Why Progressives Fear the Female Body
Sex and dependency denialism
We’ve featured Victoria Smith’s works frequently in our round-ups, and this week we’re thrilled to have her author our Fairer Disputations original. In it, she asks why progressives are so afraid of the female body—and explains what women’s bodies remind us about all human bodies.
‘Our soft conditions and our hearts’: Why Progressives Fear the Female Body
Victoria Smith
The point, for sex-realist feminists, is not that “our soft condition and our hearts / should well agree with our external parts.” It is that softness and kindness have been offloaded onto one sex, with the body used as a justification. Yet bodies are not irrelevant.
Some people are so frightened of this aspect of human nature—so scared that we are all, regardless of sex, vulnerable, dependent, duty-bound to care and to receive care—that they would rather deny the sexed body entirely. It might look like an escape, but it isn’t. Our “natures” may not be defined by our bodies, but all of our obligations to one another are shaped by our embodied selves, which always exist in relationship with one another.
This Week in Sex-Realist Feminism: Natural Birth Isn't Always Ideal, Cross-Sex Hormones (Aren't) for Kids, and Homemakers and Surgeons
This week: Serena Sigillito on why natural birth isn't always ideal, Hannah Barnes on why UK Secretary of State for Health Care Wes Streeting changed his mind on cross-sex hormones for children, and Ivana Greco on homemaking as a skilled profession. Plus: the good side of girl power, the disturbing rise of neo-eugenics, my stepsister ran a surrogacy racketeering ring—and more!
From the Archives:
ICYMI: Shelby Kearns breaks down the lies told by the plastic surgery industry.
The Myths of Plastic Surgery
Shelby Kearns
“By the logic of plastic surgery, women should be forever 25, chasing after the look of peak fertility, and men should chase after the look of peak testosterone. Something like the mommy makeover tells women that they’re not really women if their breasts hang lower or if they have a few extra fat cells.”