe that the insertion of trans argument to be a distraction, in order to push a misogynist agenda, against women, and feminism.

[DerLiesl]

I really appreciate your work and your courage to stand up for real-world feminism from a philosophy perspective. I love your work!

[houndnobleman]

I actually work at the University of Melbourne and have studied gender and sexuality for years, but I only heard of you today due to posters. Keep up the great work!

[pseudonamed]

Thank you for the great history lesson, this makes a lot of sense.. it's clear that in the past most feminists were GC (though that term didn't exist yet because very few people conceived of themselves as trans and most were not demanding to be accepted as exactly the same as the opposite sex, so it wasn't really a big topic within the movement). I think a lot of younger feminists have never actually learned about past feminists or read their work and are missing out on a lot of the feminist ideas that were developed through their hard work for years.

[tonidunn]

I resent being called anti trans because i want to protect my rights as a woman and my 8 year old grandaughters rights. I dont want to push my views onto others so why am i having trans rights put before my rights. And the word identify is not biology

[dimcgee]

Thank you for the great lecture, Holly! And for the cracking debate in the comments! Both were extremely enlightening, not to mention entertaining! Subscribed.

[victormonteiro]

Hi Professor. If you don’t mind me being very straight to the point, I struggled with two moments in the lecture. At 41:40, you said that gender-critical feminism would argue that a trans person claiming to be a woman is actually not a woman by saying “that is not what female means”. But then what means to be female? Similarly you argue at 43:52 that trans people should differ female experience as this is a women-only experience.

I know that at ( 35:34 ) you demonstrated that there is an overdertermination of what defines woman/female - in your argument about membership. But wouldn’t that contradict what is said later? Have I misunderstood the concept?

Thank you 😁

[meelatdavis]

Thanks this is a great primer! It's been difficult to find a good descriptive overview of Gender Critical feminism.

[pseudonamed]

You make some really good points about intersectionality. I’ve always felt that if we are truly intersectional, we must admit that sex and gender (by “gender” here I mean gender are 2 separate, but overlapping areas of oppression. So female born people are oppressed in sex-based ways, and all people who don’t conform to gender roles/expressions are oppressed in gender-based ways. So.. a lesbian could experience oppression based on being female, as well as based on being homosexual. A trans woman could experience oppression based on bigotry against her gender non-conformity, OR if she passes as female would experience SOME sex-based oppressions due to being read as female, but not experiencing for example oppression based on reproduction. There are oppressions that only trans people experience, and others only female people experience, and any individual could experience some things from both spheres. But they are NOT the same and therefore need all types of oppression to be fought against in a way that doesn’t prioritise any one oppression over others.

[rooruffneck]

This is outstanding and very helpful. Saw you chat with Mr.Girl. Great conversation.

[estelaluciau.v]

You are a brilliant speaker and this is truly a great lecture. Thank you for your work. Take care,
Estela. :)

[euanmacleod]

Really really interesting and well articulated video - thanks so much for taking the time to make it, and braving the inevitable fragile, insecure anger that it sadly invites. It must get tedious getting straw-manned into oblivion the moment you dare to speak, by people who never had any sincere interest in hearing a single word you uttered to begin with, but massive respect for your enduring patience and rational discourse on the matter despite all the heat.

I'm curious what your views are about how gender ought to be dealt with or introduced when raising a child. By that I mean, to what extent early conceptions about gender/gender roles/gender identity/gender expectations are informed by things like the clothes we give children to wear, or the toys we give them to play with, or the designs we put on their curtains, lunchboxes and so on. It seems to me this stuff plays a meaningful role in laying the foundations for things like ideas around gender identities, even if by accident, but it seems like stormy waters to navigate ethically. Maybe this is an unwieldy question to even unpick... even if there's any credible reading material on the subject you could recommend, I would be grateful.

[pilar]

You're one of the bravest people I know. Thanks.

[just-so-were-crystal-clear]

I'm glad to have found content from a professional philosopher carefully dissecting these issues/ideas that have been steamrolled in the media. Thanks for making

[Susanmugen]

Thank you for fairly representing your opponents and participating in good faith. I appreciate hearing the perspective, appreciate the focus on feminism instead of transphobia. I don't know if you're exclusionary type, and I transitioned as a teen, so I won't say more here in case my input is unwelcome. I'm coming at things from an intersectional feminism perspective.

[nickofhelmet]

Great work Holly. Very good for teaching purposes!

[mbartmess]

Incredibly informative, smart and articulate - thank you so much. By the way, once, a long time ago, I studied for a short while with T-Grace Atkinson when she taught at Fairhaven College and the U. of Washington. Interesting times. Brilliant woman.

[courttttttt]

Omg thank you. I’m a woman but now that liberal/ modern feminism has such a chokehold on the world I don’t know how to identify anymore. Maybe radical feminists might be the group for me? Could you go over the modern views of radical feminists/ gender critical. And media and social to follow to learn more.