Welcome to the weekly Fairer Disputations round-up: your one-stop shop for the best in sex-realist feminism. This week, we bring you Mary Harrington on our culture’s assault on normality, Eliza Mondegreen on Andrea Long Chu’s radical pro-sex-change manifesto, Lia Thomas’ teammates’ lawsuit against the NCAA, the NHS pause on puberty blockers, the results of Ireland’s “woman in the home” referendum, a book rec from Erika Bachiochi—and more!
Normophobia
In First Things, Featured Author Mary Harrington takes a closer look at those who set themselves against the given, the traditional, and the normative. She asks us to be honest about who really foots the bill of these new experiments in living.
When we enforce culture-wide bigotry against social and embodied norms in the name of emancipation, we should be clear about what we’re doing. We are asking children to accept less so that we, the adults, may have more, and hoping their resilience will be enough.
mary harrington
This week in New York magazine, Chu sets about dismantling what little respectability the trans movement has been able to defend against its own radical fringe. Forget doctors and parents! Screw caution! Don’t protect the kids! Down with expertise and common sense!
eliza mondegreen
Andrea Long Chu’s Gender Advice Is a Danger to Children
Next, Featured Author Eliza Mondegreen offers a takedown of Andrea Long Chu’s New York editorial arguing that anyone should be able to change their sex, regardless of age or mental health concerns.
Female Athletes Sue NCAA Over Transgender Competitors in Sports
Finally, at The Free Press, Francesca Block discusses the female athletes who have joined a class-action lawsuit over being forced to compete—and share locker rooms—with biological males.
I was literally racing U.S. and Olympic gold medalists and I was changing in a storage closet at this elite-level meet. I just felt that my privacy and safety were being violated in the locker room.
Kylee Alons
More Great Reads:
- NHS Puberty Blocker Ruling Will Save Lives, Victoria Smith, UnHerd
- Ireland Says No to Abolishing Mothers, Mary Harrington, Reactionary Feminist
- What is Judith Butler Afraid Of?, Kathleen Stock, Unherd
- The Transgender-Rights Issue, Gary L. Francione, The Philosophers’ Magazine
- Problematizing Fertility, Normalizing Disease, Taryn Delong, Public Discourse
- Free the Children, Leah Libresco Sargeant, First Things
What I’m Reading: Erika Bachiochi
I’ve just finished reading Tim Carney’s Family Unfriendly. The book is excellent for a number of reasons but I’ll just name two. First, he takes great care in traversing the family policy debates that have happily emerged on the political right; in doing so, he offers creative solutions to concrete problems facing families. Second, Tim recognizes that it’s not enough to whack down GirlBoss feminism and its obsession with personal autonomy. No, an alternative account must be provided, and Tim offers one: ‘family-friendly feminism.’ This will sound very familiar to readers of Fairer Disputations. But it’s especially encouraging to read it related so winsomely for such a broad audience… by a husband and a dad.
