‘Radical Gender Theory’ is Itself a Social Construct

The people who’re making it up do not have good intentions

Christopher Rufo dot com, as seen today

You may have heard that Chris Rufo is distributing an anti-trans pamphlet. Several days ago, a major newspaper published a column by another writer who suggested there is something meaningful or worthwhile to be found within it. There isn’t. Here is what’s wrong with this pamphlet.

Rufo Did It Before With the Term ‘Critical Race Theory’

In March 2021, Chris Rufo tweeted that he wanted people to “immediately think ‘critical race theory’” every time they “read something crazy in the newspaper.” As he put it, his efforts were “steadily driving up negative perceptions” of the term “CRT.” “We will eventually turn it toxic,” he bragged, by prompting the right-wing to associate “various cultural insanities under that brand category.” In case anyone missed the point, he went on: “We have decodified the term” (i.e., stripped it of its original meaning) “and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans” (i.e., attach new meanings of everything people hate).

Now He’s Doing It With the Term ‘Radical Gender Theory’

Earlier this summer, Rufo tweeted his plan to publish “a new series on gender ideology in K–12 schools. My goal is to publish one story per week for six weeks, establishing the frame, driving multiple news cycles, and generating 500 million media impressions.” A couple weeks later, the plan had expanded to a “ten-part” series.

Now it’s September, and you can find the pamphlet he made on his boring website, christopher rufo dot com. (You can, but please don’t.) The pamphlet presents seven “key concepts” of so-called “radical gender theory.” Rufo wrote a total of 228 words laying them out (yeah, about 33 words per concept), and he quoted 1435 words written by others that he claims are examples of these concepts.

What are the Big Seven concepts of “radical gender theory”? As he has it, this supposed ideology endorses the ideas that sex, gender, and sexuality are social constructs, which, if imposed as norms, become tools of oppression; that nonbinary genders are…