Of Tradwives and Men
A Low View of Husbands
Today's featured essay, by Felix James Miller, considers the tradwife phenomenon from a male point of view. "Although tradwives may seem to be honoring their husbands," Miller writes, "in reality, they expect far too little of them."
Fairer Disputations
Of Tradwives and Men
FELIX JAMES MILLER
When Estee Williams says a husband shouldn’t have to “lift a finger” when at home, she is effectively saying that the only form of service he can ever provide the family is financial. His only work is located outside the home, outside the locus of family life. He is not an integrated member of the family; he is an exterior force that financially supports it and is served by it. The father does not meaningfully take part in the life of the family. He is master of the house, but he is not a participant in the life of the home.
This Week's Links:
At Law and Liberty, Elizabeth Grace Matthews discusses the legacy of 1990s-era "sex positive" feminism, contending that its worst aspects have been amplified and its best ignored.
Law & Liberty
Thirty Years After The Morning After
ELIZABETH GRACE MATTHEWS
Thirty years after The Morning After, it is long past time to offer women the unique physical protections we require and to withhold from us the infantilizing intellectual protections we don’t. But because society and academia today mostly do the exact opposite, women are being made into a new kind of second-class citizen.
Yes, unlike in the nineteenth century, women today have the right to compete and live as free individuals. But our increased physical victimization is the inevitable result of legal and cultural norms that treat us as biologically indistinguishable from men.
Next, featured author Helen Roy suggests that the manosphere and girlboss feminism are nothing but two sides of the same coin.
Ladies Late Rome Journal
The Despair of Dichotomous Thinking
HELEN ROY
The brain-dead misogyny of the manosphere 2.0 is as myopic an ideological narrative as the liberal feminism from which they – and I – initially recoiled. Its denizens have begun selling to men the very same flavor of false confidence, superiority, and entitlement that girlboss feminism sold to women, and it’s only a little mysterious that they reach the same conclusions: Remain single forever. Maximize profit. Freeze your eggs. Get a vasectomy. Keep everyone at arm's length while you pursue diversionary pleasure for the rest of your life.
Whether a sex-positive boss babe or a warlord pimp, trust no one. Become your own god.
In our final piece, Victoria Smith argues that the appointment of a transgender woman as CEO of an endometriosis charity devalues female pain, both physical and emotional.
UnHerd
It's Not Transphobic to Question Endometriosis Charity's New CEO
VICTORIA SMITH
I am aware, of course, of the way in which the appointment of Steph Richards is being defended. One does not need to suffer personally from a disease in order to treat it. One does not have to have given birth to be a midwife, or to have a vagina to be a gynaecologist. But being the head of an endometriosis charity is not the same sort of thing. Women’s healthcare campaigning is political, and it’s political because women’s bodies have been so badly neglected by science and medicine.
And why have our bodies been neglected? Because men have insisted that their idea of what women are trumps our own embodied realities.
Reading Groups, Fairer Disputations Style
We're excited to announce the launch of our first reading group at the University of Oxford! Later this month, members will meet to discuss featured author Nina Power's One-Dimensional Woman— with a possible appearance by Power herself! If you're in the area and interested in joining, email melody@fairerdisputations.org.
We hope that this is only the first of many FD reading groups on college campuses—there's already interest at Harvard, Villanova, Notre Dame, Boston College, and the University of Dallas. Do be in touch if you'd like to launch one on your campus.
We'll be taking a break from our newsletter next week to celebrate. Happy Thanksgiving to our American readers!
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