From a reader of the academic persuasion:

“Mr. Derbyshire—I am shocked that you left Judith Butler off your list of wordy philosophers-for-immolation. I presume only the patriarchal notions you lot disseminate (oops) would allow you to ignore Butler’s seminal (no that can’t be right) contributions, such as (From Bodies that Matter):“To the extent that the naming of the ‘girl’ is transitive, that is, initiates the process by which a certain ‘girling’ is compelled, the term or, rather, its symbolic power, governs the formation of a corporeally enacted femininity that never fully approximates the norm. This is a ‘girl,’ however, who is compelled to ‘cite’ the norm in order to qualify and remain a viable subject. Femininity is thus not the product of a choice, but the forcible citation of a norm, one whose complex historicity is indissociable from relations of discipline, regulation, punishment. Indeed, there is no ‘one’ who takes on a gender form. On the contrary, this citation of the gender norm is necessary in order to qualify as a ‘one,’ to become viable as a ‘one,’ where subject-formation is dependent on the prior operation of legitimating gender norms. “Clearly, despite your hardened (oh, that’s not quite the right phrasing, is it?) insistence on ignoring the work of Gender Theorists, the lady (term used awfully loosely) IS for burning.”

[Derb] Well, plainly Ms. Butler is one fe-person you would NOT want to offer your seat to on the subway.