I can't say I've read a lot on the transgender phenomenon, but of all the material I have read, this book is the best. Abigail Favale was brought up evangelical, but left the faith because of its anti-historical and non-doctrinal emphasis (p.19), and eventually became a committed postmodern feminist scholar. But before long, the "self-defeating" cracks in that movement became more apparent and she found herself moving back to the church, this time to Catholicism. In this book she tells her story, and also offers beautifully written explanations of how feminist theory has led to transgenderism, and how the Christian faith offers a better way forward.
Favale (pronounced like "volley") gives us the history of the different waves of feminism, moving from the fight for the right to vote in the first wave to the separation of women from their biology in the fourth wave; explains the long-term effects of the use of birth control, which she claims "prompted a cascade of disconnection that has brought us to the gender bedlam of the present" (p.114); and discusses with clarity the way biological sex relates to gender, explaining that the existence of intersex people does not deny the gender/sex binary, because "sex is readily recognizable at birth for 99.98 percent of human beings" (p. 127). The highly unusual exceptions are not examples of additional genders, but "variations within the binary" (p.135). Men and women can express themselves differently "within the boxes of male and female for a diverse range of body types and personalities. We do not need to abolish the boxes altogether." (p.135)
One of the major problems with the transgender movement is that the men who want to be women, and the women who want to be men, often are only longing to fit themselves into cultural stereotypes of what male and female are. Think of the picture of Caitlyn Jenner on the cover of Vanity Fair -- Bruce has simply appropriated all of the superficial stereotypes of what a woman is supposed to be like, and against which the feminists have fought so hard. "If girlness and boyness no longer reside in the body, there is no other ground for these concepts except stereotypes." (p. 158).
To be clear, Favale is not on an angry rant against progressives. Frequently in the book she pauses to note what she believes to be good about feminism and postmodernism. For instance, she observes that those with gender dysphoria are expressing a desire to feel "at home with oneself and home in the world," which in itself "needs to be named and recognized as good." (p.232). This is what everyone longs for! By this I don't mean that Favale is ambiguous or weak in her position. In fact, she won't even use gender-based pronouns that conflict with a person's biological sex because she believes it would be "actively participating in a lie" (p.206). But Favale is always compassionate and gracious, encouraging us to listen to people and to be slow to make quick judgments based on appearance (p.215). "The church is not for ready-made saints," she writes on p. 216. "The church is for sinners, doubters, half-brewed Christians, conversions-in-process, tipsy wagon-riders who tumble off and climb back on again."
Sometimes Favale's Catholicism comes across a little too strong. I wish she would refer more to the "Christian view" rather than the "Catholic view" (after all, we Protestants have a doctrine of creation, embodiment and the sacraments too). And her emphasis on the "yes" of the Virgin Mary as the "fulcrum of redemption" (p.239) gets very close to a dangerous distortion of the Gospel. My hope is not on Mary's "yes," but on Jesus' "yes" to go to the Cross in obedience to his Father, which ultimately is where we find our true purpose and our true freedom, and the grace to be content with who God made us to be.