Sophie Lewis (author)

Sophie Lewis (born 1988) is a German-British writer and independent scholar based in Philadelphia, mainly known for her anti-state communism,[1] transfeminism, literary criticism, and cultural analysis, especially her critical-utopian[2] theorization of "full surrogacy",[3] her idea that "all reproduction is assisted"[4] as well as "amniotechnics",[5] and her advocacy for family abolition.[6][7] Lewis's personal website describes her as a "recovering academic."[8]

In 2019, Lewis was commissioned to write an op-ed in The New York Times to explain "How British Feminism Became Anti-Trans",[9] where she proposed that the reason for the United Kingdom's trans-exclusionary radical feminism[10] is its history of imperialism.[11][9] She gained notoriety in September 2020 when she tweeted about the multispecies erotic dynamics[12] in the Netflix documentary My Octopus Teacher,[13] a controversy she later referred to as "octopusgate" in a 2021 essay published in n+1 magazine: "My Octopus Girlfriend".[14][15]

Lewis has published two books through Verso Books; Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism against the Family, published in May 2019, and Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation, published in October 2022.[16] Her third book, Enemy Feminisms: TERFs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation, will be published by Haymarket Books in February 2025.[17]

  1. ^ O'Brien, ME (15 October 2019). "Communizing Care". pinko.
  2. ^ Stone, Katie (3 July 2023). "Hollow children: Utopianism and disability justice". Textual Practice. 37 (9): 1406. doi:10.1080/0950236X.2023.2231295 – via Taylor & Francis Online.
  3. ^ Lane-McKinley, Madeline (10 June 2019). "Unthinking the Family in 'Full Surrogacy Now'". Los Angeles Review of Books.
  4. ^ Lewis, Sophie (10 August 2018). "Mothering". Boston Review.
  5. ^ Danewid, Ida (18 May 2023). "Unmaking Property: The River as Amniotechnics". The Disorder of Things.
  6. ^ "What is Family Abolition?". Brooklyn Institute for Social Research.
  7. ^ Kluchin, Abby; Blanchfield, Patrick (16 March 2024). "45: The Fantasy of Family and the Meaning of Family Abolition feat. Sophie Lewis and M.E. O'Brien". Ordinary Unhappiness (Podcast). Buzzsprout.
  8. ^ "Sophie Lewis – Writer, Theorist, Teacher". Retrieved 20 May 2024.
  9. ^ a b Lewis, Sophie (7 February 2019). "Opinion | How British Feminism Became Anti-Trans". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
  10. ^ Lewis, Sophie; Doherty, Alex (4 September 2018). "Sophie Lewis on Trans-exclusionary radical feminism". Verso Books.
  11. ^ Lewis, Sophie; Seresin, Asa (1 August 2022). "Fascist Feminism". TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly. 9 (3): 463–479. doi:10.1215/23289252-9836120. ISSN 2328-9252.
  12. ^ "My Octopus Girlfriend: On Multispecies Eros by Sophie Lewis, Tuesday 15 December, 7pm". theantimenagerie. 15 December 2020.
  13. ^ Lewis, Sophie [@reproutopia] (20 September 2020). "Well, I watched "My Octopus Teacher" on netflix: a flawed but moving documentary about a straight man who has a lifechanging erotic relationship with a female octopus. I cried, then read out loud to my friends the entirety of @amiasrinivasan's 2017 essay (https://lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v39/n17/amia-srinivasan/the-sucker-the-sucker)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  14. ^ Lewis, Sophie (Winter 2021). "My Octopus Girlfriend". n+1. No. 39.
  15. ^ Lewis, Sophie (18 September 2020). "Mothering Against the World: Momrades Against Motherhood – Sophie Lewis". Salvage.
  16. ^ "Sophie Lewis". Verso Books. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
  17. ^ "Enemy Feminisms". Haymarket Books. Retrieved 20 May 2024.