Did Feminism Create Transgender Ideology?
In honor of International Women's Day, we're excited to bring you a new Fairer Disputations symposium (you can find previous symposia here, here, and here).
Louise Perry ignited this discussion with a recent video. In response to a viewer's question, Louise argued that radical feminism did indeed help create transgender ideology.
In the essays below, you'll find that Featured Authors Holly Lawford-Smith and Abigail Favale give very different answers to this question.
You can also find the video and responses collected here, at one easy-to-share URL.
Fairer Disputations
Don't Blame Radical Feminists for Transgenderism
HOLLY LAWFORD-SMITH
Did radical feminism cause transgender ideology? I say no, because radical feminists were only ever claiming that female biology is no limit on what a female person can do. Women’s liberation was a project to liberate women, so that their possibilities would not be artificially constrained by ideas about a woman’s role, or a woman’s place. It was never a project to say, some women should be free to be men.
Fairer Disputations
Radical Feminism Did Lead to Transgenderism—But Not the Way You Think
ABIGAIL FAVALE
To rewrite and affirm the proposition in my own words: trans theory is the Oedipal offspring of post-second wave feminism.
We can retrace this genealogical line back to two feminist foremothers: Margaret Sanger and Simone de Beauvoir. From Sanger, feminism has inherited an antipathy to female fertility and the corresponding technological “solution” of contraception. From de Beauvoir, feminism has inherited the conceptual disconnection of “woman” from “female,” which has become enshrined in feminist theory via the term “gender.”
The Weekly Round-up
Fairer Disputations
This Week: WPATH Files, Interdependence Feminism, and Dad Culture
THE EDITORS
Featured Author Eliza Mondegreen on the explosive WPATH Files, a compelling portrait of interdependence feminism by Featured Author Ivana Greco, an update on what Featured Author Angela Franks is reading—and more!
A Can't-Miss Debate:
A Debate: Resolved: Feminism Necessarily Undermines Family Life
WITH ERIKA BACHIOCHI AND SCOTT YENOR
Join ISI and the Abigail Adams Institute on April 3, 2024, at 6pm as we find out! Scott Yenor and Fairer Disputations Featured Author Erika Bachiochi will square off as America continues to fight the battle between the sexes.
April 3, 2024 • Sheraton Commander Hotel • Cambridge, MA
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