Coddling is not empathy
What about a 'shared horizon of liberation' between men and women? Plus, 'anti-anti-cheating contrarians,' cathartic tweets, a parenting zine, and more in the weekend roundup.
I’m thinking of writing a little something about sex and desire and the body, post-election. I wonder: Where are you at on all those fronts? Reply to this email or share anonymously here. I’d love to hear from you.
To the links…
I can’t bring myself to link to it, but there continues to be post-election rhetoric blaming feminism and calling for women to empathize with men—both “disaffected” Trump voters and Harris supporters who, it is implied, we should be afraid of losing if we don’t cheer them on enough. In my interview this week with Sophie Lewis, she pointed out that some of this is decidedly coddling and patronizing, as opposed to empathetic (see: that piece last week calling on women to thank men who voted for Kamala Harris). As she put it, the implication is “that there is no shared horizon of liberation between men and women, and that somehow we need to hand out brownie points for the basic expression of political decency.”