“Policy, Not Biology” - Response to “The Anti-Trans Playbook,” by The New York Review of Books

This is a response to “The Anti-Trans Playbook,” published by Paisley Currah in The New York Review of Books on December 18, 2025. Currah misleads readers regarding the positions held by the authors.

“Currah fundamentally misunderstands radical feminism. Radical means “from the root.” Second-wave feminism in the 1960s and 1970s fought for women’s liberation by recognizing that women’s oppression is rooted in our bodies. We are, on average, not as strong as men. Men hurt and kill us. We can be impregnated against our will. We may be unable to leave an abusive man or to find work while caring for children. We can die in childbirth or be denied medical care because we are pregnant. Sex stereotypes can be used to strip us of self-determination. We cannot “identify” out of this.

Rejecting sex stereotypes never meant women are the same as men. We are fully human beings with agency. We do not need sex stereotypes to signal who we are; we simply are.”