Charting New Stages for Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Theatre in a Polarised WorldMore than three years ago, when we first thought about organising a conference for the German Society for Contemporary Theatre and Drama in English (CDE) and editing a special issue on the topic of "New Stages for Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in Contemporary Theatre," we knew that questions of sex, gender, and sexuality were at the heart of political debates, as the resurgence of right-wing extremism with its promotion of conservative family values and gender roles, attacks on reproductive, transgender, and LGBTQIA+ rights, and the amplification of so-called culture wars had shown, that is, the ideologically polarised conduct of political debates as questions of moral values, lifestyles, and worldviews.We already had a sense that the promises of a postfeminist equilibrium were to be disappointed and began to realise that Kim Solga's observation in Theatre & Feminism from 2015, that in a way "things have never been better" (5), had become a historical remark to which we looked back almost nostalgically.We did not anticipate, however, how blatant and dire the turn against feminism and LGBTQIA+ rights would become under the Trump administration in the US, and how aggressively populist right-wing extremist parties across the world, including the UK and Germany, would close ranks to attack democracy, diversity, and civil rights.In the current political climate marked by the rise of right-wing extremism, polarisation, and the logics of outragethat are fuelled by social media -, sex, gender, and sexuality have become "hot button topics": they stand in and are sometimes used as a cover for the fight over economic and political concerns, as they easily trigger emotional investment and mobilise populist denouncement.Judith Butler has analysed this development in their 2024 study Who's Afraid of Gender?, in which they make a strong case for defending gender diversity and de-escalating