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.
“I found it a humane, accessible and (from a transmasc feminist perspective) deeply relatable read. I think it’s a must-read for any trans person grappling with their relationship to feminism, and an essential building block in our liberated transfeminist future.” — Kit Heyam, author of Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender
“DILF thoroughly pulled apart several built-in assumptions I knew I had about the world, several I didn’t know I had about the world, and still more I didn’t even begin to imagine I had about our ever fractious society. Jude Doyle is an incredibly incisive writer who is also quite funny, which is a rare combination.” — Emily St. James, author of Woodworking
