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The concept of gender developed by Judith Butler in the 1990s proposed a utopian rather than political formulation of gender relations. Aiming to surpass categories of masculine and feminine, the philosopher sought to ground desire not in violence but in mourning for the lost sex. Butler also urged victims of discrimination to assume their sexual freedom without institutional recourse to the law. With its refusal of identity politics, Butler’s theory of gender merits reconsideration in a contemporary context. Nevertheless, Butler’s proposal also overlooks the singular force of judicial declarations and of the collective narrative which are demanded by identitarians and are increasingly unavoidable in contemporary democracies.