Welcome to the weekly Fairer Disputations round-up: your one-stop shop for the best in sex-realist feminism. This week: Mary Harrington on Ballerina Farm, Helen Joyce on mastectomies, Serena Sigillito interviews Rachel Wiseman and Anastasia Berg on what children are for, prenatal gender hormones, the new fertility inequality, AI boyfriends, an Olympic roundup—and more!
First, Featured Author Mary Harrington takes on the debate about Ballerina Farm (which started here), arguing that Neeleman isn’t a tradwife—she’s a tradewife.
Also this week: Mary Harrington defends “feminism” on Jordan Peterson’s podcast.
Next, Featured Author Helen Joyce on the cultural significance of breasts, and the reframing of unnecessary mastectomies as liberatory.
Finally, Fairer Disputations editor Serena Sigillito interviews the authors of What Are Children For? On Ambivalence and Choice. Their conversation touches on the tendency to silo decision making about children, progressives and conservatives finding common ground in the goodness of life, and black motherhood. (Christine Emba writes an excellent piece on these themes for the Atlantic, too.)
More Great Reads:
- Discovering My Gender-Bendy Prenatal History, Jill Escher, Reality’s Last Stand
- Judith Butler’s Sophistry, Abigail Favale, First Things
- The New Fertility Inequality, Darel E. Paul, Compact
- The Unexamined Plight of Stay-at-Home Parents, Rebecca Gale, It Doesn’t Have to Be This Hard
- AI Boyfriend Surge is the Endpoint of Mills & Boon, Katherine Dee, UnHerd
An Olympic Roundup:
- Kimberly Ross on Ilona Maher, a US Olympic rugby player, and her message of body positivity—and why this matters in a time of gender confusion.
- Josephine Bartosch on the convicted child rapist competing in the Olympic games, and the message allowing him to compete sends to victims of sexual abuse.
- Sarah Ditum on the the furor over two boxers who have failed gender tests fighting in the women’s category.
