“I couldn’t be myself,” or words to that effect: It was written in pencil on a piece of scrap foolscap I found amongst my father‘s papers after he died in 1982. He wrote that sentiment in 1977 when he was working on his memoir. My father’s name was Jim Higgins, and his book is called Fighting for Democracy: a Canadian Activist in Spain’s Civil War. It was not published until 2020.
Queer theory sees the concepts of sex – male and female – and gender – masculine and feminine- as oppressive. The main objective of queer theory is to subvert these concepts and to break them down. Rejecting the possibility of there being a knowable objective reality, queer theory asserts that language creates the categories, enforces them, and scripts people into them. The boundaries are arbitrary and oppressive according to queer theory. These boundaries can be blurred into apparent absurdity and thus erased.
In these times, leftists who espouse free speech are like wanderers in the wilderness. The political sands may be swirling so intensely that they are unable to see clearly, but the desert is actually filled with like-minded wanderers, each mistakenly thinking they are alone.
That is why it is all the more important to discover and support a site like Redline. Redline is a blog collective in New Zealand that combines original content with a carefully chosen selection of re-posted articles.
The content on Redline reinforces a consistent editorial line centered on class, worker rights and feminism, grounded in the materialism of the traditional left and on the principle of free speech.
In this episode, Sasha is joined by Harriet Fraad, feminist activist, psychotherapist and hypnotherapist, for a discussion on feminism and class. They talk about how class needs to be at the basis for all social justice activism, her thoughts on the failures and successes of the 2nd wave, debates within feminism like trans activism, Gloria Steinem and the corporate and government sabotage of feminism and the racial equality movement, and the destructive mindset feminists should avoid if they want to be successful in the movement.
In this episode, Lisa Marchiano joins me to talk about her new book Motherhood: Facing and Finding Yourself. Lisa Marchiano is a Jungian analyst, author, and podcaster. She is the cohost and creator of the podcast This Jungian Life. We discuss how motherhood has been devalued in our society, how Lisa addresses the fear many women have of being "chained down" by motherhood, and how she uses fairy tales in her book to illustrate lessons that women can learn about themselves through motherhood.
In this episode Sasha and M.K make a special announcement and look back over some of our favorite past episodes of Identity Crisis.
In this episode, Sasha and M.K. discuss the recent Billie Eilish music video in which the pop-star adopted a newly sexual personal. They talk about the commercialization of women's bodies and the pointlessness of movements like Slut Walk and the push for sexual "empowerment" AKA self-objectification.
In this episode, I am joined by Nehanda, an artist and feminist who decided to speak out against gender identity ideology after witnessing the policing of women's language online by gender activists. We chat about Nehanda's music journey, what got her into rap originally, and how standing up for women is her main driving force.
For women, whether or not to call yourself a “feminist” has been a hotly-debated issue. Men have long pushed back against progress by branding any woman who resists patriarchy as a feminist — a word hurled often like a slur from the mouths of misogynists.
In. this episode, we have a conversation about why we do or not consider ourselves feminists. From victimhood to group based identity, we discuss several issues within feminist ideology as well as the value of taking on labels at all.