Dilf: Did I Leave Feminism?

In this sharp manifesto, veteran author and activist, Jude Doyle, reunites feminist and trans politics through a common belief: that all people deserve to have the final say about who they are...

When Jude Doyle began his transition in the summer of 2020, he had a very public career as a feminist--winning awards from women’s organizations, writing for women’s magazines, publishing books on ＂women’s issues.＂ Then, after a decade in the movement, he had to walk out in front of the public and tell them he had never been a woman at all.

Doyle offers a seldom-heard and much-needed transmasculine perspective on feminist subjects, drawing together strands of intersectional feminist theory and queer and trans politics to show that all their struggles are the same struggle: The fight for gender-marginalized people to maintain autonomy and full selfhood in a patriarchy that is always eager to hollow us out and use us to further its own agenda.

DILF offers a strong rebuke to trans-exclusionary feminisms that seek to drive a wedge between gender-marginalized communities. Using interviews, critical analysis, and Doyle’s own personal experience, DILF proves that feminism is a vital and necessary tool for breaking free of patriarchal control, whoever you are.

Jude Doyle is the author of Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear . . . and Why and Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power. His work has appeared in In These Times, The Guardian, Elle.com, The Atlantic, Slate, Buzzfeed, Rookie, among other publications. He is the founder of the blog Tiger Beatdown. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.