Category: Feminism
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Ten Ways Men Oppress Women With Their Everyday Behavior
One of them, and one I am guilty of, is Broplimenting. This is when a guy says something nice to you without asking for your consent first. Men should always ask. “Do you consent to me complimenting you?” before saying anything nice or else it’s assault. No, nonverbal cues don’t count – he still has…
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Women Need to ‘Man Up’
A member of the distaff contingent advises. If men are too 'cocky,' then perhaps the female equivalent is the answer rather than the cultivation of grievances: How did we create an entire class of highly privileged, mostly affluent young women who feel unsafe on campus, microaggressed at every turn, utterly unable to cope with the…
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When Atheists Eat Their Own: The Sexism Charge
Allegedly, the New Atheism has a "shocking woman problem": Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins are "misogynists." Thus Amanda Marcotte in Salon. (See also Kathe Pollitt in The Nation). This appears to be the latest PC purge. It is true that the New Atheism is male-dominated. But why? According to Marcotte, The reason has, in recent…
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Patriarchy and Rape Culture Flourish in Boulder . . .
. . . if this pathetic piece can be believed. But it so reads like a parody of POMO rhetoric that it negates itself. The writer is an alumna of the UC Boulder Philosophy Department. One hopes that she is not representative of the sort of graduate the department 'produces.' If she is, then…
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Five Feminist Myths
Christina Hoff Sommers exposes five leftist-feminist falsehoods. My favorite example is the following one which provides yet another example of the idiocy of Jimmy Carter, the Obama of the 1970s: MYTH 2: Between 100,000 and 300,000 girls are pressed into sexual slavery each year in the United States. FACTS: This sensational claim is a favorite…
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Philosophy and Feminism: Spencer Case Replies to Critics
Excerpt: I am critical of giving feminism and race the extra attention and insulation from criticism that comes from designating these topics as “entire sub-disciplines of philosophy.” Given that it’s considered impolitic to criticize “entire sub-disciplines of philosophy,” we should vigorously debate what deserves to be considered as such. Knowledge, ethics, and being-qua-being deserve that…
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The Gender Academy
In his latest NRO column, Spencer Case argues that "The feminist left is politicizing philosophy." I would add that this is but a special case of the general truth that the Left politicizes everything. Some related posts of mine: The Politicization of the American Philosophical Association The Recent Dennett-Plantinga A. P. A. Debate and the…
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Boulder as Salem: Steven F. Hayward on an Academic Witch Hunt
Excerpts: Unquestionably philosophy is among of the most male-dominated disciplines in universities today, but inviting outside review by the American Philosophical Association's (APA) Committee on the Status of Women was guaranteed to produce a finding as predictable as the Salem Committee to Investigate Witchcraft in 1691. The irony of this situation is the unacknowledged reversal…
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A Reader’s Comments on the A. P. A. ‘Climate’ Report on The UC Boulder Philosophy Department
Philip Sheridan writes, I read the 17 page American Philosophical Association site visit report on the University of Colorado, Boulder, philosophy department. As a consultant, I wrote many reports like this — you interview, obtain documentation and data, analyze the information, compare performance to best practices, and then finalize recommendations. Most of the time outside…
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Still More on the Colorado Situation
Laughing Philosopher talks sense. I've corrected some typos, added a hyperlink, and intercalated some comments (in blue.) Excerpt: I applaud the move to end sexual harassment seriously in the discipline. However, there are many ways in which the APA committee’s report seems extremely problematic. While I don’t know the nature of the alleged harassment or alleged inappropriate…
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Lunatic Feminism
Unbelievable. Addendum (1/4). The following from Phil Sheridan (hyperlinks added by BV) Re the Cathy Young piece you linked to: She's another right-of-center feminist critic of feminism. Some of her writing is very good. But consider one thread of feminist history. Antioch College's silly sex rules in the 90's were treated as a joke…
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Camille Paglia: It’s a Man’s World
Camille Paglia does not merit the plenary MavPhil endorsement, but C. P. is a good partial antidote to P. C. Here (HT: Kevin Wong) she talks sense (emphasis added): It was always the proper mission of feminism to attack and reconstruct the ossified social practices that had led to wide-ranging discrimination against women. But surely…
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Camille Paglia Defends Men . . .
. . . and in the process kicks the candy ass of Maureen Dowd for whom "men have played so recklessly with the globe 'they nearly broke it.' " You can break your finger nail, sweetie, but not the globe. Girly-girl talk! While C. P. is a good antidote to P. C., she cannot be…
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Feminism
Phil Sheridan e-mails: Thanks for your blog; it's been many years since I studied Philosophy as an undergrad, but I've enjoyed your writing. You cover many topics, but I'm curious why you haven't touched on feminism. You would seem to be well suited to offer a solid critique, and I get the sense that philosophers…