Sex-Realist Feminism

It's my favorite kind.

In advance of tomorrow’s essay on feminism, I am posting this First Things essay from my friend Erika Bachiochi explaining what she calls “Sex-Realist Feminism.” Erika has really been the trailblazer of this entire movement, and her thinking on this subject is at once nuanced, historically informed, and morally serious. She is probably the main reason why I do sometimes call myself a “feminist” now, though in youth I would have indignantly rejected the term, and for many years I have mostly declined to say whether the label fits or not. There are lots of bad flavors of feminism, but I think hers is pretty good.

In this piece, she argues in favor of sex discrimination law, as a just and appropriate corrective to historical error and injustice. I’m aware of course that many conservatives have serious objections to this body of law, believing that it undermines freedom of association and (at least in many cases) prevents people from drawing appropriate distinctions between men and women. I don’t really take a position on the legal debate; I’m insufficiently qualified. But I do think that Erika’s philosophical approach to the relevant questions is very sound, and very Aristotelian. She thinks–and I find her case persuasive–that early feminists like Mary Wollstonecraft were interested first and foremost in removing obstacles to women’s proper moral development, which had diminished their capacity to be good wives, mothers, and citizens. They wanted to correct errors in their societies’ view of the nature of woman, so that women could be more virtuous, more loving, and better able to thrive. They weren’t after an empty, self-seeking autonomy, nor looking to escape serious responsibilities.

Later feminists did exhibit many of those faults. Erika would like to correct those errors by returning to a feminism more rooted in truth. Once again, it seems to me that she’s on a promising track.

At this point she’s pulled together a pretty good collection of people who have been thinking about these same questions in very interesting ways. Many fruitful conversations have flowed from these starting points. I don’t know if I’m a “feminist” full stop, but I think I am a “sex-realist feminist.”