Who's Afraid of Gender examines why 'gender' has become a target of attack for authoritarian movements worldwide. Judith Butler, one of the founders of gender studies whose earlier work Gender Trouble transformed feminist theory, investigates how gender came to function as a phantasm—an imagined enemy onto which diverse anxieties about social change are projected. Butler traces anti-gender movements from European protests against marriage equality through Brazilian attacks on 'gender ideology' to American campaigns against transgender rights and critical race theory. These movements, Butler argues, share a logic that positions gender as a threat to the natural order, family, and civilization itself, despite gender being simply a scholarly term for analyzing how societies organize sex differences. The book connects anti-gender politics to broader authoritarian trends, showing how attacks on gender provide an entry point for dismantling democratic institutions and minority protections. Butler writes with urgency about a political moment when the concepts they helped develop are under direct assault, while also maintaining the philosophical rigor that characterizes their scholarship. For readers seeking to understand the politics of the present moment, this work provides essential analysis.