Trans-Exclusionary, Transnational: Gender-Critical Feminism and the Overstatement of Harm in the UK and Germany

Anti-trans, gender-critical (GC) feminist attitudes have recently been mainstreamed in UK political discourse as a reaction to calls to simplify the process of legal gender recognition from 2015 onwards. Since 2021, the public profile of a similarly reactionary GC movement has grown in Germany, coinciding with the current centre-left coalition government’s various trans-positive legal interventions. This environment creates a compelling opportunity to explore meaningful convergences of GC rhetoric in each national context through transnational comparison.

This article primarily examines the work of prominent GC author Kathleen Stock, whose unique academic reputation and background in philosophy have granted her particular influence within the UK GC movement. Analysing Stock’s work within the context of UK and German GC discourse demonstrates that GC argumentation represents a biologistic turn within feminist thought, itself viewed as a return to ‘realism’. Exchanging this rhetoric transnationally strengthens and exaggerates pre-existing narratives about the potential harm to women that may result from measures for trans-inclusion.

Through an examination of this transnational exchange, the intention of this paper is to critique GC argumentation and examine how the potential harms of trans-liberatory policies become overstated. This critique will be mediated through a transfeminist understanding of sex and gender wherein the mutual dependency of women’s and trans liberation is emphasised. As anti-trans movements have developed outsized media and political influence, and GC rhetoric has had a devastating impact on the democratic uptake and implementation of trans-inclusive policies, particularly in the UK, this work has become increasingly vital.