Who's afraid of gender

Judith Butler perturbs the political right. She is correct to say that things are not going back into the bottle with imposed heteronormative norms for everyone. That ship has sailed despite the current backlash. 

She has become personna non-grata in the halls of the Vatican as well as within other institutions that align birth sex and gender to the point where they are one and the same thing. Not only is birth sex replete with anomalies including at the chromosomal level but expression, when left unrestricted, naturally falls along a spectrum. 

Most people in the general public don't follow or understand gender theory and I can arrest to this first hand from my many discussions over the years. Interestingly this includes some gender variant people themselves who have tried to define themselves in a way that makes sense to them which is perhaps just as well.

But you don't need to espouse an academic viewpoint to be happy in one's skin. We can increasingly try to ignore societal convention (which has laden sex and gender norms with political weight) in a world that increasingly sees and accepts more malleable approaches towards achieving authenticity.

Butler is clearly undeterred in her views even as they grate against the dogmas of very reductionist groups....