In October, Daum sat down with Reason’s Nick Gillespie to discuss generational warfare, the proper role of a writer in society, and why in the end she’s (at least a little bit) optimistic for the future of American political discourse.
Reason: Your book is a critique of fourth-wave feminism. What does that mean and what’s your beef with it?
Daum: I would describe fourth-wave feminism as something social media-based. It has to do with expressions of empowerment and solidarity in terms of memes and hashtags. I started noticing it maybe around 2014, early 2015. It coincided with the issues that were coming up around sexual assault policies on college campuses. But a lot of it was rooted in this idea that we’re going to complain a lot about men and punch up at men.
Who’s “we,” Kemosabe?
These are young women—women in their 20s, women in high school. But a lot of older women and middle-aged women are glomming on to this the way one does if you want to stay with the times. I consider myself a feminist. I have always been a feminist. I’m a liberal—[though] increasingly I’m informed that I am not. But what troubled and interested me was that I had grown up alongside second-wave feminism.
This story is from the February 2020 edition of Reason magazine.
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This story is from the February 2020 edition of Reason magazine.
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