Welcome to the weekly Fairer Disputations round-up: your one-stop shop for the best in sex-realist feminism. This week: Nina Power on the trans reckoning, Mary Harrington on the anti-suffrage feminists, Eliza Mondegreen on polycules, breastfeeding vs. “chestfeeding”, the golden age of dating, what featured author Ivana Greco is reading—and more!
At Compact, featured author Nina Power takes on the fallout of the Cass Report, and why our culture pathologizes puberty.
At The American Conservative, featured author Mary Harrington explores the little-known history of the “anti-suffragists.”
At UnHerd, featured author Eliza Mondegreen points out the downsides of polyamory.
More Great Reads:
- Losing Women, Losing Breastfeeding: A Crisis of Words, Melissa Bartick, Breastfeeding Medicine
- Dissent is Not Hatred, Nigel Biggar, The Critic
- Double Standards in the Gender Debate, Holly Lawford-Smith, Quillette
- The Golden Age of Dating Doesn’t Exist, Faith Hill, The Atlantic
- South Korea Is Running Out of Kids. Is This America’s Future?, Anna Louise Sussman, The Free Press
What I’m Reading: Ivana Greco
I’m currently reading Anne-Marie Slaughter’s 2015 book, Unfinished Business. Slaughter made waves in 2012 when she published a refreshingly honest article in The Atlantic titled Why Women Still Can’t Have it All.In the article, Slaughter described quitting a high powered job in Washington, DC, because her two sons needed her, and were suffering from her long absences due to her job. Her then 14-year old son, in particular, was failing math and skipping classes while she was away in DC. Slaughter has sterling academic credentials, an incredibly supportive husband, tenure at Princeton, and all the power and privilege that entails — and yet still was unable to achieve a tenable “work-life balance” when she decided to pursue a high-level position at the State Department. The book Unfinished Business grew out of that essay. Although Slaughter and I have very different political views, I am seeing much to agree with her on the importance and value of caregiving, the way society undervalues and denigrates women who step away from the workforce to care for their families, and the impossibility of “having it all.”
