What if there was no such thing as gender?

What if we abolished gender altogether and, in the process, liberated both men and women from restrictive roles and expectations?

This is the radical premise of a new book by University of Auckland sociologist Dr Ciara Cremin, published in October by Pluto Press.

In The Spectral Woman: Transfemininity and the Abolition of Gender, Cremin draws on her own lived experience as a trans woman to challenge the entire foundation of how society understands gender.

She asks, what if the feminine holds the power to undo domination itself?

“My argument is that the feminine is the force which can abolish the rigid categories of sex and gender that sustain class exploitation, androcentrism (a worldview that places a male perspective at the centre) and repression.”

At the heart of the book is the idea of the ‘spectral woman’, a ghostly figure that challenges the rigid boundaries between male and female.

“In their uncanny appearance, the spectre (a gender-fluid person) jars with the sensibilities of those raised as strictly male or female, which means everyone,” says Cremin.

“This spectre does more than cause gender trouble, they trouble the underlying default setting we all have of the masculine being at the centre of everything. On such a person’s body, any expression of femininity, even a necklace or a skirt, becomes an object of contemplation and wonderment.”

Cremin argues that we are all to some degree ‘gender dysphoric’, that is, distressed by inconsistencies between our own sense of gender identity and the sex we’re assigned at birth, but trans people live in that state permanently.

“Cis gender people might feel uncomfortable with gender sometimes, but trans people are fundamentally alienated by it, because they know they’ll never be fully recognised as the gender they identify with, yet they still have to live and act as if they are, to appease society’s expectations.”
 

Blending personal reflection with sociological theory, Cremin connects her own experience of living now as a woman, having also lived as a man, to wider critiques of power and inequality.

This, she argues, affords a unique perspective on gender, especially in relation to how femininity can become a force for liberation from the emotionally stunting effects of masculinisation, something she has personally experienced.

She says that just as Marxism questions the structures of capitalism, this book questions the structures of gender.

“Gender, like class, is a system of power we could transform if we chose to.”

The Spectral Woman builds on previous works where Cremin has argued that society has long glorified masculinity at the expense of femininity, and that this imbalance has created an irrational ‘fear of the feminine,’ to the point where the average heterosexual man has to make it a joke if he even wears clothes considered female.

She believes the world would be a healthier, more empathetic and less violent place if feminine energy, which is traditionally associated with tenderness, empathy, sensuality and vulnerability, prevailed.

Cremin has also highlighted that ‘becoming a man’ in many cultures involves repudiating anything even remotely associated with femininity, and in a world whose most powerful leaders actively brag about their macho credentials, this brand of hyper masculinity is highly dangerous, not just to women but to men as well, and to the very survival of the planet.

In reference to former prime minister Dame Jacinda Ardern’s call to “be kind,” Cremin argues that it’s a meaningless platitude without, at the same time, "ruthlessly attacking" and transforming a capitalist society that subjects us to competitive pressures for jobs and security.

Her call is therefore to be" kind ruthlessly,” and to question the real reasons people are being divided against each other.

“The reported rise in misogynistic attitudes among boys and men that the popularity of Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson testify to, reflects the precarious conditions we all live under and the crises of political economy, which have left so many behind," says Cremin.

"And  we’re seeing this play out around the world; particularly in the UK, the US and parts of Europe, where the populist right has had a massive resurgence.”

She says gender divisions are only exacerbated by such pressures, resulting in conflicts and blame between genders, rather than pointing to the conditions in which these class and gender divisions arise.

“I do believe kindness is an essential aspect of the healing process towards a rapprochement of the sexes; but it won’t be achieved unless we recognise and change these societal factors that are inhibiting our personal and collective liberation.”

The Spectral Woman: Transfemininity and the Abolition of Gender is now available online and in selected bookstores.