Welcome to the weekly Fairer Disputations round-up: your one-stop shop for the best in sex-realist feminism. This week: Carl R. Trueman on Shulamith Firestone’s prophetic voice, Laila Mickelwait on Pornhub’s crimes, Leonard Sax on a new brain study showing differences between the sexes, violence against women, feminism and fat, a brothel owner’s memoir, FD recommends a book—and more!
First, Carl R. Trueman on feminist Shulamith Firestone’s triumphant vision of liberation, and why her desire for disembodied will above all is ultimately dehumanizing.
Next, Laila Mickelwait, author of the newly released Takedown: Inside the Fight to Shut Down Pornhub for Child Abuse, Rape, and Sex Trafficking, argues that Pornhub’s rebrand isn’t a clean slate for its many victims.
Finally, Leonard Sax on a recent brain study showing hard wired differences between the sexes—and how we can use this newfound knowledge to help both girls and boys attain equal rights and opportunities.
More Great Reads:
- Violence Against Women a ‘National Emergency’ in England and Wales, Police Say, Vikram Dodd, The Guardian (Pair with: Is Andrew Tate to Blame for Violence Against Women — or a Distraction?, Joan Smith, UnHerd)
- How Was it For You? by Eve Smith Review – My Life as a Sex Worker, Sarah Ditum, The Times (Content warning – quite graphic)
- The Original Bluestockings Were Fiercer Than You Imagined, Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker
- Is Fat a Feminist Issue?, Victoria Smith, The Critic
- Where I’ve Been and Where I’m Going, Helen Roy, Roy House in Budapest
Fairer Disputations Recommends:
Much of philosophy has been concerned with death, while birth—the other major life event—has been largely unremarked-on. Yet birth is an experience each of us has undergone. In Jennifer Banks’ insightful Natality: Toward a Philosophy of Birth, she looks to the thought and art of seven Western thinkers to explore more fully what Hannah Arendt called the “miracle that saves the world”: natality.
Also read: Toward a Theology of Birth: Jennifer Banks, Julian of Norwich, and the Acceptance of Suffering, Beatrice Scudeler, Fairer Disputations
Need more book recommendations?
