Whew! Man, I’m so glad to be done with my talk for the SFL Midwest Regional Conference! I gave it on Saturday.
Here are my slides, if you’re interested. It’s on the Coming Matriarchy.
It went well! I didn’t kill it, but I got some great feedback. Overall the weekend was fantastic. Felt great to make new friends, hang out with old ones, and meet young fresh-faced libertarians.
It’s a little statist, but this piece makes a lot of the same points I do in my talk:
“Men don’t need more masculine posturing or promises to restore them to forever-gone greatness. What they need is to make their own move toward gender equality, to break down the stereotypes and fetters of masculinity. Feminists, understandably, have focused on women; we have enough to do without being tasked with improving the lot of often-misogynistic men, too. If the white men who feel ignored, disrespected and lost want to see their lives improve, they should take a cue from the great feminist strides women have made and start to embrace that progress. Life really is better with more fluid gender roles that allow individuals to do what they’re good at instead of what’s socially prescribed. Every feminist I know will tell you that men bring much more to the table than physical strength or a paycheck, and that we would love a world in which men were free to be resilient and tender, ambitious and nurturing, expressive and emotional.”
As does this one, actually. Though the two authors, Jill Filipovic and Kevin Williamson, respectively, could not be more different ideologically.
“And it is here that the so-called social issues interact with questions of economic policy and international relations in ways that may not be obvious. To defend private life, private life must be cherished. For private life to be cherished, it must be worth cherishing.”
This month I want to expand my talk into a piece of writing. So keep your eyes peeled.
In other exciting libertarian feminist news, Feminists for Liberty has (soft) launched! Like us on Facebook.
In other news, Noah Smith has a nice writeup about why the Niskanen Center is the future of libertarianism.
And speaking of the future, this piece is one of the most balanced and nuanced takes on the Islamization of Europe I’ve read. Very well-reported:
“These parties have built a coherent ideology and steadily chipped away at the establishment parties’ hold on power by pursuing a new and devastatingly effective electoral strategy. They have made a very public break with the symbols of the old right’s past, distancing themselves from skinheads, neo-Nazis and homophobes. They have also deftly co-opted the causes, policies and rhetoric of their opponents. They have sought to outflank the left when it comes to defending a strong welfare state and protecting social benefits that they claim are threatened by an influx of freeloading migrants.
“They have effectively claimed the progressive causes of the left – from gay rights to women’s equality and protecting Jews from antisemitism – as their own, by depicting Muslim immigrants as the primary threat to all three groups. As fear of Islam has spread, with their encouragement, they have presented themselves as the only true defenders of western identity and western liberties – the last bulwark protecting a besieged Judeo-Christian civilisation from the barbarians at the gates.”
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