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Buckley Speaker Series: Christina Hoff Sommers | Trigger Warnings, Male-Shaming & Moral Panic — Transcript

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  1. 0:10well hello everybody thank you for
  2. 0:11joining us uh I am Zach young I'm the
  3. 0:13president of the willth Buckley program
  4. 0:16at Yale today we are delighted to be
  5. 0:18able to host Dr Christina Hoff Summers
  6. 0:22um but first I would like to just
  7. 0:24briefly describe who we are as the
  8. 0:26Buckley program and what exactly we do
  9. 0:28so the Buckley program is an
  10. 0:30organization that was founded by Yale
  11. 0:32students a few years ago in order to
  12. 0:35promote intellectual diversity at Yale
  13. 0:37and to expand political discourse we
  14. 0:41host uh debates seminars discussions we
  15. 0:44fund summer internships we also do a
  16. 0:47range of other activities if you're
  17. 0:49interested in learning more about the
  18. 0:50Buckley program I would suggest
  19. 0:52contacting Adam Ericson he is our
  20. 0:54membership director and we're also going
  21. 0:55to have a new application um semester
  22. 0:59open up very soon for new Buckley
  23. 1:01fellows contact Adam if you're
  24. 1:03interested we delighted to have Dr
  25. 1:05Christina Hoff Summers with us she is a
  26. 1:07resident scholar at the American
  27. 1:08Enterprise Institute she's also the
  28. 1:11noted author of numerous books including
  29. 1:13who stole feminism the war against boys
  30. 1:16and freedom feminism uh she's also a
  31. 1:19former professor of philosophy and she
  32. 1:21has a best-selling textbook on ethics
  33. 1:24she also has an active Twitter following
  34. 1:26and she has been featured on MSNBC Fox
  35. 1:29News and a show that many of us are well
  36. 1:31aware of The Daily Show with John
  37. 1:33Stewart um so I could certainly say more
  38. 1:36but I'd rather clear the floor uh please
  39. 1:39welcome give a warm buckly welcome for
  40. 1:41Dr off Saunders good afternoon our early
  41. 1:43evening it's so wonderful to be here a
  42. 1:46guest of the Buckley program and to be
  43. 1:49back in New England my old stomping
  44. 1:51ground are there any Patriots fans here
  45. 1:54oh my goodness not too many oh good back
  46. 1:57in the back yes well I'm a great
  47. 1:59Patriots fan although I'm a little
  48. 2:00worried about the latest Scandal did you
  49. 2:02hear about that well I think it's
  50. 2:04inflated I don't think we should worry
  51. 2:06about it
  52. 2:09overblown but they should uh real I
  53. 2:13better not say this but never mind I
  54. 2:14will continue um this afternoon I am
  55. 2:18going to talk about the need to reform
  56. 2:22feminism I think it is a movement that
  57. 2:24needs an infusion of new ideas and new
  58. 2:27directions and um
  59. 2:30if you ask typical American are you a
  60. 2:32feminist 75% say no they people don't
  61. 2:37identify with a movement that is
  62. 2:39symbolic of the liberation of women
  63. 2:41which is one of the great achievements
  64. 2:43of Western
  65. 2:44Civilization um so I think it's time to
  66. 2:47reboot feminism I am going to propose a
  67. 2:50new school which I think uh will greatly
  68. 2:53improve the numbers of people who would
  69. 2:54identify as feminists I call it Freedom
  70. 2:56feminist Freedom feminism now I know
  71. 2:59some of you are thinking uh well
  72. 3:03feminism is just fine thank you very
  73. 3:04much we don't need your new uh School of
  74. 3:07feminism others are
  75. 3:09thinking uh who others who are not a
  76. 3:12fans of feminism may be
  77. 3:14thinking uh why why reform it why why
  78. 3:18bother with it at all it's so misguided
  79. 3:21and and irritating just you know it's
  80. 3:23like reforming the Aven flu just let it
  81. 3:27go uh well
  82. 3:30if I do my job today I will persuade
  83. 3:33many of you maybe most of you I hope
  84. 3:36that freedom feminism is our best hope I
  85. 3:39think it provides a path away from
  86. 3:41today's very strident gender Wars I
  87. 3:45think it also could lead to a more just
  88. 3:47and and happy Society so um oh and by
  89. 3:52the way I think it can improve your
  90. 3:53personal life even your love life but
  91. 3:55and I'll touch on that so before um
  92. 3:59giving you this elixir of love I want to
  93. 4:02tell you a little bit about myself my
  94. 4:04background uh before uh well actually
  95. 4:08back in the last century uh in the early
  96. 4:1090s I was a feminist academic in good
  97. 4:14standing I was invited to feminist
  98. 4:16conferences I was asked to review papers
  99. 4:18for uh feminist philosophy journals my
  100. 4:21classes were cross-listed with women's
  101. 4:23studies I was never sure why because I
  102. 4:25didn't teach feminist Theory but I was a
  103. 4:27woman I taught philosophy so it was
  104. 4:29feminist philosophy
  105. 4:31fine but my my good standing uh that all
  106. 4:35it came to an end in 1994 I published a
  107. 4:38book called who stole feminism now I
  108. 4:41felt the book was strongly feminist in
  109. 4:43the classical Equity sense of equality
  110. 4:46um but I rejected the idea that American
  111. 4:50women are oppressed that you know were
  112. 4:53brought were kept down by a patriarchal
  113. 4:55oppressive system and that that was the
  114. 4:57language that was fashionable at the
  115. 4:59time
  116. 5:00um and uh so I just I thought that for
  117. 5:04the most part feminism classical
  118. 5:06equality feminism had been a great
  119. 5:08American success story and as I said to
  120. 5:10speak of women as second class citizens
  121. 5:14or uh you know sub you know subject to a
  122. 5:18a masculine Society it just didn't seem
  123. 5:20to me to apply in fact it seemed absurd
  124. 5:23so in the book I tried to show how
  125. 5:25feminism had been taken over in a way at
  126. 5:29least in the academy by a very eccentric
  127. 5:32group of of gender Scholars and I do
  128. 5:34mean eccentric at the time for example
  129. 5:37just one quick example there was a a
  130. 5:39feminist philosopher and I remember
  131. 5:41looking at her textbook and she had
  132. 5:43dedicated it to the women of my women
  133. 5:45studies ovular in the spring of whatever
  134. 5:4892 and I hadn't heard the word ovular
  135. 5:51before and I was curious about it and I
  136. 5:53walked to the dictionary to look it up
  137. 5:55only to realize before I opened the
  138. 5:58Webster that she had made it up she
  139. 6:01didn't like the word seminar and you can
  140. 6:04understand why the very essence the root
  141. 6:06word is associated with a very essence
  142. 6:08of male power and so she replaced it
  143. 6:12with an equivalent now this was funny it
  144. 6:15was amusing maybe witty maybe uh but she
  145. 6:18wasn't kidding and U so anyway in the
  146. 6:21book I tried to show that these
  147. 6:24theorists were taking it off in too many
  148. 6:27exotic directions leaving most women
  149. 6:29behind
  150. 6:30and
  151. 6:32um when it first came out I received fan
  152. 6:36letters from feminists A few from Erica
  153. 6:39Jong was I don't know if you has anyone
  154. 6:41heard of Erica Jong he still fear of
  155. 6:42flying the first kind of pro-ex feminist
  156. 6:45uh and uh naen strawson who was
  157. 6:47president of the ACLU she wrote me a
  158. 6:49letter even Iris Murdoch this wonderful
  159. 6:52brilliant British novelist uh however
  160. 6:55for the most part I did not receive fan
  161. 6:57mail in fact it would not be an exagger
  162. 6:59ation to say I was excommunicated from a
  163. 7:01religion I did not know existed um and
  164. 7:05my colleagues and and I lost some
  165. 7:06friends I was I was subjected to a
  166. 7:09colorful attack for my heresies uh many
  167. 7:12feminist activist academics did not um
  168. 7:15well they remained convinced that the
  169. 7:17American society was oppressive for
  170. 7:19women that it was an an oppressive
  171. 7:22patriarchy they did not appreciate my
  172. 7:23please for
  173. 7:25moderation and some called me a backlash
  174. 7:28or a traitor to my my gender anti-woman
  175. 7:31even a non-w woman one one critic
  176. 7:34referred to let's see Christina Hoff
  177. 7:36Summers and Margaret Thatcher those two
  178. 7:38female
  179. 7:40impersonators well uh just as an aside I
  180. 7:44should tell you that this is not easy
  181. 7:46for my for my parents um I lost my Dad
  182. 7:49recently but my my mom and dad were my
  183. 7:53mom's still very liberal so I mean wow
  184. 7:56you can't be more liberal than my mom
  185. 7:58and dad uh and uh they were dismayed to
  186. 8:01find their daughter we're all very close
  187. 8:03but they were dismayed to find me
  188. 8:04reviled by people they admired like I
  189. 8:06don't know glorious Dynam and then
  190. 8:08occasionally praised by people they
  191. 8:10thought were diabolical my father would
  192. 8:12in the car sometimes insist on uh
  193. 8:14listening to Rush limbo just to get his
  194. 8:16blood pressure up you know get really
  195. 8:18mad and mother would say darling turn it
  196. 8:20off it upsets you no not that man turn
  197. 8:22it down and as soon as mom was out of
  198. 8:24the car Dad would turn it on and get
  199. 8:25really mad and one day he was driving
  200. 8:28and and limbo had read something of mine
  201. 8:30and and and said oh well this is good
  202. 8:32this Christina hop Summers my dad almost
  203. 8:35lost control of the
  204. 8:37car uh but whatever you know he he
  205. 8:40remained to the end very proud of me
  206. 8:41every time I did anything he would rush
  207. 8:43out and get a copy of an interview or an
  208. 8:46article and on one occasion I had been
  209. 8:48interviewed by Playboy magazine and dad
  210. 8:51wanted to see it but what do you do when
  211. 8:53you're an 80 plus Old Gentleman living
  212. 8:56in at that time they they're from
  213. 8:58California but they were living in
  214. 8:59Vermont California was too conservative
  215. 9:01they went to
  216. 9:03Vermont and in Vermont but my dad
  217. 9:06thought I'm not going to go there was a
  218. 9:07little store everybody in the town in
  219. 9:09this Brattleboro store everybody knew
  220. 9:11you so Daddy went across the border to
  221. 9:13the more Le less puritanical Keen New
  222. 9:16Hampshire to get the Playboy but even
  223. 9:18there he was nervous and he felt he had
  224. 9:20to explain himself to the clerk and he
  225. 9:22said I'm only buying this because my
  226. 9:24daughter's in
  227. 9:27it well anyway um to the topic at hand
  228. 9:31um I am not a backlashers I hope a
  229. 9:34traitor no a female impersonator I don't
  230. 9:37think so um I am a former philosophy
  231. 9:40Professor with a respect for logic clear
  232. 9:43thinking and Rules of
  233. 9:44Evidence and um and I hope basic
  234. 9:47fairness so uh I promise you that if I
  235. 9:50say anything the next I hope I keep this
  236. 9:52I was going to time myself but I never
  237. 9:54quite got it together would someone
  238. 9:56raised my hand after I've gone on for 32
  239. 9:58minutes okay okay what does that mean
  240. 10:01you'll give me a 10-minute
  241. 10:03warning oh my God
  242. 10:06okay uh okay
  243. 10:09um anyway if I say anything right now
  244. 10:13that strikes you as wrong or illogical
  245. 10:15or or just plain bloody-minded as the
  246. 10:18British say um give me good reasons um
  247. 10:21and I'll consider your objections and I
  248. 10:24change my mind sometimes so I'm I try to
  249. 10:26be intellectually open I think it's a
  250. 10:28very crucial intellectual virtue I don't
  251. 10:30always succeed but I I try mightily so
  252. 10:34Freedom feminism Freedom feminism is a
  253. 10:37style of feminism which I submit is a
  254. 10:41great improvement over what we have now
  255. 10:43it stands for the moral social and legal
  256. 10:45equality of the Sexes it affirms for
  257. 10:48women what it affirms for everyone it
  258. 10:51and and that would be dignity
  259. 10:53opportunity personal Liberty now it
  260. 10:56differs from most contemporary schools
  261. 10:58of feminism in one critical
  262. 11:03way it accepts the fact that taken as a
  263. 11:07group the Sexes are somewhat
  264. 11:10different uh if Freedom feminism has a
  265. 11:12first principle it is this one in the
  266. 11:15pursuit of happiness men and women tend
  267. 11:17to take somewhat different paths now I
  268. 11:20know some of you are going to get
  269. 11:21nervous and think essentialism and what
  270. 11:23is she talking about hear me out now a
  271. 11:26few years ago I came across an article
  272. 11:29in uh it was a 200 this was a few years
  273. 11:32ago it was an older article from 20 2008
  274. 11:34in the Journal of Personality and Social
  275. 11:37Psychology this article blew my mind um
  276. 11:42because it it had a
  277. 11:45paradoxical conclusion it had
  278. 11:47paradoxical findings but it seemed to me
  279. 11:49to be the closest study I'd ever seen to
  280. 11:53to to human reality and let me tell you
  281. 11:55what that was uh these researchers
  282. 11:58looked at 50 55 societies and they
  283. 12:01compare data on gender and personality
  284. 12:05now uh throughout the world they found
  285. 12:07women tend to be tend I'm not saying
  286. 12:10every single woman there are exceptions
  287. 12:11I'm talking about the rules they said
  288. 12:13women tend to be more nurturing more
  289. 12:16risk averse and uh more
  290. 12:19emotionally uh
  291. 12:21expressive uh while men usually tend to
  292. 12:25be a little more competitive more
  293. 12:26risk-taking and emotionally flat
  294. 12:29that sounds a little pejorative let's
  295. 12:31say say
  296. 12:32stoical now of course as I said there
  297. 12:35are exceptions I'm talking about just
  298. 12:37overall patterns now the most
  299. 12:40fascinating finding was this one they
  300. 12:42found that personality differences
  301. 12:44between men and women are the largest
  302. 12:48and most robust in the more prosperous
  303. 12:51egalitarian educated
  304. 12:53societies now according to the authors
  305. 12:56nations with very high levels of human
  306. 12:58development that means you know people
  307. 12:59with you know long uh life expectancy
  308. 13:03high levels of literacy education
  309. 13:06economic
  310. 13:07wealth these are likely to have the
  311. 13:09largest sex differences in
  312. 13:11personality H A New York Times science
  313. 13:14column to summarized the study this way
  314. 13:16it looks as if the personality
  315. 13:18differences between men and women are
  316. 13:19smaller in traditional cultures and you
  317. 13:22know in rural India or Zimbabwe than in
  318. 13:25the Netherlands or the United States a
  319. 13:27husband and a stay-at-home wife in
  320. 13:29patriarchal batswana may be more seem to
  321. 13:31be more alike than working couples in
  322. 13:33Denmark or New
  323. 13:35York now why should that be how can that
  324. 13:38be well the authors of the study
  325. 13:40hypothesize that prosperity and equality
  326. 13:45bring people just greater opportunities
  327. 13:47for self-realization for
  328. 13:49self-actualization that if you have
  329. 13:51wealth and freedom and health and
  330. 13:52education it empowers men and women to
  331. 13:55be who they truly are and it is
  332. 13:58conspicuous ously the case that Gay
  333. 14:00Liberation has thrived in in
  334. 14:04post-industrial advanced Highly Educated
  335. 14:06societies that's where we see the most
  336. 14:08advantes for the for the lb gqt
  337. 14:11Community uh more opportunities to
  338. 14:14embrace their identities the
  339. 14:16crosscultural
  340. 14:17research uh suggests this is not
  341. 14:20conclusive but to me it was very
  342. 14:23suggestive H to the point of as I said
  343. 14:27uh just striking me as profound
  344. 14:30gender differentiation if they're right
  345. 14:32may not it's not always a sign of
  346. 14:34Oppression it can be a sign of
  347. 14:37well-being of freedom of Happiness H now
  348. 14:40let me get you give you an example I
  349. 14:42recently read an article uh this was
  350. 14:44just on a Blog at the Wharton School uh
  351. 14:47someone was lamenting the pity of women
  352. 14:49engineers and they held up China and
  353. 14:51Russia as Superior examples of equality
  354. 14:55uh according to this post quote in China
  355. 14:5740% of Engineers are women and the
  356. 14:59former USSR they account for about 58%
  357. 15:02of working
  358. 15:04Engineers I didn't check her statistics
  359. 15:06but that's what she said now the author
  360. 15:08blames uh workplace biases and
  361. 15:11stereotypes for the fact that women in
  362. 15:12the United States earn only about 20% of
  363. 15:15doctorates in engineering well uh what
  364. 15:18if American women what if it turns out
  365. 15:20that we earn fewer doctorates in
  366. 15:22engineering because we don't have to
  367. 15:24study engineering uh we have more
  368. 15:26opportunities to pursue what interests
  369. 15:29Us in other words if you're in a country
  370. 15:32where you have to study something that
  371. 15:34is so uh you know connected to your
  372. 15:37well-being and your family survival but
  373. 15:39what if you are a little more free
  374. 15:42economically and you can study art
  375. 15:45history or anthropology or Celtic
  376. 15:47languages I don't know uh philosophy is
  377. 15:50what I did um not practical but uh uh
  378. 15:56interesting so it women it maybe that
  379. 15:59women have far more opportunities to
  380. 16:02pursue careers that interest them now
  381. 16:05American women are behind men in
  382. 16:07engineering but guess what we're way
  383. 16:09ahead in both Bas and phds in Humanities
  384. 16:13in biology and social sciences Health
  385. 16:16Sciences veterinary medicine it was once
  386. 16:19almost all male now it's increasingly
  387. 16:21female dominated our best vet schools
  388. 16:24are approaching 70 80%
  389. 16:27female um so if you look at despite
  390. 16:30years of Consciousness raising and a few
  391. 16:32generations of feminism men and women
  392. 16:34are not doing the same things even if
  393. 16:36you broke down the majors at this
  394. 16:38college um you would find for for
  395. 16:41example a lot we we talk about the wage
  396. 16:43Gap we you could help close a wage Gap
  397. 16:46right now today by if you are typical
  398. 16:48maybe you're not but if this were a
  399. 16:49typical uh sample of of American
  400. 16:53undergraduates uh men are much more
  401. 16:56likely to study the highly remunerative
  402. 16:59uh Majors uh you you can earn quite a
  403. 17:02lot if you study uh let's see the
  404. 17:04highest would be petroleum engineering
  405. 17:07Naval architecture and metalurgy oh
  406. 17:11God uh okay it's those are it's like
  407. 17:15Naval architecture 97% men petroleum
  408. 17:18engineering
  409. 17:2087% now women uh actually are over
  410. 17:24represented in fulfilling Fields I will
  411. 17:27tell you that but lower paying early
  412. 17:29childhood education 97% female and this
  413. 17:32has hardly changed for for Generations
  414. 17:35if if anything there are more women than
  415. 17:36ever social work that's always been
  416. 17:39women but now it's
  417. 17:4088% uh communication disorders like
  418. 17:43special needs teachers and at 94% female
  419. 17:47and year after year um researchers at
  420. 17:50the Pew foundation and and Katherine
  421. 17:53hakee at the London School of Economics
  422. 17:55would ask women what is your preferred
  423. 17:58women and men what is your ideal if you
  424. 18:01you could have the perfect lifestyle
  425. 18:03about 20% of women are want to be
  426. 18:06full-time careerists about 20% want to
  427. 18:10stay home and they don't do not wish to
  428. 18:12work unless they have to uh 60%
  429. 18:15Katherine hakee calls them
  430. 18:17adaptivesportsmen.org
  431. 18:28entail some some part-time work a
  432. 18:31majority of mothers according to the Pew
  433. 18:33Foundation more than 60% said they would
  434. 18:35prefer to work part-time but fathers
  435. 18:37don't with fathers it was uh 79% said
  436. 18:40they would prefer a full-time work so
  437. 18:44now I look at this and I look at these
  438. 18:47changes at at these persistence
  439. 18:49differences that women do overall
  440. 18:52Prevail in the caring and nurturing
  441. 18:54professions and men are in the saving
  442. 18:57and rescuing and people free zone
  443. 19:00professions um now as a as a as a
  444. 19:03freedom feminist I respect preferences
  445. 19:06and for me a good Society is one uh
  446. 19:08defined but with high levels of human
  447. 19:10satisfaction not statistical parity uh
  448. 19:14and so so Freedom feminism stands for
  449. 19:16equality of
  450. 19:17opportunity uh but it it doesn't expect
  451. 19:21same sameness of results now I know
  452. 19:24critics I know what they're going to say
  453. 19:26uh they will say because they've told me
  454. 19:28you're your views are reactionary and
  455. 19:30harmful to women because they don't take
  456. 19:32into account how preferences are shaped
  457. 19:34by
  458. 19:35culture uh women who major in social
  459. 19:37work or education uh rather than
  460. 19:40petroleum engineering or Metallurgy
  461. 19:42they're not really making free choices
  462. 19:43they are making self-defeating choices
  463. 19:46uh that will undermine their long range
  464. 19:49economic
  465. 19:50well-being or the American Association
  466. 19:52of University women put it this way
  467. 19:54women's personal choices are fraught
  468. 19:56with inequities and uh and it the AAW
  469. 20:00speaks of women being pigeonholed into
  470. 20:02the pink collar jobs of of in health and
  471. 20:05education and according to the National
  472. 20:07Organization for Women powerful sexist
  473. 20:09stereotypes steer women and men towards
  474. 20:11different education training and career
  475. 20:14paths now here's my answer to that I
  476. 20:18agree that men and women's choices uh
  477. 20:22could we could say they're not truly
  478. 20:24free in a society where where they have
  479. 20:27little access to education
  480. 20:29uh information about the world but we
  481. 20:32don't live in that kind of society uh
  482. 20:34American and European women are among
  483. 20:36the most educated informed
  484. 20:38self-determining people in human history
  485. 20:41and it's it seems to me a little
  486. 20:44matronizing if you will uh to say that
  487. 20:47their choices are not free I mean how do
  488. 20:50we know whether Hardline feminists at
  489. 20:52the National Organization for Women how
  490. 20:54do we know that what they're doing was
  491. 20:56the result of free choices maybe they
  492. 20:58were all all sorts of burdensome
  493. 21:00stereotypes promoting them in their in
  494. 21:02their Direction um look I I was a
  495. 21:05philosophy freser for more than 20 years
  496. 21:07I can tell you we're not going to
  497. 21:08resolve this question about Free Will
  498. 21:10and and determinism today philosophers
  499. 21:13have been debating it for more than
  500. 21:142,000 years uh no resolution in sight so
  501. 21:19I think for the moment we should air on
  502. 21:21the side or on the side of Common Sense
  503. 21:24and Credit One Another with agency now
  504. 21:28I'm not saying that you shouldn't take
  505. 21:30your your little daughter or your friend
  506. 21:32or if you're a teacher and encourage
  507. 21:34them to try new things try new Fields
  508. 21:37find ways to make it interesting of
  509. 21:39course but in the end you have to accept
  510. 21:43the choice and and maybe even accept
  511. 21:46what as a freedom feminist I believe
  512. 21:49that in the pursuit of happiness men and
  513. 21:51women take somewhat different paths and
  514. 21:53there may be a limit to how much that is
  515. 21:56going to be changed now uh so far my
  516. 21:59point is that uh more than other schools
  517. 22:01of thought I feel that freedom feminism
  518. 22:04is more respectful of men and women and
  519. 22:07just more accommodating to to human
  520. 22:09reality but I'm going to go further I am
  521. 22:11going to say that freedom feminism is
  522. 22:13also more Progressive it is more
  523. 22:16forward-looking than
  524. 22:18other yeah more more Progressive more
  525. 22:21more liberal in a way uh than other
  526. 22:23forms of feminism and let me explain by
  527. 22:26way of an example from Sweden
  528. 22:29now the sedes can be remarkably thorough
  529. 22:33in their pursuit of gender parity like a
  530. 22:37few years ago there was a feminist
  531. 22:38political party that proposed a law
  532. 22:41requiring that men sit while
  533. 22:45urinating less messy more equal uh in
  534. 22:492004 the leader of Sweden's left party
  535. 22:52feminist Council goodin schan sounds
  536. 22:56more German but never mind she osed a
  537. 22:59man tax a special tariff to be levied on
  538. 23:01men to pay for all the violence and
  539. 23:03Mayhem wrought by their sex men for
  540. 23:06their part uh suggested that women pay a
  541. 23:08special tax every time they crossed a
  542. 23:11bridge that men had built I don't know
  543. 23:12they wanted to get back at them this
  544. 23:15would not end well for
  545. 23:17anyone uh but anyway there is a school
  546. 23:19called ealia ealia is a state sponsored
  547. 23:23School in Stockholm and it is dedicated
  548. 23:26to eradicating the gender dis iction and
  549. 23:29in this school there are no boys and
  550. 23:31girls just friends and buddies they're
  551. 23:34um they've replaced classic fairy tales
  552. 23:37like Cinderella Sleeping Beauty oh no no
  553. 23:40these have been replaced by Tales like
  554. 23:42two giraffes adopt uh some abandoned
  555. 23:45crocodile
  556. 23:47eggs ealia gives the children according
  557. 23:50to one
  558. 23:51teacher teacher said it gives them a
  559. 23:53fantastic opportunity to be whoever they
  560. 23:56want to be and she was very excited they
  561. 23:58can just they're just going to be you
  562. 24:01know I don't know I I some I sort of see
  563. 24:03that do you remember that character Pat
  564. 24:04in Saturday Night Live who was you know
  565. 24:07androgynous being but you have to see
  566. 24:10the school and I'm going to quote
  567. 24:11someone who did see the school um it
  568. 24:14turns out that it's it's actually a
  569. 24:18fantastic opportunity not for the kids
  570. 24:20but for adults to coerce micromanage and
  571. 24:24police children because children will
  572. 24:27lapse into convention
  573. 24:29gendered play if you leave them alone
  574. 24:30for too long and this has turned out to
  575. 24:32be a huge problem in the school in their
  576. 24:36efforts uh to get the children liberated
  577. 24:38from the constraints of gender they have
  578. 24:40had to impose their own rigid little
  579. 24:43regime of you know tabos and uh here is
  580. 24:46how a slate author na Natalie Rothchild
  581. 24:50describes I don't think this is igalia
  582. 24:52it's another gender neutral classroom
  583. 24:55one oh it is ealia one Swedish school
  584. 24:57got rid of its toy cars because boy boys
  585. 25:01gender coded them and ascribed the cars
  586. 25:04higher status than other toys another
  587. 25:07preschool removed free playtime free
  588. 25:10playtime turned out uh to be as a
  589. 25:12pedagogue at the school put it when
  590. 25:14children play freely stereotyped
  591. 25:16patterns are born and
  592. 25:19cemented so every detail of the child's
  593. 25:22interaction was micromanaged by these
  594. 25:24concerned
  595. 25:26adults now again few would deny that a
  596. 25:30parent a
  597. 25:32teacher should should expose a child to
  598. 25:35a wide range of toys and play activities
  599. 25:37and and you want your child to develop
  600. 25:39in all sorts of ways and all possible
  601. 25:41interests but what the sweds are doing
  602. 25:44in some of their classrooms this is not
  603. 25:46all their classrooms these are these are
  604. 25:47some extremes it goes beyond encouraging
  605. 25:51it it goes beyond sort of urging
  606. 25:53children to try new things they are
  607. 25:55requiring it now today
  608. 25:59many experts on gender will tell you
  609. 26:01that um tolerance understanding uh that
  610. 26:05we should there are gender variant kids
  611. 26:07who completely defy the stereotypes of
  612. 26:09their sex a boy who wants to dress up
  613. 26:11like a princess a persistent interest in
  614. 26:13a girl who and it used to be they wanted
  615. 26:15to subject these kids to some kind of
  616. 26:16radical behavior modification more
  617. 26:18enlightened Theory says leave them alone
  618. 26:21and and you know to be just allow them
  619. 26:24to be who they are and as a freedom
  620. 26:27feminist I say yes I agree with that but
  621. 26:28do that for the for the kids who are
  622. 26:31conventionally gendered as
  623. 26:33well do it for both that's why I say I
  624. 26:36feel this is more Progressive uh the
  625. 26:39swedes should extend their tolerant
  626. 26:41understanding to the gendered identity
  627. 26:43and preferences of of the vast majority
  628. 26:45of children they should be like My
  629. 26:47Heroine Vivian gusen paly now Vivian
  630. 26:50gusen paly is a beloved kindergarten
  631. 26:52teacher now retired she's in her
  632. 26:5580s this is not just any kindergarten
  633. 26:57teacher she won the uh MacArthur genius
  634. 27:00award it's a genius teacher 30 years ago
  635. 27:03she published a classic children's book
  636. 27:05called boys and girls superheroes in the
  637. 27:07doll corner now it's nearly impossible
  638. 27:10to imagine anyone writing a book quite
  639. 27:13like this today she encouraged the kids
  640. 27:15in her class to try all kinds of
  641. 27:17activities and but she accepted that
  642. 27:20they would separate by gender they
  643. 27:22always did and at the time she wrote her
  644. 27:24book uh Luke Skywalk Walker and and
  645. 27:27Darth were all the rage H with the boys
  646. 27:30in her kindergarten class and some at
  647. 27:33the time there was some concern that
  648. 27:35girls you know don't have their
  649. 27:36superheroes and maybe we should get
  650. 27:38girls to play with Luke's and and Darth
  651. 27:42um and here's what she wrote she said
  652. 27:45that um it's true that the girls do not
  653. 27:48partake in the boys super hero play but
  654. 27:53then she looked very carefully at the
  655. 27:55doll
  656. 27:56corner and she said
  657. 27:59that girls are interested in their own
  658. 28:01kind of domination boys imaginative play
  659. 28:04yes it involves a lot of conflict
  660. 28:06imaginary violence but girls play it
  661. 28:08appears to be more gentle and peaceful
  662. 28:10but this very perceptive teacher noticed
  663. 28:12that uh girls fantasies can be very
  664. 28:15aggressive exciting intense but
  665. 28:17different that's equal but different uh
  666. 28:20there was a lot of conflict pesky
  667. 28:22characters imaginary power struggles and
  668. 28:24then she said I love this line mothers
  669. 28:26and princesses are as power powerful as
  670. 28:28any superheroes the boys can
  671. 28:30devise this teacher
  672. 28:33appreciated the benefits of of gender
  673. 28:36play for both children she had no
  674. 28:38Illusions about its
  675. 28:40elimination now Freedom feminism is
  676. 28:43inspired more by Vivian paly not those
  677. 28:47micromanaging sex policing Swedish
  678. 28:49School teachers in ealia um there now
  679. 28:53there's still a place for sort of
  680. 28:55old-fashioned equality feminism and all
  681. 28:57of this I mean as a as as a freedom
  682. 28:59feminist I want a society where
  683. 29:01everything all opportunities are
  684. 29:03available to women if they want to be I
  685. 29:05want more SE women CEOs or uh I don't
  686. 29:08know uh bull fighters no not bull
  687. 29:11fighters that's so cruel race car
  688. 29:13drivers um I think that we need there
  689. 29:16are always going to be women and men who
  690. 29:18defy the stereotypes of their sex and in
  691. 29:21a a free Society you open the doors to
  692. 29:23them and find ways to allow them to
  693. 29:26pursue their happiness is Define it um
  694. 29:29so what I'm arguing is that equality of
  695. 29:33outcome is not necessarily A measure of
  696. 29:35wellbe and freedom feminism can make a
  697. 29:38place for that now so far I've tried to
  698. 29:41justify the core PR principle of Freedom
  699. 29:43feminism that the Sexes taken as a group
  700. 29:45are different but equal uh but I have
  701. 29:49very little time but I quickly want to
  702. 29:50assert another principle uh quoting
  703. 29:53let's see Emanuel Kant truth is better
  704. 29:55than BS well it wasn't Kant but it's a
  705. 29:58translation of what he might have said
  706. 30:01uh truth is Our Truth should be your
  707. 30:03Ally and as a freedom feminist I care a
  708. 30:06lot about solid research I do not think
  709. 30:09women especially women at risk for
  710. 30:11violence or exploitation I do not
  711. 30:13believe that women are helped by
  712. 30:17exaggeration fake statistics hyperbole
  713. 30:21spin
  714. 30:22truthiness uh it just in the end it
  715. 30:25doesn't work it creates a false picture
  716. 30:28and I tell you now with all the
  717. 30:30sincerity I can muster today's women's
  718. 30:33movement is drowning in misinformation
  719. 30:37misinformation if you can excuse the
  720. 30:40pun uh it's it's it's saturated with
  721. 30:44advocacy data faux
  722. 30:47narratives factoids fct toids I can't
  723. 30:50take it anymore it's just too much and
  724. 30:53it's it's propaganda some of it is is
  725. 30:56even hate propaganda against men I mean
  726. 30:59there's been just outbreak of misry uh
  727. 31:01which is quite astonishing it is
  728. 31:03saturated with phony claims now uh how
  729. 31:06many times have you heard um you know a
  730. 31:09woman is cheated out of you know 25% of
  731. 31:12her salary or now they say 23% or one in
  732. 31:14five women on campuses sexually
  733. 31:16assaulted one in three college men would
  734. 31:18rape if they were permitted if they if
  735. 31:20they were allowed to do so and wouldn't
  736. 31:22get caught one in three American women
  737. 31:24are battered or my favorite of all on
  738. 31:27Super Bowl Sunday battery increases 40%
  739. 31:31this was a statistic I I I discussed in
  740. 31:34in whoo feminism and it was taken so
  741. 31:36seriously in the 90s that during the
  742. 31:38Super Bowl classic they actually ran an
  743. 31:40ad I think it was 94 or 95 urging men
  744. 31:43remain calm during the game uh now it
  745. 31:47turned out in this case it had no truth
  746. 31:51it was like a case of telephone tag
  747. 31:52somebody had said something it got
  748. 31:54repeated it never got corrected one of
  749. 31:56the things I've discovered about
  750. 31:57feminist myth they can't be corrected as
  751. 31:59a as a sociologist said they're harder
  752. 32:01to kill than a vampire you can't I I
  753. 32:04corrected a whole bunch of them to this
  754. 32:05feminist scholar legal scholar and she
  755. 32:08didn't believe me they went right back
  756. 32:09into her book it's called domestic VI
  757. 32:12violence law you can read our Exchange
  758. 32:14in The Chronicle of Higher Education
  759. 32:16because people were pretty shocked that
  760. 32:18what she did but I
  761. 32:20digress the fact is these are now as a
  762. 32:23as a a feminist violence against women
  763. 32:26exploitation bad batter rape these are
  764. 32:29serious crimes women are plagued now men
  765. 32:33are plagued by even more violence not
  766. 32:36sexual violence but other kinds of
  767. 32:37violence I just want accuracy and
  768. 32:40because I don't think you can have Smart
  769. 32:42policies unless you have good research
  770. 32:45it's hard to get good research I agree
  771. 32:47there all sorts of ways it can go wrong
  772. 32:49the feminist research I review over and
  773. 32:52over again the ones you keep reading
  774. 32:54about it is so it is laughable how
  775. 32:57poorly conr constructed the researches
  776. 32:59if you've had you know any intro
  777. 33:01introduction to social science you will
  778. 33:03see that they they play every game in
  779. 33:06the book but then if you criticize it
  780. 33:08you're thought to be insensitive to the
  781. 33:10problem no it's because I care about the
  782. 33:12problem that I think women will be
  783. 33:13helped by truth and I as I said I think
  784. 33:16truth is on the side of compassion
  785. 33:18falsehood is no friend so these are
  786. 33:21genuine problems um now another bad
  787. 33:24thing that's happened is there is now I
  788. 33:26see this rape culture Crusade on the
  789. 33:28campus a lot of it is a panic like the
  790. 33:30like the the daycare Panic or or a kind
  791. 33:33of sexual McCarthyism it frightens me
  792. 33:36that there are so many women that have
  793. 33:37that willfully uh are against uh giving
  794. 33:41a young man due process and and the list
  795. 33:43of young men subject to Kangaroo Court
  796. 33:45Justice is is growing uh young women at
  797. 33:48Boston
  798. 33:49University put a petition they wanted
  799. 33:51the school to cancel Robin Thick because
  800. 33:53he's Sayang Blurred Lines and has this a
  801. 33:56rape Anthem they said
  802. 33:58uh which says I know you want it and
  803. 34:00somebody get slate counted about a
  804. 34:02thousand songs that have those words but
  805. 34:04maybe there's something more going on in
  806. 34:05that song I've listened to it I don't
  807. 34:07get it but I'm missing something anyway
  808. 34:09students at Harvard Law School Harvard
  809. 34:11Law School requested trigger warnings in
  810. 34:14their classes when sexual assault was
  811. 34:16discussed and this poor this Harvard
  812. 34:18Professor This brilliant woman she wrote
  813. 34:20about it in the New Yorker she said oh
  814. 34:22one student had asked a professor please
  815. 34:24don't use the word violate as in violate
  816. 34:27the law she was triggered by that um so
  817. 34:31and here's what she says uh this this
  818. 34:33professor from Harvard uh if the topic
  819. 34:36of sexual assault were to leave the law
  820. 34:38school classroom it would be a
  821. 34:39tremendous loss above all to VI victims
  822. 34:42of sexual
  823. 34:43assault I believe that today campus
  824. 34:47feminism these are the extremes but you
  825. 34:49all know they are there I think they are
  826. 34:51are turning the feminism is uh our
  827. 34:56campuses are becoming hostile
  828. 34:57environments for due process for free
  829. 34:59expression social movements fueled by
  830. 35:02paranoia and fantasy tend to be toxic so
  831. 35:06as I said it's time to reform feminism
  832. 35:09in conclusion I think anybody who truly
  833. 35:11cares about the status of women around
  834. 35:13the world should be working to create a
  835. 35:16women's movement that that resonates
  836. 35:18with real men and women we need a
  837. 35:20feminism that respects truth and civil
  838. 35:22liberties a reality-based Liber you know
  839. 35:25Liberty centered scrupulously honest
  840. 35:28feminism could greatly help both women
  841. 35:31everywhere in the United States
  842. 35:32throughout the world it could help men
  843. 35:35women children everyone Freedom feminism
  844. 35:38is my humble contribution to that effort
  845. 35:41so thank you friends and buddies for
  846. 35:43listening to me the ular is now
  847. 35:47[Applause]
  848. 35:56over we will be taking questions um I'm
  849. 35:59not sure are there any other mics set up
  850. 36:01or is it just the one okay so let's see
  851. 36:05does anyone have a
  852. 36:08question should I stand up so I was
  853. 36:11having a conversation with a few of my
  854. 36:14friends a few nights ago and uh I was a
  855. 36:16bit confused as to why uh the Title Nine
  856. 36:20process was there why uh people who were
  857. 36:23raped wouldn't just go to the police and
  858. 36:27uh try to get the person uh convicted
  859. 36:29and you know they told me well you you'd
  860. 36:32have to undergo a rape kit and that
  861. 36:34could re-traumatize or traumatize uh the
  862. 36:38woman who had already been a victim uh
  863. 36:41and I'm curious what your views are on
  864. 36:44that if there are ways of uh making the
  865. 36:47process better while not removing due
  866. 36:51process and how to be sensitive to those
  867. 36:54things while still not uh
  868. 36:58compromising uh our sense of
  869. 37:01honesty a great question and that is the
  870. 37:04question that should have been asked a
  871. 37:05long time ago and then in that just now
  872. 37:07I think it was 28 wonderful Harvard Law
  873. 37:09professors wrote a petition that many
  874. 37:12many feminists among them and they're
  875. 37:14saying let's do that but the law is not
  876. 37:18let us stop all forms of sexual
  877. 37:20harassment that even that anybody could
  878. 37:22even imagine any kind of definition of
  879. 37:24harassment let's take all efforts to
  880. 37:26stop it no the law has to be let's do
  881. 37:29all we can to stop as much as we can
  882. 37:32consistent with due process for the
  883. 37:34accused you can't get away from
  884. 37:37from trying to avoid false accusations
  885. 37:40which we we just happen to have a legal
  886. 37:42system developed out of the European
  887. 37:43Enlightenment which presumes innocence
  888. 37:47and so how do you do that now you
  889. 37:49mentioned the rape kits that that there
  890. 37:51one thing that's frustrating to me
  891. 37:53people now think that women at Yale
  892. 37:56sophomore re College Kenyan College
  893. 37:59they're the most at risk they're if you
  894. 38:01look at the statistics that are thrown
  895. 38:02around they're more at risk than women
  896. 38:04in the war torn
  897. 38:06Congo and uh I heard politicians uh
  898. 38:10Senators uh mcal and gilbran say women
  899. 38:14are most at risk on the college campus
  900. 38:16than anywhere else in the country no
  901. 38:17they're not it's just false and there's
  902. 38:20a great study and and the author Carrie
  903. 38:23Ren Cali renison uh looked at the data
  904. 38:28and if you track for education and you
  905. 38:30track for college attendance women are
  906. 38:32much more at risk in in dangerous poor
  907. 38:35neighborhoods than they are at at
  908. 38:37prestigious colleges they're they're
  909. 38:39greater risk so let's just tell the
  910. 38:40truth and then talk about how we we have
  911. 38:42scarce resources how do we allocate them
  912. 38:45and I think rape kits are the first to
  913. 38:46thing I also think it's true a lot of
  914. 38:49women are it used to be worse but one of
  915. 38:51the great things that feminism did in
  916. 38:53the 70s as they raised Consciousness
  917. 38:55about rape is that and it's the job is
  918. 38:58not finished the work of feminism is not
  919. 39:00finished because you do need people who
  920. 39:03are trained to talk to a woman who has
  921. 39:05been traumatized it's a special it is a
  922. 39:08special kind of of hideous violation and
  923. 39:10they need people who are trained and
  924. 39:13know the protocols and don't ask
  925. 39:16these uh very offensive questions in the
  926. 39:18past when would be implied that it was
  927. 39:20her fault or was what were you wearing
  928. 39:22or what what is your sexual history and
  929. 39:25so we needed the women's movement it
  930. 39:27we're not finished but that all that we
  931. 39:28should be working for but we we're not I
  932. 39:31mean we are a little bit but we're so
  933. 39:33carried away now all of Washington is
  934. 39:36Will mcal and and Gill brand and even
  935. 39:39the president the White House
  936. 39:40commissions endless amount of things to
  937. 39:42address an epidemic which the best data
  938. 39:46we have suggest doesn't exist there's a
  939. 39:48problem there's not an epidemic an
  940. 39:50epidemic and the problem is far more
  941. 39:52serious outside the campus than on
  942. 39:54campus that's all
  943. 39:58lot
  944. 40:04questionsa guys that's prejudicial to
  945. 40:07women they don't like to for form no no
  946. 40:10okay my
  947. 40:12apologies lines are patriarchal
  948. 40:19but I I had n for Advantage
  949. 40:23because okay so my question uh is
  950. 40:26working with your premises um so if we
  951. 40:30take the premise to be true that men and
  952. 40:32women take slightly different paths
  953. 40:33towards happiness um and if we also
  954. 40:35observe the second phenomenon that uh
  955. 40:37these two paths that are traditionally
  956. 40:39chosen like like your example of
  957. 40:41engineering and the sciences and
  958. 40:43petroleum um if based on the way the
  959. 40:46market Works uh those professions are
  960. 40:49higher paying um than like professions
  961. 40:52in philosophy and the humanities and so
  962. 40:53forth uh does that in a sense make a
  963. 40:57certain kind of economic equality
  964. 41:00impossible or like what are the
  965. 41:02implications of those two phenomenon on
  966. 41:05um you know equality of positions of
  967. 41:07wealth and power there are implications
  968. 41:10because it it but you have to factor
  969. 41:13more in if you're looking at someone's
  970. 41:15overall well-being their how much they
  971. 41:17earn is certainly part of it it's a very
  972. 41:19important part of it but if you ask men
  973. 41:21and women what do you care most about a
  974. 41:23job you find big differences men care
  975. 41:26more about they will they put High
  976. 41:30earnings uh almost at the top and women
  977. 41:33they want to be fulfilled there's much
  978. 41:35more about I want to help people that's
  979. 41:37big with women you may not like it but
  980. 41:39that's what we write um another thing is
  981. 41:42you have we have massive data about
  982. 41:44vocational interests and you will ask
  983. 41:47men and women would you rather spend
  984. 41:50your time you know the next two weeks uh
  985. 41:53putting a machine together and taking it
  986. 41:54apart or helping people work through
  987. 41:57problems that I don't know if I want to
  988. 41:59do either but never mind those are your
  989. 42:02choices um now there are men who will
  990. 42:05want to help with the problems and there
  991. 42:07are women who can't wait to get to that
  992. 42:09machine I am not denying that and I
  993. 42:11don't I know someone's going to come up
  994. 42:12and say well I'm a metallurgist and I'm
  995. 42:14a female I know you're there I've met
  996. 42:17you and they're these women are
  997. 42:19fantastic but they are they know they're
  998. 42:20different they always know they are
  999. 42:22different and uh just like my son knew
  1000. 42:24he was different both of them were
  1001. 42:26English major all his fraternity
  1002. 42:28Brothers at Vanderbilt and the other at
  1003. 42:30Penn they were studying economics and
  1004. 42:32Engineering they were English majors and
  1005. 42:36uh it was I I I Begg them to change
  1006. 42:38because it I
  1007. 42:40thought I still don't understand it but
  1008. 42:44anyway the fact is they my son in his
  1009. 42:47Victorian literature class oh his
  1010. 42:49girlfriend was a computer science major
  1011. 42:51at vanderbelt he was an English major
  1012. 42:53her classes were all guys and her and
  1013. 42:55his classes were him and a lot of girls
  1014. 42:57he didn't mind it neither did she but
  1015. 42:59that was what it was so they know they
  1016. 43:00different but but if you ask people what
  1017. 43:02are your interests you will find far
  1018. 43:04more women will say they want to work
  1019. 43:05with people or living things so biology
  1020. 43:08is Big with women uh but you will find I
  1021. 43:10don't know electrical engineering not so
  1022. 43:13much and um now I think I've always
  1023. 43:16thought well let's feminize them a
  1024. 43:18little bit a long time ago I was at a
  1025. 43:19conference and people were worried about
  1026. 43:21girls not playing with computers as much
  1027. 43:23as boys that's been solved but I said
  1028. 43:25well why don't we have Tinker Bell
  1029. 43:27computers or you know make them and
  1030. 43:28people are hissing like H we're not
  1031. 43:30going to do that but I thought it would
  1032. 43:31have been nice you know I would have
  1033. 43:33liked one but um you know to that you
  1034. 43:36can there might be a way I think there I
  1035. 43:38would be in favor of that is try to find
  1036. 43:40a way to make
  1037. 43:42engineering if you actually they're
  1038. 43:44doing that they're doing it at Schools
  1039. 43:45they're showing girls like you can help
  1040. 43:47people uh suppose there's an earthquake
  1041. 43:49how can you build a house that won't
  1042. 43:51fall down and you know then you connect
  1043. 43:53it to real world and it's easier to
  1044. 43:55engage a girl if you can make that real
  1045. 43:57world connection so I would try I I want
  1046. 44:00to keep trying but what I don't want uh
  1047. 44:03is the government especially to come in
  1048. 44:05like you know and and say oh no gender
  1049. 44:08parity and we're going to use all these
  1050. 44:11problems and it's discrimination and a
  1051. 44:12hostile environment no it isn't men and
  1052. 44:15women are somewhat different and you're
  1053. 44:17not going to get statistical parody
  1054. 44:19probably ever but you can get a better
  1055. 44:22and you can get I also think people that
  1056. 44:24are in fields they're not really they
  1057. 44:25they might not have been in often very
  1058. 44:27the most creative so I like the
  1059. 44:29crossover but but we should do it in a
  1060. 44:31spirit of um just sort of
  1061. 44:33open-mindedness and good-heartedness not
  1062. 44:36this angry oh it's the patriarchy forget
  1063. 44:38it it's not the patriarchy it's us next
  1064. 44:43question on the
  1065. 44:45topic on the topic of uh the topic of
  1066. 44:49kind of Freedom feminism's cultural
  1067. 44:53element it seemed like what you were
  1068. 44:54saying is that most of the disparities
  1069. 44:56we see in various job jobs are due to
  1070. 44:58innate preferences that maybe are
  1071. 44:59somewhat cultured but are mostly the the
  1072. 45:02innate differences between men and women
  1073. 45:04in a job that a lot of people would say
  1074. 45:07is about helping people but may or may
  1075. 45:09not be more about power and money that
  1076. 45:11is to say lawmakers um the kind of
  1077. 45:14six-fold increase we've seen between the
  1078. 45:161980s and now in terms of female
  1079. 45:18lawmakers do you think that mean
  1080. 45:19obviously it's still in flux we haven't
  1081. 45:21gotten to a point where I guess people
  1082. 45:23have kind of have self- selected for
  1083. 45:26joining their various careers what role
  1084. 45:28does freedom feminism see for not merely
  1085. 45:31letting women decide okay I guess I
  1086. 45:33guess I don't want to run for office or
  1087. 45:34men kind of tending to choose that and
  1088. 45:36how much of that is attributable to
  1089. 45:38things like no one really talks about
  1090. 45:40men's fitness that much Chris Chris
  1091. 45:43Chris Christie a notable exception to
  1092. 45:44that or fashion like Obama's Tweed suit
  1093. 45:47or something that that those are all
  1094. 45:48notable for exceptions where women's
  1095. 45:50clothing dress appearance family status
  1096. 45:54is always an issue in a way that is
  1097. 45:56rarely an issue for me it's an issue for
  1098. 45:57women it's interesting to us look at
  1099. 45:59women's magazines men's magazines aren't
  1100. 46:01about fashion women's are I mean women's
  1101. 46:04magazine women that is what women are
  1102. 46:06interested and I I find this not you but
  1103. 46:09I find conventional feminism to be
  1104. 46:12sexist and and to trivialize women's
  1105. 46:16interests and yes men like pornography
  1106. 46:19and we're upset about that some women
  1107. 46:21like it but a lot of men like it but
  1108. 46:22women like uh bodice rippers these
  1109. 46:24romance novels it's different it's equal
  1110. 46:27maybe the pornography is worse but never
  1111. 46:28mind that um I'm I'm just saying that so
  1112. 46:32I don't I don't what what's the problem
  1113. 46:33I'm not ident the question is women in
  1114. 46:37public eye who are running for office
  1115. 46:38are treated in elements come into
  1116. 46:41campaigns come into the public eye in
  1117. 46:43their treatment as public officials in a
  1118. 46:45way that those elements of their public
  1119. 46:46life would never be a question for men
  1120. 46:47the question of women what about the
  1121. 46:49children what about X Y and Z whereas
  1122. 46:52men are never assume is never assumed
  1123. 46:53that a man needs to answer those
  1124. 46:55questions well you know what I think I
  1125. 46:57think that if you it's hellish to run
  1126. 46:59for office because suddenly everything
  1127. 47:00about you is up for grabs men have been
  1128. 47:02putting up with it and they for years
  1129. 47:03they get different questions and as you
  1130. 47:05said no I don't think anyone well
  1131. 47:07someone would but most people would not
  1132. 47:10start publicly joking about a woman's
  1133. 47:13weight and making it you know a constant
  1134. 47:16uh line and you know the night comic uh
  1135. 47:20programs but with Chris Christie it is
  1136. 47:22so I think there's I think there's I
  1137. 47:25guess my point is
  1138. 47:27twofold I don't completely disagree with
  1139. 47:29you because I'm still enough of a
  1140. 47:31feminist to I I know there there are
  1141. 47:35barriers and I know that there are
  1142. 47:37attitudes there's sexism out there and
  1143. 47:39especially women I mean but we we were
  1144. 47:43so carried away with this more extreme
  1145. 47:46kind of of feminism that is almost
  1146. 47:48grievance collecting and exaggerating
  1147. 47:50wrongs where there are no wrongs where
  1148. 47:52there is nuance and it's hard to study
  1149. 47:55Nuance I think in the nuance once
  1150. 47:57there's some sexism but I think if
  1151. 47:59you're a woman there have been very good
  1152. 48:01studies um at from Georgetown University
  1153. 48:04about men and women in politics when
  1154. 48:06women run they they will win as often as
  1155. 48:09men but the electorate is not sexist it
  1156. 48:12really depends on what your positions
  1157. 48:14are if you run the big problem that they
  1158. 48:17found was that women don't run women
  1159. 48:21will say oh God I'm not going to do that
  1160. 48:23and go and live in you know motels in 16
  1161. 48:26cities and
  1162. 48:28you
  1163. 48:28know so we've got to find a way to now I
  1164. 48:31think the solution is I think more women
  1165. 48:33are running because we were living
  1166. 48:35longer and now people can have like two
  1167. 48:38careers or even if you stayed home you
  1168. 48:40know the kids are gone if you had your
  1169. 48:41kids early they're gone by the time
  1170. 48:43you're 45 or 50 and political careers
  1171. 48:45are something you you know people seem
  1172. 48:47to be able to go on and on you can do
  1173. 48:49that you know you can start in your 50s
  1174. 48:51or 60s not a lot of careers I think it
  1175. 48:53might be self-correcting we'll see so
  1176. 48:57without disagreeing with you entirely
  1177. 48:59I'm just a little more nuanced yes I
  1178. 49:00think women face special hassles men
  1179. 49:03face different ones and people have
  1180. 49:05always said horrible things about one
  1181. 49:07another who was it I think it was uh it
  1182. 49:11was uh Alexander Hamilton was called a
  1183. 49:15the bastard son of a Scottish what was
  1184. 49:18it
  1185. 49:19a what was I don't know some kind of a
  1186. 49:22Scottish uh bum or something it was true
  1187. 49:26actually but
  1188. 49:27um he shouldn't have said it um a
  1189. 49:31Scottish Bootlegger the bastard son of a
  1190. 49:33Scottish boot um so it was it was harsh
  1191. 49:37back then for
  1192. 49:38men but women weren't running at all
  1193. 49:42then
  1194. 49:44so um hello does
  1195. 49:48this oh oh am I just I'm just holding
  1196. 49:52okay I'm just holding this okay um so I
  1197. 49:55think along the Lin of sort of the past
  1198. 49:57two questions I am interested in uh how
  1199. 50:00we address the fact that value is
  1200. 50:02ascribed to outcome so let's just say
  1201. 50:04men and women have different preferences
  1202. 50:05and they're able to display them but
  1203. 50:07they're being manifested within a system
  1204. 50:09within structures that have already sort
  1205. 50:12of some degree defined the value of that
  1206. 50:14outcome so I'm thinking about uh for
  1207. 50:16instance difference between the pay of a
  1208. 50:18CEO versus the pay of a kindergarten
  1209. 50:20teacher right so I'm trying to
  1210. 50:22understand the intersection of feminism
  1211. 50:23and income inequality or the way that
  1212. 50:25we've ascribed value to these pref ref
  1213. 50:26is already and honestly I think that
  1214. 50:29we're out of whack the entire system
  1215. 50:31that what the value we've ascribed to
  1216. 50:34certain outcomes doesn't make any sense
  1217. 50:36to me right so even if so so I want to
  1218. 50:39address how I want to figure out how to
  1219. 50:41address that connection so for instance
  1220. 50:43a concrete example I entered the
  1221. 50:44business school recently I used to be an
  1222. 50:46art major now I'm in a business and I
  1223. 50:48didn't now there's this thing called
  1224. 50:49behavioral Finance which to me almost
  1225. 50:51seems like a redundancy Finance is
  1226. 50:54behavioral but there's this so I think I
  1227. 50:56think all even entering into these def
  1228. 50:59different preferences the way in which
  1229. 51:02these different preferences have been
  1230. 51:03defined are via maybe I don't I hesitate
  1231. 51:06to say a masculine lens but even the
  1232. 51:08division between economics art English
  1233. 51:11these various definitions these
  1234. 51:13categories have been predefined in a
  1235. 51:15specific way so so I'm I'm talking about
  1236. 51:18the structure of our preferences H are
  1237. 51:21so it's not just these preferences just
  1238. 51:23exist but they have been pre-structured
  1239. 51:25and honestly I think with a specific
  1240. 51:27framework in mind so I want to collapse
  1241. 51:29the framework yeah but just keep in mind
  1242. 51:32something about the framework if you
  1243. 51:33look at men and women in the workpl it's
  1244. 51:36true women have a a big Misfortune which
  1245. 51:39is that the nurturing and caring jobs
  1246. 51:41are not paid that well now one reason is
  1247. 51:43that a lot of people are good at them
  1248. 51:45there are a lot of women who are very
  1249. 51:46good at nurturing and caring and they
  1250. 51:48don't from all over the world they can
  1251. 51:50do it and you don't need that much
  1252. 51:53training to do it compared to some other
  1253. 51:56jobs men however do almost all of the
  1254. 52:01um of the dangerous jobs the truly if
  1255. 52:04you look at the death rates of people
  1256. 52:07that live work on oil rigs or or loggers
  1257. 52:10or people out on fishing boats or you
  1258. 52:13know I have never seen a woman you know
  1259. 52:15on a high-rise building if I look out
  1260. 52:17and the windows are being cleaned it's
  1261. 52:18always a man there's like an invisible
  1262. 52:20Army of men there's a construction site
  1263. 52:23near my house and I think they're behind
  1264. 52:25schedule so somebody paned
  1265. 52:27day and night these men are working all
  1266. 52:28night it's freezing and then it was
  1267. 52:30really hot they there're just Army of
  1268. 52:32men working and you find very few women
  1269. 52:36who do that so so it's true structural
  1270. 52:38now I don't think it's just structural I
  1271. 52:40think that uh that men uh will be you
  1272. 52:44know we look at our if we look at our um
  1273. 52:46vocational schools and what the kids
  1274. 52:48want to do you know I I visited a I
  1275. 52:50wrote a book called the war against boys
  1276. 52:51and I'm very worried about young men in
  1277. 52:53school they're not flourishing as well
  1278. 52:55as girls and that's a in which women are
  1279. 52:57doing better and I want both to to do
  1280. 52:59well and I went to the school called
  1281. 53:01Aviation High School and it's in in um
  1282. 53:05Queens New York I thought I was lost it
  1283. 53:07was a gritty neighborhood there were
  1284. 53:09factories and this can't be a school it
  1285. 53:11looked like a an abandoned Factory then
  1286. 53:14I saw Aviation High School and I went
  1287. 53:17inside and I still thought I was because
  1288. 53:18it was the quietest school it had 2,000
  1289. 53:20kids I couldn't hear you could hear a
  1290. 53:21pin drop I had never been in a high
  1291. 53:24school that was that quiet well it has
  1292. 53:262,000 kids they were all in their
  1293. 53:28classes these are kids that come mostly
  1294. 53:30from uh homes that are you know the
  1295. 53:34parents a lot of uh Hispanic and
  1296. 53:37African-American Asian parents who are
  1297. 53:40poor they go to that school and they
  1298. 53:43because they like airplanes and it's 80%
  1299. 53:46boys but they love it and they love it
  1300. 53:49so much that they don't Goof Off the
  1301. 53:52reason they're quiet is if they don't
  1302. 53:53and they have to take Serious academic
  1303. 53:55classes vocational schools aren't the
  1304. 53:57way they used to be now you can be
  1305. 53:58College Bound and my point is these kids
  1306. 54:01were enthralled because and if they
  1307. 54:02didn't do their math they didn't like it
  1308. 54:05that much they didn't like their history
  1309. 54:06CL they hated their English class many
  1310. 54:08of them but if they didn't get passing
  1311. 54:09grades they couldn't Tinker with the
  1312. 54:12cesna 411 or whatever it was out in the
  1313. 54:14playground that FedEx had donated to
  1314. 54:16them and they get to do but it was these
  1315. 54:18boys were enthralled it was so now there
  1316. 54:22are girls there and they're fantastic
  1317. 54:24they're sort of running the school but
  1318. 54:26they're only about 20% they know they're
  1319. 54:28different and they are interested in the
  1320. 54:29airplanes and I would like to see see
  1321. 54:31more but I don't know how you could
  1322. 54:34change and I I I think one problem with
  1323. 54:36a lot of social science in in the
  1324. 54:39academy or academic uh feminism is they
  1325. 54:42look at the economy and they just think
  1326. 54:45they want a world that will never exist
  1327. 54:46there will never be a world where there
  1328. 54:48isn't some kind of supply and demand and
  1329. 54:50where somebody who's a trained
  1330. 54:53electrical engineer is going to earn a
  1331. 54:54lot more than
  1332. 54:57you know Vivian gussen paly My Heroine a
  1333. 54:59kindergarten teacher but there are
  1334. 55:02different payoffs pay is one thing
  1335. 55:05fulfillment is another so I think we
  1336. 55:08always have to ask the two questions is
  1337. 55:10your dog will pay and look at that
  1338. 55:12factor because you know what I think I
  1339. 55:13think there are a lot of men who might
  1340. 55:15have wanted to be in a rock band or they
  1341. 55:19might have wanted to pursue their career
  1342. 55:21as a a painter in Paris or and they went
  1343. 55:24to engineering school like those women
  1344. 55:26have to do in Russia the men are still
  1345. 55:28still kind of have to do it so I think
  1346. 55:30it's complex that's all I'm saying when
  1347. 55:33I bring up all these variables I want a
  1348. 55:35feminism that looks at the whole picture
  1349. 55:37is fair to both sexes but most of all as
  1350. 55:40faithful as possible to the
  1351. 55:42truth yes so I agree with you in general
  1352. 55:45I do think there are some differences
  1353. 55:47between men women and I don't think that
  1354. 55:49the fact that those differences exist
  1355. 55:50means the world's going to end or women
  1356. 55:52will all be oppressed but there's been
  1357. 55:54some interesting research on the way
  1358. 55:56that women and men are treated
  1359. 55:57differently growing up that I think is
  1360. 55:58Meaningful so for instance there's a
  1361. 56:00psych study where they had uh
  1362. 56:02microphones attached to mothers and they
  1363. 56:04listen to everything they told their
  1364. 56:06children and what they found was that
  1365. 56:08when talking to boys the mothers pretty
  1366. 56:11much only used anger and frustration
  1367. 56:13words when talking about emotions they
  1368. 56:15only use those terms and with women they
  1369. 56:18use this wide variety of you know
  1370. 56:20disappointed somewhat afans whatever and
  1371. 56:22you could argue yes that they're
  1372. 56:24catering to what naturally women
  1373. 56:26whatever but I think what what I see
  1374. 56:28from studies like that is that yes there
  1375. 56:31is a starting difference but perhaps we
  1376. 56:33are blowing that up in certain areas so
  1377. 56:36yes perhaps women in general enjoy more
  1378. 56:39looking at gossip magazines but if
  1379. 56:41that's the only thing they're offered
  1380. 56:43then we're going to make a problem that
  1381. 56:44maybe is 6040 into a problem that's 9010
  1382. 56:47right well I don't disagree with you as
  1383. 56:49I keep saying I I've had children and
  1384. 56:52and I have a i people used to say oh you
  1385. 56:54have sons that's why you're not
  1386. 56:56sympathetic I've got better than they
  1387. 56:58say you don't have a daughter I've got
  1388. 56:59better than a daughter I've got a
  1389. 57:00granddaughter I've got Eliza my darling
  1390. 57:04and um I watch her in brilliant perfect
  1391. 57:08in every way uh and her father gave her
  1392. 57:11no he doesn't like me to tell this story
  1393. 57:13um someone gave her a train a train to
  1394. 57:16get her no he doesn't mind the story
  1395. 57:17it's someone else he gave her a train
  1396. 57:20and he came back downstairs Eliza she
  1397. 57:23said Daddy sh I'm putting it to bed and
  1398. 57:25she you
  1399. 57:27know was uh nurturing the train
  1400. 57:31and I I I look at her and you know I
  1401. 57:34think what do I want for this this I
  1402. 57:36want everything for her I want
  1403. 57:37everything any parent wants I I have a
  1404. 57:40grandparent but uh I I if she excels in
  1405. 57:44physics or that would be great I I but I
  1406. 57:47I'll tell you one other thing about
  1407. 57:48girls that's very interesting and maybe
  1408. 57:51at the school particularly interesting
  1409. 57:53there's a a group of people at they're
  1410. 57:55now at Vanderbilt used to be at John's
  1411. 57:56Hopkins and they study prodigies math
  1412. 58:00and mostly you know math and and and
  1413. 58:02language prodigies these are kids that
  1414. 58:04get like perfect scores on the SAT in
  1415. 58:07seventh grade the SAT doesn't even ma
  1416. 58:09doesn't can't even measure what they
  1417. 58:11know they're they're these are you know
  1418. 58:13the top 1% genius kids big difference
  1419. 58:16between the girls and boys the the boys
  1420. 58:20if a boy is a math prodigy it's almost
  1421. 58:22certain to go into a math career or a
  1422. 58:25science career the girls you never know
  1423. 58:27you could have a girl who's a math
  1424. 58:29genius because they they the boys have a
  1425. 58:32they call it an asymmetrical cognitive
  1426. 58:34profile a boy can be a math genius but
  1427. 58:36his skills his verbal skills may not be
  1428. 58:38very good the girl who is a math prodigy
  1429. 58:41is also often a verbal Prodigy this
  1430. 58:44opens up a whole world to her and so we
  1431. 58:47lose those girls you could say lose we
  1432. 58:49lose them they could become short story
  1433. 58:51writers they could become kindergarten
  1434. 58:52teacher they could do anything and so
  1435. 58:55they have a more a richer field just
  1436. 58:58more complicated Pursuits so I just want
  1437. 59:01to look at that without all always from
  1438. 59:04the point of view of oh the women are
  1439. 59:06the have notot I think if you look at
  1440. 59:08men and women right now in the United
  1441. 59:09States it's a complicated mix of burdens
  1442. 59:12and benefits I want to look at both and
  1443. 59:14I want to make it better if we can let's
  1444. 59:17maybe find a way that women can earn
  1445. 59:18more for doing the things they like but
  1446. 59:22men too and I want to find a way a
  1447. 59:25little more protective of men who are
  1448. 59:27killing themselves lots of men who are
  1449. 59:29killing themselves in these jobs and um
  1450. 59:32that you can't really do after you're 40
  1451. 59:33you're just ruin a lot of them we're
  1452. 59:35looking now huge numbers of men are out
  1453. 59:38out of the economy we have I think of
  1454. 59:40one of more than almost any not any
  1455. 59:42country but our countries in the OED we
  1456. 59:45have more men out of the labor force and
  1457. 59:49um and and a lot of it is uh disability
  1458. 59:52and so forth so it's a complicated
  1459. 59:54picture I do do not think that Hardline
  1460. 59:57feminism is the right perspective there
  1461. 59:59may be there was a time where it was so
  1462. 1:00:01rigged against women it was so
  1463. 1:00:03arbitrary had to be fixed so we
  1464. 1:00:06developed a feminist network we
  1465. 1:00:08developed institutions we needed them
  1466. 1:00:11but you know what's
  1467. 1:00:13happened there's this huge sort of
  1468. 1:00:15structural asymmetry now you have all of
  1469. 1:00:17these women's organizations and almost
  1470. 1:00:18nothing for men and men do have problems
  1471. 1:00:21I tell you boys in school is the first I
  1472. 1:00:24will speak about and women's groups
  1473. 1:00:26never give up but it turns out activist
  1474. 1:00:29organizations never say oh our job's
  1475. 1:00:31done let's move out no if anything they
  1476. 1:00:34become more desperate and this is what
  1477. 1:00:36I've seen a lot of the false statistics
  1478. 1:00:38are disseminated by women's groups who
  1479. 1:00:41want in their own interests depend on I
  1480. 1:00:44mean I I don't say they're doing it for
  1481. 1:00:45mercenary Reasons I'm just it's sort of
  1482. 1:00:47a combination of self-interest and
  1483. 1:00:50ideology and narrative they they want to
  1484. 1:00:53believe and we've got so much of that
  1485. 1:00:55right now that's our problem
  1486. 1:00:58so I don't know if I answered your
  1487. 1:01:00question maybe I f up
  1488. 1:01:04AER um what do you think are the most
  1489. 1:01:08important feminist issues in the United
  1490. 1:01:11States today and do you have any policy
  1491. 1:01:14suggestions for how to fix them I see
  1492. 1:01:17two big problem well the first thing I
  1493. 1:01:18want to say is the to me if I were
  1494. 1:01:21Zarina of the women's movement and I'm
  1495. 1:01:23not Freedom feminism it's me and I don't
  1496. 1:01:26know some random Twitter Twitter
  1497. 1:01:28followers who like it maybe some of you
  1498. 1:01:30I don't have a following I'm not the
  1499. 1:01:31Zarina but if I were in charge I I first
  1500. 1:01:35of all would say that our focus should
  1501. 1:01:36be outside the United States and I say
  1502. 1:01:39this because we've had two waves waves
  1503. 1:01:41of feminism we pretty much have it you
  1504. 1:01:43can pretty much it's not perfect and
  1505. 1:01:45I'll talk about that in a minute you can
  1506. 1:01:46pretty much do what you want and yeah
  1507. 1:01:48there's still some jerks out there and
  1508. 1:01:50draglites and little pockets of sexism
  1509. 1:01:53but
  1510. 1:01:54overall you you have a fair shot in this
  1511. 1:01:56country compared to almost any place in
  1512. 1:01:58the world and uh so but there are
  1513. 1:02:01societies and I've been to several
  1514. 1:02:03International women's conferences where
  1515. 1:02:05they have not had a first wave a second
  1516. 1:02:08they have not had so much as a trickle
  1517. 1:02:10of feminism and who do I meet at these
  1518. 1:02:13conferences I meet the Elizabeth Katie
  1519. 1:02:15Stanton the Susan B Anthony I meet them
  1520. 1:02:19from from you know it could be from
  1521. 1:02:20Angola it could be from Cambodia these
  1522. 1:02:23are the most inspiring women and they
  1523. 1:02:25these fantastic women from Iran who are
  1524. 1:02:28putting up with a kind of 1984 for women
  1525. 1:02:31it's a it's despotic what the women have
  1526. 1:02:33to put up with and they come to these
  1527. 1:02:36conferences and they they they want to
  1528. 1:02:38make they want to make common they want
  1529. 1:02:40to do what we did here and they want
  1530. 1:02:43inspiration so to me that would be the
  1531. 1:02:44first thing I think that we we should
  1532. 1:02:47appreciate what we have figure out how
  1533. 1:02:49we got it and help other women who want
  1534. 1:02:51it so but here I think the unfinished
  1535. 1:02:54work of feminism
  1536. 1:02:56uh one is to me there's a lot of sexism
  1537. 1:03:01in the popular culture now there's a lot
  1538. 1:03:04of misry and trash talk about men but I
  1539. 1:03:09I think that women are uh and one of the
  1540. 1:03:13questioners brought it up even in
  1541. 1:03:14political campaigns there are just
  1542. 1:03:15special ways you know in which women are
  1543. 1:03:18um viewed by in a sexist way that people
  1544. 1:03:21kind of take for granted and I I still
  1545. 1:03:23think it's worth questioning and
  1546. 1:03:26understanding it better the other thing
  1547. 1:03:28more important is what uh economists
  1548. 1:03:31call the feminization of poverty if you
  1549. 1:03:33look at who's really poor in this
  1550. 1:03:35Society it's mostly women and children
  1551. 1:03:39now one of the things I would like in a
  1552. 1:03:42my feminist movement would be more
  1553. 1:03:43inclusive to get the best ideas from
  1554. 1:03:45conservatives
  1555. 1:03:47Libertarians um you know people that
  1556. 1:03:49have been left out religious women and I
  1557. 1:03:51have no time to go into this but there's
  1558. 1:03:53a another person who inspired me as this
  1559. 1:03:56historian at brandise University and she
  1560. 1:03:58wrote
  1561. 1:03:59this uh history of the women's movement
  1562. 1:04:02and she said the women in the United
  1563. 1:04:04States made the greatest progress when
  1564. 1:04:06conservative women worked with liberal
  1565. 1:04:08women she called it two paths to Freedom
  1566. 1:04:11um I'm blanking out on her name Janet
  1567. 1:04:14it'll come to me in a second two paths
  1568. 1:04:16to Freedom when more conservative women
  1569. 1:04:18got together with radical women and they
  1570. 1:04:19work together and I could see that if we
  1571. 1:04:22had a more inclusive right now feminism
  1572. 1:04:24is pretty much in the H you know it's
  1573. 1:04:26pretty much women identified from the
  1574. 1:04:28far left even on campus the Women's
  1575. 1:04:30Center is supposed to be a safe place
  1576. 1:04:32for women it's not really a safe place
  1577. 1:04:34for a traditionally uh religious woman
  1578. 1:04:38you know a conservative woman it's a
  1579. 1:04:40safe space for people who think exactly
  1580. 1:04:42the way I do and I'm radical and if
  1581. 1:04:44you're not you're not welcome not in all
  1582. 1:04:45of them I'm sure it's not true at Yale
  1583. 1:04:47but no at other schools so I'd want it
  1584. 1:04:51to be more inclusive and then start
  1585. 1:04:53solving problems look at the
  1586. 1:04:54feminization of poverty now Li a typical
  1587. 1:04:57liberal we need to give more support to
  1588. 1:05:00women uh single mothers a conservative
  1589. 1:05:02would say yes I want to give them
  1590. 1:05:03support but we've probably got to look
  1591. 1:05:06at stabilizing families because it just
  1592. 1:05:08turns out I'm sorry to say it appears to
  1593. 1:05:12be the case in in this case liberal and
  1594. 1:05:15uh conservative sociologists are sort of
  1595. 1:05:17coming to the same
  1596. 1:05:19conclusion it's very hard to succeed and
  1597. 1:05:23to make it into the middle class A if
  1598. 1:05:25you don't have have some education
  1599. 1:05:27Beyond high school and B if you have a
  1600. 1:05:29broken family and if you don't have the
  1601. 1:05:30education and a broken family you're
  1602. 1:05:33stuck so how do we mend the families and
  1603. 1:05:36I I rare I don't I don't say I never
  1604. 1:05:38hear it but I rarely hear that from
  1605. 1:05:40feminists admitting the need and I don't
  1606. 1:05:42say they can't be gay families they can
  1607. 1:05:44be any kind of family they have to be
  1608. 1:05:46you have to have at least two people
  1609. 1:05:48taking looking after those kids bringing
  1610. 1:05:49in income probably canceling out each
  1611. 1:05:52other's Manas uh you need two people
  1612. 1:05:56and we have we have a divorce society
  1613. 1:05:59and we have kids who are brought up and
  1614. 1:06:01it's takes a a distinct toll on boys
  1615. 1:06:03I'll tell you that but it's another
  1616. 1:06:06story girls in another way so I I think
  1617. 1:06:09conservatives should could bring that in
  1618. 1:06:10and and um Libertarians would be there
  1619. 1:06:13to keep us careful from not creating a
  1620. 1:06:16nanny state where none of us are free
  1621. 1:06:18and ending up like a Galia or something
  1622. 1:06:20in Sweden so you I I want that I want
  1623. 1:06:23feminism to have that to be more diverse
  1624. 1:06:26and more more women's voices and I think
  1625. 1:06:28when conservative and leftwing women
  1626. 1:06:30come together watch out and history
  1627. 1:06:33actually I'm no time to go into this but
  1628. 1:06:35we won the vote because Elizabeth Kat
  1629. 1:06:37Stan and Susan B Anthony the women
  1630. 1:06:39weren't demanding it and women were even
  1631. 1:06:42organized against their own suffrage
  1632. 1:06:44nobody ever saw anything women organized
  1633. 1:06:46against their own vote how could that be
  1634. 1:06:49H well it took a woman Francis Willard
  1635. 1:06:51who was the president of the Christian
  1636. 1:06:52Temperance Union and she went out and
  1637. 1:06:55told women that it was their she she
  1638. 1:06:57said that they were like domestic
  1639. 1:06:58heroins and they had to just as they
  1640. 1:07:00were prided over their house they had to
  1641. 1:07:02Pride over the nation it was their moral
  1642. 1:07:04responsibility and she rebranded the
  1643. 1:07:07ballot as the family protection act
  1644. 1:07:09because one of the reasons they wanted
  1645. 1:07:11women devot is that um you know there
  1646. 1:07:14were just there was so much that was
  1647. 1:07:16dysfunctional in the society but
  1648. 1:07:19anyway Elizabeth ktie Stanton and Susan
  1649. 1:07:22B Anthony sort of did it from abstract
  1650. 1:07:23principles of equality which was great
  1651. 1:07:25we needed that and Francis Willard did
  1652. 1:07:28it from a different a kind of maternal
  1653. 1:07:30feminism that women are nurturers and
  1654. 1:07:33the nation needs nurturers and she
  1655. 1:07:35brought them together so I think that
  1656. 1:07:37would be empowering so that's I guess
  1657. 1:07:38that's a third principle I would change
  1658. 1:07:40the women's movement and make let open
  1659. 1:07:43that up to more women from and and
  1660. 1:07:46certainly try to bring in more uh women
  1661. 1:07:48of color because the women's movement
  1662. 1:07:50the organized women's movement is
  1663. 1:07:51largely sort of a white elite movement
  1664. 1:07:55and they have not you know they say when
  1665. 1:07:58they do polls they just don't they not a
  1666. 1:08:00lot of women that turn up from poor
  1667. 1:08:03women or uh women from different
  1668. 1:08:05ethnicities so it's not inclusive I
  1669. 1:08:07would try to make it inclusive then I
  1670. 1:08:08would look at the misogyny I would look
  1671. 1:08:10at
  1672. 1:08:12the the poverty and uh come up you know
  1673. 1:08:16I'm not saying we're going to solve it
  1674. 1:08:17but I think we have a better
  1675. 1:08:22chance I'm gonna give shorter answers I
  1676. 1:08:24promise
  1677. 1:08:36sure
  1678. 1:08:37okay um so I kind of want to go back to
  1679. 1:08:41a point you kind of glossed over um and
  1680. 1:08:43really unpack the statement so one of
  1681. 1:08:46the key tenants I think of how people
  1682. 1:08:48think about gender today academically is
  1683. 1:08:50that gender as opposed to sex is
  1684. 1:08:51something that's learned and per uh
  1685. 1:08:53learned and then performed um and you
  1686. 1:08:55kind of gloss over that assertion that
  1687. 1:08:58genders learn through Culture by saying
  1688. 1:08:59very quickly we could say that they're
  1689. 1:09:01not truly free in a society where they
  1690. 1:09:03have little access to education and
  1691. 1:09:04information about the world but we don't
  1692. 1:09:06live in that Society American and
  1693. 1:09:07European women are among the most
  1694. 1:09:08self-educated people in human history um
  1695. 1:09:12but that seems in congruous with the
  1696. 1:09:13statement from earlier that um I think
  1697. 1:09:17it was 40% of I think Chinese Engineers
  1698. 1:09:18are women China has a top education
  1699. 1:09:21program higher in the United States and
  1700. 1:09:23it seems in congruous with the fact that
  1701. 1:09:24children obvious VI ly are not educated
  1702. 1:09:27they're in the process of receiving
  1703. 1:09:28their education um but they're certainly
  1704. 1:09:30not as educated as adult women and
  1705. 1:09:32unable to kind of differentiate culture
  1706. 1:09:34between what um they might learn in an
  1707. 1:09:36academic setting um so I was wondering
  1708. 1:09:38if you could talk more about your
  1709. 1:09:41rational for this kind of bold assertion
  1710. 1:09:43that American and European women are
  1711. 1:09:45immune to cultural promotions of gender
  1712. 1:09:48um and that how that doesn't affect
  1713. 1:09:50their choices and how their choices are
  1714. 1:09:51solely based or primarily based on
  1715. 1:09:53innate gender differences okay can I
  1716. 1:09:56answer that quickly oh I hope this is
  1717. 1:09:57quick and then I'll I promise I'll get
  1718. 1:09:59to you I American women are we're
  1719. 1:10:01constantly exposed to these roles being
  1720. 1:10:04contested and your generation has never
  1721. 1:10:08never has there been a generation was
  1722. 1:10:09more debated and and questioned and
  1723. 1:10:12different kinds of Role Models a whole
  1724. 1:10:14array so to me if a young woman comes to
  1725. 1:10:17me and says that she wants to major in
  1726. 1:10:20early childhood education and I I say
  1727. 1:10:23well have you thought about that and why
  1728. 1:10:24are you why do you want we know uh I
  1729. 1:10:27mean it's possible that she hasn't and I
  1730. 1:10:28could raise her Consciousness and she'd
  1731. 1:10:29go become a chemical engineer but I
  1732. 1:10:33suspect I'm going to credit her with
  1733. 1:10:37being part of this conversation being
  1734. 1:10:39part of this world there's no possible
  1735. 1:10:41world where we don't have influences you
  1736. 1:10:44can't set the standard for Freedom so
  1737. 1:10:46high that it means that we're all just
  1738. 1:10:48enslaved by culture I mean maybe we are
  1739. 1:10:50I'm I'm a philosopher it's perfectly
  1740. 1:10:52possible a lot of things are possible
  1741. 1:10:54metaphysically uh but not resolved so
  1742. 1:10:57this whole question of Freedom it seems
  1743. 1:10:59to me though as as a kind of soft
  1744. 1:11:02determinist we could say that in a
  1745. 1:11:04country where you have choices and where
  1746. 1:11:05you're exposed I will say you have more
  1747. 1:11:09you're more self-determining where you
  1748. 1:11:10never heard of the possibility that a
  1749. 1:11:12woman shouldn't stay home and have
  1750. 1:11:13children it never no one ever did it in
  1751. 1:11:15the history of your village that would
  1752. 1:11:17be different and it was a it was a
  1753. 1:11:19little bit like that in the United
  1754. 1:11:21States it changed so that's why I'm a
  1755. 1:11:24strong component of a lot of things that
  1756. 1:11:26we got from first and second way
  1757. 1:11:28feminism but as I said it just turns out
  1758. 1:11:31at a certain point you have to look
  1759. 1:11:33around and say so what did women do with
  1760. 1:11:36freedom that well we did a lot of things
  1761. 1:11:39but we didn't become men and it appears
  1762. 1:11:41we don't want to some of us do majority
  1763. 1:11:43don't so I take that seriously and does
  1764. 1:11:48that answer you maybe it doesn't oh and
  1765. 1:11:50I want to say one other thing I do think
  1766. 1:11:51it is partly biological I think it's
  1767. 1:11:53cultural but I think it's so so naive in
  1768. 1:11:56in gender studies where they say it's a
  1769. 1:11:58social construction I mean it seems to
  1770. 1:12:00me that's biologically naive not to know
  1771. 1:12:03about the role of of testosterone and
  1772. 1:12:07and hormones and the P play patterns
  1773. 1:12:10people say oh well children are socially
  1774. 1:12:12constructed you know by the Toys R Us
  1775. 1:12:13catalog this is blue and this is pink
  1776. 1:12:15but they've looked at uh veret monkeys
  1777. 1:12:19and and the little the female monkeys
  1778. 1:12:21will gravitate towards the dolly or the
  1779. 1:12:23plush toy and the males will go to a gas
  1780. 1:12:25or something I mean how do you explain
  1781. 1:12:27that did they didn't read the toys RS
  1782. 1:12:29catalog there's
  1783. 1:12:31something that does impel us there is
  1784. 1:12:33now I don't say biology is Destiny but
  1785. 1:12:35it's something and it's in us and and I
  1786. 1:12:41think in a is it just a subversive idea
  1787. 1:12:43but you know what I think I think in a
  1788. 1:12:46free prosperous
  1789. 1:12:48Society you can sort of go with it if
  1790. 1:12:51you have you know not everybody is a
  1791. 1:12:53girly girl but if you are there's a
  1792. 1:12:55place for you and you can or gay or any
  1793. 1:12:57you know anything on the Spectrum you
  1794. 1:12:59can do it and it seems to me we've
  1795. 1:13:01become a society now where we're very
  1796. 1:13:03disapproving of those who are
  1797. 1:13:04conventional and I just say let's
  1798. 1:13:07embrace it but but I'm not disagreeing
  1799. 1:13:09with you we should keep informing people
  1800. 1:13:11and I will tell my granddaughter about
  1801. 1:13:13Metallurgy but I don't think there's
  1802. 1:13:16there there's a chance but I I think I
  1803. 1:13:18see an English teacher there but go on
  1804. 1:13:20to clarify real fast um when you say
  1805. 1:13:22just like yes or no when you say a free
  1806. 1:13:24prosperous Society you're indicating the
  1807. 1:13:25United States right no I'm indicating
  1808. 1:13:28Sweden Australia Canada France I mean
  1809. 1:13:33even Japan and CH you po industrial
  1810. 1:13:36societies with where people have you
  1811. 1:13:38know high levels of Education life
  1812. 1:13:40expectancy all the things we would agree
  1813. 1:13:42are are Goods um you want to watch what
  1814. 1:13:44do people do I watch what people do
  1815. 1:13:48there's a there was a great article in I
  1816. 1:13:51keep talking about slate I don't know
  1817. 1:13:52why
  1818. 1:13:53but um I like K it's great actually but
  1819. 1:13:56anyway it was it was about
  1820. 1:13:58Holland the country that feminism forgot
  1821. 1:14:02and it sounds pretty good I read about
  1822. 1:14:05Holland and I was I thought oh maybe I'm
  1823. 1:14:07not gonna well I had been there and I
  1824. 1:14:09liked it but I thought oh maybe there's
  1825. 1:14:10something to miss here and it just turns
  1826. 1:14:12out the women they all work almost all
  1827. 1:14:14work
  1828. 1:14:15part-time and even those without
  1829. 1:14:17children they have a whole culture
  1830. 1:14:19around kazel making the house cozy
  1831. 1:14:22making everything kazel and they love it
  1832. 1:14:24they go with their girlfriend they're
  1833. 1:14:25teasing it's just happy little thriving
  1834. 1:14:27place I'm sure there's some Dutch
  1835. 1:14:28feminists who would disagree with me but
  1836. 1:14:30when they take polls they get very high
  1837. 1:14:32levels of happiness so I'm just and you
  1838. 1:14:34see in Sweden they have all these
  1839. 1:14:36services that American women especially
  1840. 1:14:38feminists say oh we should have all
  1841. 1:14:40these the government should do this and
  1842. 1:14:41they do it in Sweden we're ahead of
  1843. 1:14:44Sweden when it comes to women advancing
  1844. 1:14:45in in managerial positions because we
  1845. 1:14:48because we have to and we don't have but
  1846. 1:14:52I I looked at Sweden and I thought gee I
  1847. 1:14:53would like to have those things
  1848. 1:14:55but I think it would exaggerate the sex
  1849. 1:14:57difference rather than make us more the
  1850. 1:14:59same because if you give women the
  1851. 1:15:02opportunity to stay home with their kids
  1852. 1:15:04a lot of women will take it and very few
  1853. 1:15:06men will yes yeah um I'm kind of lazy I
  1854. 1:15:11didn't want to stand up and wait the
  1855. 1:15:13whole time sorry um so some some of what
  1856. 1:15:17you say is great and and I like the tone
  1857. 1:15:20you take it's it's refreshing um but do
  1858. 1:15:24you not see even when you say even when
  1859. 1:15:26you said maybe my granddaughter will be
  1860. 1:15:28a metallurgist you kind of did a shrug
  1861. 1:15:31and the P because I know her
  1862. 1:15:33face sure yeah one question you're right
  1863. 1:15:36you're right and then see that every
  1864. 1:15:38time you mention computer science and
  1865. 1:15:40I'm not blaming the audience we laughed
  1866. 1:15:42as an audience um oh the the your son
  1867. 1:15:44who did English and um we weren't
  1868. 1:15:46judging your son we just kind of laughed
  1869. 1:15:48because it's kind of funny when you ask
  1870. 1:15:50because it's different we know it's
  1871. 1:15:52different I know but when when you ask
  1872. 1:15:55we can't really explain why it's funny
  1873. 1:15:57but we're just so used to it so I think
  1874. 1:15:59that in this presentation in which you
  1875. 1:16:00used humor beautifully which I really
  1876. 1:16:03enjoyed I think that the fact that we
  1877. 1:16:05found this funny kind of shows that we
  1878. 1:16:07already do have these biases against
  1879. 1:16:10these things do you could be right it
  1880. 1:16:11could be that we know our biases or it
  1881. 1:16:13could be we know
  1882. 1:16:14ourselves and that's what I don't know
  1883. 1:16:17I'm open I'm open a point that you
  1884. 1:16:19brought up that I was glad you discussed
  1885. 1:16:21was how mainstream feminism is not
  1886. 1:16:23accommodating to women of color um um
  1887. 1:16:25and so the and you also talked about a
  1888. 1:16:27diversity of voices so I have a question
  1889. 1:16:29about which voices are heard in your
  1890. 1:16:30form of feminism um and how Freedom
  1891. 1:16:32feminism accommodates trans women or
  1892. 1:16:35disabled women or women of color so who
  1893. 1:16:37does your feminism seek to
  1894. 1:16:40empower uh mine is very separate so I'd
  1895. 1:16:43like for to answer
  1896. 1:16:46that um sure well my question is um you
  1897. 1:16:49talked about why families need uh two
  1898. 1:16:52parents and um I come from a single
  1899. 1:16:55parent household many of my friends did
  1900. 1:16:56in high school I graduate in the top 10%
  1901. 1:16:59of my high school and I just want you to
  1902. 1:17:01and before you relate it to race my
  1903. 1:17:03mother is white and before you related
  1904. 1:17:04it to socioeconomic status we're middle
  1905. 1:17:06class so I just wanted to um have you
  1906. 1:17:08explain why she was inept at raising a
  1907. 1:17:11child oh okay first of all I didn't say
  1908. 1:17:15all children I think you just better
  1909. 1:17:17look at the data before you want to go
  1910. 1:17:19around suggesting your
  1911. 1:17:22model my sister raised two kids by her
  1912. 1:17:25three kids by herself oh how I could
  1913. 1:17:27forget Vanessa like that she raised
  1914. 1:17:28three kids by herself it was hard it was
  1915. 1:17:32a challenge uh but many many mothers
  1916. 1:17:35make fantastic accommodation and they
  1917. 1:17:38they cope but overall as a policy there
  1918. 1:17:43it is is not working yes it works for
  1919. 1:17:45very gifted middle class people with
  1920. 1:17:47lots of of of social support and it
  1921. 1:17:50certainly works well for like Hollywood
  1922. 1:17:52actresses or you know having their third
  1923. 1:17:54child on their own own what it works but
  1924. 1:17:57as a policy it keeps women and children
  1925. 1:18:00poor and what you to what you said what
  1926. 1:18:03you just said is is scary to me because
  1927. 1:18:07that attitude it I see it so often and
  1928. 1:18:10and I I hear liberal and conservative uh
  1929. 1:18:14statisticians and sociologists worry
  1930. 1:18:16that we're normalizing something that
  1931. 1:18:18does not work for most most kids and and
  1932. 1:18:22c and it takes a high toll on women and
  1933. 1:18:25will keep
  1934. 1:18:26poor it it's fine and I I I I admire the
  1935. 1:18:32these mothers and in my own family I see
  1936. 1:18:34it up close but we've got to mend our
  1937. 1:18:38families it's not for in the long run do
  1938. 1:18:40you know that our families are less
  1939. 1:18:41stable than they are in Europe where
  1940. 1:18:43they don't even get married they don't
  1941. 1:18:45they mean marriage is just p in France
  1942. 1:18:48and Sweden but they stay together and
  1943. 1:18:51we're like we we're crazy about marriage
  1944. 1:18:53and people get married and they
  1945. 1:18:55split up all the time so we have to
  1946. 1:18:57figure that out I don't have an answer
  1947. 1:18:59but as a
  1948. 1:19:01policy you show me data that I'm wrong
  1949. 1:19:03and I'll reconsider but you got to look
  1950. 1:19:05at my data too okay well I would love to
  1951. 1:19:07have some links to your data um and
  1952. 1:19:10thank you for
  1953. 1:19:11answering oh yeah no of course I do want
  1954. 1:19:14it to be inclusive and um when I look
  1955. 1:19:18back at one of the I mentioned uh
  1956. 1:19:21Francis Willard who organized women to
  1957. 1:19:23get the vote
  1958. 1:19:25and the women's movement with Elizabeth
  1959. 1:19:28Katie Stanton and Susan banthony was
  1960. 1:19:29kind of an elite movement in New England
  1961. 1:19:31societies and their drawing rooms
  1962. 1:19:34Elizabeth Willard had workingclass women
  1963. 1:19:36she had chapters of of African-American
  1964. 1:19:39women Hispanic
  1965. 1:19:41women it was a a Grassroots movement
  1966. 1:19:45that went to throughout the whole
  1967. 1:19:46society and it changed the society now
  1968. 1:19:49we needed those women in New England in
  1969. 1:19:50their drawing rooms they they were
  1970. 1:19:52playing a an important role but they
  1971. 1:19:54were two streams but most women sort of
  1972. 1:19:58resonated with with a with a style of
  1973. 1:20:01feminism that was more sympathetic to to
  1974. 1:20:05Domesticity they wanted to be wives and
  1975. 1:20:07mothers and many of them wanted to be in
  1976. 1:20:09their homes they didn't want to be
  1977. 1:20:10working a lot of workingclass women were
  1978. 1:20:12afraid of the vote um because they
  1979. 1:20:16thought that it would they they wanted
  1980. 1:20:18to be feminists speak disparagingly of
  1981. 1:20:20of women in the 19th century Where
  1982. 1:20:23Angels in the house this is supposed to
  1983. 1:20:25be a bad thing it you know it wasn't the
  1984. 1:20:28women didn't think it was a bad thing
  1985. 1:20:29they wanted to be those angels they
  1986. 1:20:30wanted to be in the house they didn't
  1987. 1:20:32want to be in the fields they didn't
  1988. 1:20:33want to be in the factories it was it
  1989. 1:20:35was uh an achievement to be U taking
  1990. 1:20:39care of your own home and Francis
  1991. 1:20:42Willard understood that for what that
  1992. 1:20:44meant to women across the political
  1993. 1:20:46Spectrum across the economic spectrum so
  1994. 1:20:48I think in inclusive
  1995. 1:20:50feminism you're probably going to have
  1996. 1:20:52to allow religious women if you allow
  1997. 1:20:55religious women you're going to get a
  1998. 1:20:56lot of women of color because you do
  1999. 1:20:58find a lot of women who are you're going
  2000. 1:21:00to get Catholic women you're you it'll
  2001. 1:21:03become more diverse got to have a more
  2002. 1:21:05diverse
  2003. 1:21:10movement well I I think they're fine and
  2004. 1:21:14and here's why
  2005. 1:21:15I here's why I find it so interesting is
  2006. 1:21:19I'm reading a lot of literature
  2007. 1:21:21about transgender and I think it's going
  2008. 1:21:24to turn out to be devastating to a lot
  2009. 1:21:26of conventional feminist analysis that
  2010. 1:21:29gender is a social
  2011. 1:21:30construction because uh there are
  2012. 1:21:34children who are born and I think that
  2013. 1:21:37you're you're I think you're we're born
  2014. 1:21:39with an identity uh of our gender and we
  2015. 1:21:41want to be that gender but there's
  2016. 1:21:43different wiring in some kids it's like
  2017. 1:21:45some kids are born left-handed some kids
  2018. 1:21:47are born transgendered and they don't
  2019. 1:21:50fit the body but they have the soul of a
  2020. 1:21:53little girl they have the ation they
  2021. 1:21:55have and well I don't know what that is
  2022. 1:21:57exactly but I know it's real because I
  2023. 1:22:00had
  2024. 1:22:01it so when I talk to them what they're
  2025. 1:22:04describing is what I had I wouldn't have
  2026. 1:22:06wanted you know and it's so real to me
  2027. 1:22:09and it conforms to what I've been
  2028. 1:22:11reading so I could be wrong about this I
  2029. 1:22:14mean I'm not I know there's a there's a
  2030. 1:22:16lot of radicalism in the transgender
  2031. 1:22:18movement they might not welcome uh being
  2032. 1:22:22allied with me however it seems like I
  2033. 1:22:24have a lot of Twitter followers who are
  2034. 1:22:26trans and they're very excited they're
  2035. 1:22:28about it and happy so I'm not I'm not I
  2036. 1:22:32am at peace with that and I think it's
  2037. 1:22:34going to be helpful to for Freedom
  2038. 1:22:36feminism
  2039. 1:22:38[Applause]

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