Gender

Female Masculinities and the Gender Wars: The Politics of Sex is about the relationship between butchness, transmasculinity, and the people who are against these forms of self-expression. It was published in 2021. Four years later, the political climate in the UK that it describes has materially changed, but the conflicts that Finn Mackay describes haven’t really. I think that it is as relevant now as it was when it was written: Mackay writes lucidly about the nature of the gender critical movement in a way that I feel is quite unique. They are able to do this analysis because of their deep understanding of radical feminist writing. Mackay’s project with this book is a rehabilitative one. They want radical feminism to stop being associated solely with its trans-exclusionary form, and they want to draw a line between belonging to gender critical communities and belonging to radical feminist communities–not because one excludes the other but because they are not necessarily the same thing. This is very personal for Mackay: they have identified with radical feminism since their teens and have what I would describe as a complex relationship to gender. In the book, they say that they identify as a queer butch, and politically identify as a woman. In a 2022 article, they described themselves as “a queer butch, or transmasc, identifying with much in the trans-with-an-asterisk label.” For this reason I’ve decided not to really pass judgement on whether this book is intended to be read as a ‘butch book’ or a ’transmasculine book’ and instead work with the book’s premise that these identities are very much linked.