Sexual Politics on the American Right

In Search of Radical, Subversive Hope

Today, Nina Power reviews three recent books on men, women, and their relations: The End of Woman, by Carrie Gress, Manhood, by Josh Hawley, and The Toxic War on Masculinity, by Nancy Pearcey. Envisioning a real response to the emptiness of the liberal vision, Power argues, will require us both to take ideas seriously, learn from history, and "fight for the shared life we can build together."

Fairer Disputations
 

Sexual Politics on the American Right

NINA POWER

The past half-century has seen widespread confusion over the correct roles for men and women. In the eternal present, it is tempting to look for the single moment, or the specific group, that we can blame for everything we don’t like about the current state of sexual politics. Discussion of the faults and merits of men and women, and how (or even if) we should get along, never ends: and how could it? Running through contemporary conversation is a patchy and uncertain relation to our past: were things really worse then? Better in some ways? In a proximate world in which we never seem to be out of each other’s presence, can we maintain a sense of wonder at the sheer existence of one another, or are we doomed to an uneasy antagonism?

A trio of new books offers a window into current thinking about the relationship between the sexes on the American right. The best of the three argues that we should strive to see things realistically, but also optimistically, as there is much to love and preserve in the relationships between men and women and their children. Life is difficult; relationships are hard; parenting is tough. But anything worth doing well always was. The modern man and woman is increasingly encouraged to forget this.

This Week's Links:

At Quillette, Holly Lawford-Smith tells the story of Lee, an Australian woman recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis who faces a quandary: consider biological males as possible carers (even should she need intimate care), or flout the Australian law.

Quillette
 

How Australian Law Pushes Vulnerable Women Towards Hiring Male Carers

HOLLY LAWFORD-SMITH

I asked Lee why it was so important to her to be able to employ a female carer. She explained that there are two different types of care that a person with a disability may need. The first is help with domestic work like cleaning, shopping, and cooking. The other is intimate care, for example, help with showering, grooming, and toileting. Because Lee has had bad relationships with men in the past, and bad men in her life, she is wary about letting a male stranger enter her home to carry out that type of work. She says that she would find that very uncomfortable, and would be alert to the possible risks. Even domestic work can involve quite personal matters: for example, doing laundry requires handling underwear, including rinsing out period underwear (which some people with MS also use for incontinence issues). Because a female carer is likely to have had similar bodily experiences to a female client, it feels less like a violation of privacy and dignity to allow her to carry out such tasks and is also less  embarrassing and uncomfortable. This is especially important, obviously, in the case of intimate bodily care.

Next, Miriam Cates discusses schemes to expand state-funded childcare in Britain, with a larger argument that is applicable anywhere. "Politicians," she states, "should stop treating babies as a hindrance to economic growth."

The Critic

Ending Britain's Childcare Arms Race

MIRIAM CATES

But for so many families in 2024, theoretical arguments about what babies or mothers might want will be irrelevant. Whatever families wish for in an ideal world, in the real world parents must feed, clothe, and provide for their children. And, over the last 30 years it has become increasingly difficult for families to make ends meet on one full-time income, driving an increase in the number of parents of small children in full-time work and consequently more demand for formal childcare.

It is absolutely right for policymakers to seek to relieve pressure on family budgets. But instead of competing to offer more and more state-funded childcare as a sticking plaster on cost-of-living challenges, we should be addressing the structural reasons why family finances have become so stretched.

Finally, featured author Erika Bachiochi proposes a natural law grounding to women's rights. She argues it is this natural law approach, more than the male normative autonomy approach, which recognizes the reality of lived interdependence.

The New Digest
 

The Rights of Women: A Natural Law Approach

ERIKA BACHIOCHI

But there’s a complication in offering a natural law approach to the rights of women which I’ll contend with as well. For a good portion of American history, after all, the “laws of nature” were understood to permit exclusion of women from participation in civil and political rights. (Indeed, in some quarters on the political right today, we’re seeing these sorts of arguments rear their head once again.) And so, following women’s rights advocates from the 18th and 19th centuries, I’m going to show why a natural law account properly includes the rights of women. I’ll conclude by arguing that anti-discrimination law, properly understood, is a just determination of the natural law in our day, and that, as properly understood, abortion restrictions do not discriminate against women.

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