Sophie Lewis (author)
British feminist author / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sophie Lewis (born 1988) is a German-British writer and independent scholar based in Philadelphia (USA), 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 "abolition of the family."[6][7] Lewis's personal website describes her as a "recovering academic."[8]
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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 UK's trans-exclusionary radical feminism[10] is its history of imperialism.[11][9] Also in 2019, the far-right American TV pundit Tucker Carlson invited Lewis on his show to discuss her advocacy for abortion rights and reproductive freedom;[12] but she replied that she would only come on the show if Carlson donated $10,000 to the Alabama abortion fund Yellowhammer.[13] Instead, the Tucker Carlson Show aired public-domain footage of Lewis speaking about the right to not be pregnant[14] - resulting in her getting dogpiled by "pro-life" activists.[15][16][17] Her essay "Mothering Against the World: Mothering Against Motherhood"[18] has been made into a zine by an anarchist collective. In 2022, Lewis was featured on the BBC radio program Sideways, "It Takes A Village."[19]
Lewis gained further notoriety in September 2020 when she tweeted about the multispecies erotic dynamics[20] in the Netflix documentary "My Octopus Teacher," a controversy she later referred to as "octopusgate"[21] in an essay published in n+1 magazine: "My Octopus Girlfriend" (2021).[22][23] Lewis has published many essays since 2013, on topics ranging from Marilyn Monroe[24] to tradwives,[25] in magazines including Harper's,[24] the London Review of Books,[26] Boston Review,[27] faz quarterly,[28] Logic,[29] The Baffler,[30] Lux,[31] Parapraxis,[32] Tank,[33] The Nation,[34] e-flux,[35] Mal,[36] Dissent,[37] The New Inquiry,[38] Jacobin,[39] The White Review,[40] and Salvage.[41] Lewis has published two books through Verso Books; Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism against the Family, published in 2019, and Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation, published in October 2022.[42] Her third book, Enemy Feminisms: TERFs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation, is published by Haymarket Books in February 2025.[43]