Besieged

How conservative is The American Scene? Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry writes in Will Wilkinson wants more people to be more like Will Wilkinson:

I don’t know about anyone else, but ever since I got married, I think a lot about women, and the role women play in society. Because of my wife, of course, but most importantly, because of the daughters I will one day (inch’Allah) have.

Every time I think about women, or “women’s issues”, I think about my daughters.

We lived for centuries in a world where technology and culture limited women’s possibilities. But sadly today, in the West, the most limiting factor in women’s economic fortunes is women themselves. For example, women without children have the same salaries as their male counterparts.

The idea that my daughters might, for just one second in their life, think that their potential is less than that of a man, that their horizons might be limited, fills me with a mixture of pain, sadness and fury.

Shirky’s post addresses this by calling on women to level the playing field with men. What I liked most about it is that it’s pragmatic. It doesn’t put forward a grand theory of gender backed by partial studies in neurology or genetics or psychology or cognition or astrology. It simply draws simple lessons from everyday observations: women don’t do nearly as much as men to advance themselves, and they should. EDIT: Nor does Shirky claim that this would solve all the problems women face in the workplace. But it’s a good starting place.

And he concludes:

So yes, actually, women need to man up. You don’t show up with a knife for a gunfight.

And I intend to equip my daughters with rocket launchers.

Women have the same potential as men, and should behave like men in order to realize that potential.

Contrast with recente discussions at WWWTW and The Thinking Housewife.

I had been taking a look at The American Scene from time to time because Daniel Larison was a contributor in the past, and the website was supposed to be a place for voices of an alternate conservatism. Alas it turns out the conservatism of many of its contributors is not much different from what mainstream Republicans believe.

So few are the voices that defend a more traditional view of the relations between men and women (and the authority of the husband in the familiy) that one can become easily dismayed. What sort of reaction will radical feminism provoke in the future, if the government continues to enforce it as an ideology of justice?

What exactly do you have in mind?

Over at The American Scene, one of the contributors writes:

The question, of course, is where we go from here. I’m with Hymowitz’ critics in recognizing that there was a reason we threw out the chivalric code, and if that were our only alternative, awkwardness would be a small price to pay. But I don’t think it is the only alternative. Creating a new code of etiquette would eliminate the guessing game for nice guys and allow for the punishment of the pseudo-nice-guy brutes who emulate pickup-artist behavior because they claim it’s the only way they can get women’s attention.

A lot of liberals seem to view any social code as intentional or unintentional discrimination in disguise, which is an attitude I don’t necessarily share. But given just how lost the “nice boys” seem to be, I wish people would give just a little more consideration to creating a new, egalitarian social code, instead of assuming that awkwardness is a necessary consequence of equality. The alternative is watching variations on this xkcd strip get reused year after year, each time provoking a wistful sigh from thousands of nerds who think they’re unlucky in love but are actually just timid.

How can you have egalitarianism without assuming that men and women are exactly the same? The author does not discuss female misbehavior and exaggerated expectations, and the social consequences of these, either. Another sign that TAS just isn't traditional or conservative enough.

Kay Hymowitz's original piece: Love in the Time of Darwinism. I can understand the harsh reaction against Will Wilkinson. 'Nuff said.

Patrick Deneen takes Jim Manzi to task

No Prob; Manzi's post at The American Scene: Peak Oil Hysteria

I think even though their number may be small, the ants will become increasingly resentful of the grasshoppers, and if things get bad, the grasshoppers won't be asking nicely for food and help. And the ants will be responding in kind.

The Ant and the Grasshopper. Aesop. 1909-14. Fables. The Harvard ...

Edit: Mr. Manzi responds here.

The American Scene is back

Mr. Daniel Larison is now a member of the revamped American Scene. I discovered the group blog only after it had been shut down, so I don't know much about its quality, but the new version should be promising. Where does Mr. Larison find time to do his own blog and contribute to two others?