Is academic philosophy a "safe space" for women? | FACTUAL FEMINIST

Some claim that philosophy departments are a hostile place for women. The Factual Feminist, a former philosophy professor, checks the facts!
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[@Sines314]

"Philosophers" "Hypermasculine" BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[@hazardousjazzgasm129]

As a phil major myself, I laugh along with you

[@zarkoff45]

Friedrich Nietzsche, "What does not kill me, makes me stronger." "In heaven all the interesting people are missing." "Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." "The overman...Who has organized the chaos of his passions, given style to his character, and become creative. Aware of life's terrors, he affirms life without resentment."

[@EmperorNero]

Now, obviously Philosophers are often very argumentative, that is honestly the only "male" trait I see.

[@Tsunkuotaku]

women aren't argumentative? I must be traveling in the wrong circles. Can you introduce me to your friends?

[@EmperorNero]

Tsunkuotaku That is why I put it in air quotes.

[@TrueThanny]

Whenever I see a person use terms like "hypermasculine", I'm always supercareful to remain ultraskeptical of everything else that person is saying, since it's almost always a megaload of BS.

[@VestinVestin]

Shibboleths.

[@m8272m]

It used to be a good way of conveying a general feeling but as with all words, overuse dilutes the meaning. Especially when included in all standard issue propaganda.

[@VeritasEtAequitas]

It's just more newspeak. Doubleplus ungood newspeak at that!

[@DoomRulz]

"Some claim philosophy departments are harmful to women". Serious question: what *isn't* being considered to harmful to women these days?

[@fenrir607]

Abortion?

[@mak450]

The idea that they're all victims of things...ironic isn't it? Far as I can tell it's just that and...kale?

[@noreexic]

that's the great irony, more female foetuses are aborted

[@KaleSerpent]

Yes?

[@hankrearden5460]

Syrian Refugees? If you ask a SJW

[@humrH2360]

Funny how Haslinger is blissfully unaware that she is describing herself more than she is others.

[@anthonyjgreene]

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” I get the feeling she flunked the first lesson, and has been faking it ever since.

[@kkallebb]

Maybe she needs to focus on the topic of self-deception.

[@camolotthe42]

I especially like the "combative and judgmental" line about philosophy. Projection much?

[@KibbyCreekwood]

TELL 'EM MOM!

[@shaungibson4527]

You are the reason I have to distinguish between feminists and third-wave feminists

[@jayraskin]

I have a Ph.D. in Philosophy and am currently an adjunct philosophy teacher at a community college. Twenty years ago, a Gender feminist tried to prevent me from getting my Ph.D. in college. My crime was demanding in an ancient Philosophy course that she actually teach Ancient philosophy. For the first two weeks I sat quietly as she spent all the time talking about the Women's conferences and the fabulous women she had met and the drinks they had together and what they were wearing, the Lesbian movies they saw and the jokes they told, most of which concerned how stupid men were. In the third week, I had the audacity to ask that she actually teach Ancient philosophy since that was the course I signed up for. She branded me a troublemaker and did her best to destroy my academic career. Only after a great deal of struggle and sacrifice was I able to get my degree. I did not realize it at the time as I thought along with Socrates that all evil was done from ignorance, but I was a victim of the man-hating Gender feminist ideology. When I found an academic position at another university, Gender feminists took over the department while I was there, and basically made my life hell (I was forced to teach 350 students a semester without any assistants -- forcing me to work 12 hours a day for seven days a weeks) I was then criticized because my ratings from my students were low. They achieved their goal and my contract was not renewed after five years. It was a relief to get out of there. I have been adjunct teaching at a pay of $20,000 a year ever since. They have severely hurt not only my life, but the life of my wife and daughter. I do not know if Academic philosophy is a safe space for women, but I know that Gender feminists have made Academic philosophy a very unsafe space for men.

[@TytonidaeBingo]

I'm a female. I took a philosophy course in college. It focused on metaphysics: Descartes, Hume, Berkeley, Spinoza, Kant, etc. It was influential on my intellectual journey during college, but it just didn't interest me as much as history/sociology, so I didn't take more classes in it. There was no patriarchy stopping me. In fact, the professor was a female PhD candidate. So I had the "role model" and everything. 3rd wave feminists are trying to make people interested in subjects they just don't care about. It's stupid, and a huge waste of resources.

[@breanaperrin933]

The first time I read Plato, I was astounded by how well he understood the HUMAN experience. Not the male experience. Though I would be one of the first to point to the lack of educational resources for women throughout most of Western civilization's history as an explanation for the lack of published female Platos, Machiavellis, and de Toquevilles, I never saw philosophy (or, more accurately for my interests, political philosophy) as a space that was unwelcome for women. Instead I saw many different brilliant minds trying to grapple with the great questions of humanity. Feminists of today miss out on so much by narrowing the scope of their focus - instead of focusing on giving everyone equal opportunities, as our predecessors did, they instead focus on minutia and microaggressions. In the classic sense, I am a feminist, but in today's world, I call myself a humanist.

[@stephenpowstinger733]

The Greeks did have their views of sexual roles in society - but that did not mean that any given Ancient Greek thinker felt the same way.

[@stellario82]

Dear Christina, I studied philosophy in Rome, and I have never found the kind of emotional nonsense it seems to be so common in America nowadays. Thank you for your words, your intellectual honesty and your factual-based analysis, so needed right now.

[@canadianthought]

Philosophy grad here. Thank goodness for your steady voice in this storm of emotional ad hoc nonsense! Keep it up, based mom!

[@NecxZhor9]

Honestly, I dont think debate can really win this. It can win the unaware over to your side but at some point you're just going to collide with the fact that this isnt going to be defeated by reason. Because they dont accept reason

[@DKPaladinX]

I, sadly, agree (" ._.)7

[@JimGiant]

A few years ago I would have thought the place where debate and reason is most likely to win would be a philosophy department.

[@tonyfava2944]

well when the philosophy is ignore things that don't agree with you

[@dasaunmcclinton68]

We need to take back the education system. I'm in high school and it essentially indoctrination. They train students to be modern feminist. They don't present them with challenging or thought provoking pieces, they spoon feed them a world view and convert them into hostile liberals. Conservatives, moderates, and libertarians are no where to be seen. The only way to win this fight is to get involved more with the school system.

[@txdmsk]

It's nice to see and hear Christina, as always.

[@myautobiographyafanfic1413]

Wait, so you're talking about institutionalized suppression of masculinity? Even by their terms isn't that sexist? Well anyway if they hate philosophy so much why do they want to study it? It's about discussion and argumentation. Funnily enough it's about hearing the other side, and questioning things; something else they despise.

[@DemonEyeXGamer]

you meant "hate" not "had" right?

[@myautobiographyafanfic1413]

DemonEyeX thanks.

[@DemonEyeXGamer]

My Autobiography A Fanfic NP.

[@EmperorNero]

Why do you think they want to kill it then?

[@theworldofnexttuesday2802]

It wouldn't be sexist by their definition. Sexism = prejudice + power. Once they the power within philosophy, they just move the goalposts so that they are still the victims of sexism on a grander scale, such as academia in general. Once they dominate all academia, men still have the invisible power outside academia. Eventually, if unstopped, they will reach a point which is outside play by claiming that men oppress women because of overrepresentation in history, and from there they can dredge it out until feminists have ruled people for half of human history. Power is whatever the intersectional lens needs it to mean. But, you know, that's supposed to be a logical fallacy. Not that that's ever gotten in the way of intersectional feminist sophistry. But here in real people land, we know that this kind of nonsense is the most overt sexism to happen in damn near 50 years, if not more.

[@InnocenceExperience]

I love Christina Hoff Sommers. What an absolutely top quality, incredible woman. Super smart, very sane, and completely fair minded. Unlike third wave feminists, she is living proof that women can be something that men can absolutely admire and respect intellectually.

[@kerimarion9537]

InnocenceExperience why should women seek the intellectual admiration and respect of men (as a goal)?

[@Muting_all_advice]

I've got a Philosophy BA and continue to read Philosophy in my own time. I've studied other subjects and have arguments with people who have degrees in other subjects. What has struck me most about arguments between philosophers is how well-mannered and reasonable they are compared with practitioners and students of other subjects. In fact, this is an intrinsic part of philosophy: calm, rational debate without emotional/personal attacks or fear of being called unkind simply by pointing out the flaws in one's opponents' arguments. Anyone who can't take rigorous deconstruction and objective criticism of their ideas is the opposite of a philosopher-the point is to find truth, wherever it exists. This, I guess, makes feminists the opposite of philosophers. Feminist philosophy is a contradiction in terms. Anyway, I find most men I argue with are poor at philosophical argument too, often falling back on logical fallacies, over-simplifying naturally complex ideas, and getting their feelings hurt. I'm not denigrating men, just pointing out that while women are a minority of philosophers, philosophers are a minority of people. To those women who find philosophy too argumentative: you've missed half point of philosophy.

[@deovision]

Quality. KZbin at it's most valuable. Thank you so much

[@52ndtimelord42]

May I ask, when did we go back to feudal Europe, where women were considered 'delicate flowers' that needed to be protected? The funny thing is though they want the freedom of being unprotected, but none of the responsibility. Why are we breeding and raising spineless, childish, emotionally driven people? I learned something today, my Meyer Briggs personality, INTP, has decreased in commonality, 5% in the '80s, which is already rare, to 3%, humanity has grown since then, but I would hope that logical minds would grow with it, or at least stay at the same ratio. I'm done, good luck with the Brave New World, with 2017 becoming 1984.

[@Krissam2k]

Women became delicate flowers when they had cried for 150 years to be treated as equals only to realize that being treated like a man sucks.

[@liamhalliday8437]

I've always felt it odd that feminism, which traditionally was empowering when women genuinely had fewer rights than men, is now dis-empowering women by arguing women should be treated as these delicate creatures. Woman are every bit as capable and cunning as men in my experience, and they deserve to be treated equally. The pursuit of equal outcome over equal opportunities is, to me, the main difference between progressivism and liberalism.

[@amandagarcia2848]

Hey! A fellow INTP! I'm not exactly sure why many people of today are so emotional. Most people don't use critical thinking, which may have something to do with it. I don't think that children are taught critical thinking at school, at least not in the USA. Critical thinking is essential to our survival as a species and is something we as a species seem to be lacking.

[@52ndtimelord42]

Amanda Garcia I have an ongoing bet with an acquaintance of mine on how long we will survive, I got 500$ on 210 years

[@amandagarcia2848]

The 52nd Timelord I don't think we will survive past this century unless we get our act together. I don't think that will happen though. Too many people would find it difficult.

[@Lieutenant_Dude]

Because unlike the other humanities, philosophy establishes rules of engagement and debunks bullshit that violates those rules.

[@actionfx1]

I love you Dr. Sommers!!! Thank you so much for all you do and for being a voice of reason in these convoluted times.

[@aesthetewithoutacause3981]

Thank you! Finally a voice of reason in all this. I don't have any experience university yet but I'm the only girl in my philosophy class in high school, and I have never once felt judged for anything but my ideas. Preach it based mom!

[@CelinaCyprian]

I agree so much with this lady! I am pursuing my MA in philosophy and I see many intelligent girls who are given the same opportunities as their male classmates yet they are just not that interested in philosophy.

[@kimchi_taco]

she tells truth. I'm glad to see some women are rational.

[@AG-lc5mn]

Love you so much! This is very true. As a female philosophy student, I've never felt put off by other people to study philosophy. It just seems to me that females are not that interested in it.

[@Epyrian04]

It's just a breath of fresh air to see a feminist speak using logic and facts for once. You're awesome, ma'am.

[@biostemm]

Great to see this segment's return, Dr. Hoff Sommers. Here's to many more!

[@everynameiwantedwastoolong6887]

anita sarkeesian is the one dislike

[@BrentJohn]

The fifth one is probably Dan Olsen or Jenny McDermott.

[@briandonovan1584]

Once in a while I check on crazy Jenny's delusional videos and troll her. Then I get replies like "But you're watching, you know she's right ..." Etc.. Its hysterical busting her balls about her 300 views compared to Bearing or Sargon picking up over 100,000 views in less than 24 hours.

[@briandonovan1584]

***** That's precisely my point.

[@briandonovan1584]

***** Well, they take logic and turn it upside down and backward. They base their own doctrine on nothing but radical feminist rhetoric and propaganda. They have no logic.

[@zobazoba69]

If philosophy is taken by the feminist agenda, it's the end of academia all together. Philosophy and reason are the starting point of science and has built our civilisation. Being a sociology student, I am always impressed by people who have studied philosophy because they seem to be the only ones I know that can arise from dogma and ideology, by reason. In sociology, some people think everything is ideology and therefore, it cannot be criticized. I think otherwise. If it were the case, social change would be impossible, yet it is a well known fact. The same goes with deviant behaviour and marginality. This is empirical proof that human beings have the faculty to rise above and take things in perspective, Cassirer said that we were symbolic animals, but we are also rational animals, and without it we would still live in an unending loop of primitive mythical signification. PS: ask a marxist where class consciousness comes from and he will have a hard time explaining it.

[@emeralddimus3052]

This is how much I love this woman - I have not seen more than two seconds of this video and I have already liked it.

[@TheAutisticWerewolf]

I took Asian Philosophy, Anthropology, Sociology and Ethics & Western Philosophy. It's a field of interest that to anyone who loves deep thinking and non exclusive debate can enjoy. I enjoyed hearing the thoughts others in presentations. The Woman whom dominated a large portion of these classes were brilliant and equally impressive to that of my male classmates. Philosophy is not for any specific gender. It's for those with manners, class, and a deep mind that can see between the lines.

[@Cobalt360Degrees]

You see this over and over again, and yet no one even bats an eye anymore or considers the consequences of calling some field an 'unsafe space' for women. You can't at once complain about how few women are in a given field, and also use all this melodramatic rhetoric and buzz words and fearmongering tactics. What the hell do they expect? You're not going to get more scientists and philosophers and engineers if you keep telling them boogeyman stories. I'm in the fine arts, where 90% of the student body is female, but at least 80% of the teaching staff is male. Does that make it unsafe for me to learn? NO. Do I have old male teachers tell me I don't have what it takes to be an artist because I'm female? NOOOO. But you wouldn't know that, with the way some of my classmates talk. I'm easily more concerned and on edge around my more radical peers than I have EVER been around my male professor who has been here for thirty years.

[@Juniorfunny24]

the factual feminist is my safe space

[@mushm.1312]

I'm so glad you exist, Mrs. Hoff Sommers. So very glad.

[@mattgilbert7347]

i remember that article about naming 5 female philosophers. I named quite a few, including Christina Hoff Sommers (with the qualifier that she no longer teaches, as far as I know)

[@Liranisse]

I am a woman studying philosophy at a very prestigious and conservative university. While I disagree with the points presented by „feminists“ (probably intersectionals) I find philosophy as a whole to be VERY hostile towards women. In the entire master class, there is no literature written by women included in the program. The people enrolled are typically white men from a good socioeconomical background who talk over me and the other like 2 women studying there all the time. When I asked my prof why we only read literature written by men he said „women just aren’t involved in philosophy“ although it’s evident they were and are, we just don’t read their stuff. It’s the reason I wanted to switch to English.

[@deanwehland2901]

I really enjoy these, Christina. Thanks for making me think. ☺

[@Yergs]

As always a civilised reasoned presentatation without histrionics or acrimony. Thanks

[@adrianaratsch-rivera7561]

Your point is well taken and I agree with most of it. I am in the field of music and as an undergraduate when I asked if there were any women composers, my professor said, "Yes, but they were not as good as men". I walked out in disgust, to the amusement of my more obedient, trying-to-get-a-good-grade classmates. We had to memorize music by the main composers and had a list of totally unknown male composers and that's what bothered me. Philosophically speaking, it is not the objection of mainstream male philosophers that's at stake, but the ignoring of any female philosopher in history per se. Same in music. So, that you can perfectly identify with all male philosophers being a female seems to some women like treason. If women never have any female role model in an underrepresented field like philosophy or music history/composition, or neuro science and math, it is because traditionally, women only had a certain amount of power in the US by becoming K-12 teachers; and because of lack of support getting a decent paying job in those fields does not earn enough; unless one goes for a teminal degree; which is many times expensive, and so time consuming that the prospect of having a mate and a child gets slimmer and slimmer, especially if one comes from a not-so-rich in academic degrees or money family. So it is not so much "interest" by itself that women are less represented, but the reality that doing anything worth while in those fields probably gets silenced to death by those who rule the historical and contemporary playing field and agenda. I made a discovery in music history and had zero support from any male in the field which was interpreted as professional jealousy by by friends, in fact, many plagerized my ideas covertly. The only professors that supported me were or right after retired. I did get an outstanding thesis award calling my research extraordinary, but that did not open any doors. It went the same avenue as many, the library owns it, peers, all men, silence it to death. So to make a strong point here: It's about inclusion and not pointing out that one had this or that body part/organ. Yet swimming against the stream makes us stronger. Therefore, being happy that all male philosophy became your own is not helping, unless you can convince and promise that one or two of your books/ideas/treaties about human nature and existence on earth becomes the property of any man as well as woman.

[@BaresarkSlayne]

I had no idea this was a thing. Thank you for letting me know. I just don't understand this drive to literally make women pursue careers they are not interested in. It's just annoying how these people act, like small children. "Oh, look at how mean everyone must be because there aren't a lot of people like me". Institutional suppression looks a lot like forcing people to pursue career paths they aren't interested in clearly. Look at it this way too. If there was a field that wasn't scaring women away it was philosophy. 29% of undergrad philosophy degrees are obtained by women, and 28% of that 29% go onto get a PhD. Shit, STEM wishes they had such a good statistic. It just seems to boil down to social planning via statistics... it's just a stupid and bad idea. This woman does prove one thing though: Having a PhD doesn't mean you are intelligent or thoughtful.

[@courtneybarger8599]

Late to the video but, as a philosophy student hoping to become a philosophy professor, I do think sexism still exists within philosophy. I mean look at this comment section - there are numerous people saying that women can't or don't have the capacity to reason and logic. With reason and logic being principal foundations of philosophy, it's hard to feel completely accepted when being told you, as a woman, don't have the ability to compete in the playing field of philosophy. This is amplified by papers written within ancient and academic philosophy that repeat these same sentiments towards women.

[@cchris874]

I'm sure that it does. I'm sure sexism still exists almost everywhere to some extent. I don't think that's her point though. The question is, how much does this account for women being less represented in philosophy? We really need to rid society of every last vestige of sexism. But KZbin is hardly representative of the population. Not only is it much more male than female, it thrives on making a complete mockery of women and feminism. At least that's been my experience. So I would be concerned but not overly alarmed by what you read on here. Unmoderated forums bring out the worst features of human nature.

[@OMEGATHENIETZCHIAN]

I know this is anecdotal but it may shed some light: I was one of the few male sociology majors at Guelph University. I filled my electives with philosophy (2 credits off from a minor) because I was interested in social theory (Life got in the way). My favourite philosophy electives (I took 6 of them) were taught by a professor who focused on my favourite author Friedrich Nietzsche. This professor never truly gave a lecture. What he did, at the start of each course, was assign chapters to us. We would read our sections and then WE would teach the class for our allotted day on our allotted chapter. I did this both alone (a sociology major teaching 3rd and 4th year philosophy majors about philosophy) and in groups. I aced these presentations so often that in later classes the prof encouraged people to group with me by telling them it was a guaranteed A. It worked. I ended up paired with 2 women, one a major in philosophy the other pursuing a minor. They were brilliant, insightful and very well organized but on the day of the presentation they sat at the prof's desk at the front of the room while i stood up in front of the class. They hunched their shoulders and hid behind their computer screen while I gave our presentation. The prof and I knew each other pretty well and I could tell he was thinking "what the hell?" So I invited the girls to speak, encouraged them to stand up and give their opinions. They refused. It was my only B+ in that course. Why? Because it was the Shawn show and not a group show.

[@comkaosstime]

thank you very much for all your videos you are fantastic

[@pameladelarosa3059]

I would love to see a video explaining all the movements of feminism from you!

[@IsomerMashups]

Thank you for these videos... they help restore my faith in humanity.

[@junelawson5719]

It's part of this stupid thing where they want everything to be "feminine"; Emphasis on collaboration and feelings, rather than emphasis on competition, critique, and truth. This not only seeks to destroy all masculine spaces and thus, in effect, alienate people who are masculine (Which is, ironically, not intrinsically related to being male), but is also incredibly impractical. In reality, there are benefits and drawbacks to both femininity and masculinity. Femininity encourages compassion, which is useful unless it fosters dependency, and collaboration, which can be more effective than individual work in many cases; However, it can also encourage excessive emotion and emotive, insubstantial dialogue. Masculinity encourages competition, and thus drives personal development and improvement of concepts and designs; However, it can also cause excessive aggression and poor interpersonal relationships. In general, a syncretic approach is ideal, as both styles have their merits, but in some cases, one is clearly better than the other; In clinical psychology, which seeks to help people with mental problems, feminine compassion and understanding of emotion are more useful, while in psychology, which seeks to determine truth, masculine competition and critique excel. This is not because of sexism, but practicality, and is thus the ideal state. This sort of gynocentric drive to make everything feminine ultimately only serves to make things less effective and to oppress masculine people, who tend to be men.

[@TimTeatro]

I was touched when you said that you felt like Russell's _History of Western Philosophy_ was written for you. I'm not sure why, but it was heartwarming. Perhaps because I felt similarly to Feynman's lectures in physics in my younger formative years.

[@WrathMania32]

I love all your videos, but thank you especially for doing this one. Philosophy is a key way out of the current ideological cul-de-sac western culture has written itself into; but relativism and its concomitants in feminism and identity politics have severely poisoned it. This needs to be exposed.

[@generalGwok]

Nice to see you back doing these videos again.

[@TheRealXartaX]

Haven't seen you in a while

[@MrLexxBomb]

I think she has been doing university tours, giving talks (and actually listening to people instead of just lecturing at them)

[@ttttttttp2]

+Bevin Warren Probably listening to people cry about how shes wrong without giving evidence. Like that jiggleypuff girl

[@rondowar]

the people who disagree with her don't cry at her.. they scream, shout, throw tantrums, etc, only after she's gone will they gather in the safe place and cry trick question: am I describing a toddler or a modern feminist? :P

[@koverpy426]

What a disrespectful comment to toddlers this is.

[@marissalutz8]

all these videos have validated my feelings about current feminism and how most of it is detrimental to the work that has been done in recent history. i am in the philosophy and psychology department, however, i am struggling to find a voice because i am afraid of the backlash of those who don't wish to hear alternative or opposing viewpoints. especially in my women's studies course! its just sad to see the state of academia and its trajectory into an overly sensitive future.

[@nparksntx]

I may not always agreed with Ayn Rand, but I think she's the top female philosopher to have lived. I think she hated feminism though.

[@ramusn.6394]

I really think this episode shows something quite interesting, there is no such as biased fields, but biased people, we tend to attend to our biases, even on career choices, a inherit show of interest is important to highlight. Thank you again Mrs.Sommers, your videos are always delightful.

[@AlexSmith-gr4hp]

This was a very rigorous analysis of philosophy, which I have just learnt means it was hyper-masculine. Lol.

[@trumpwonhereistheevidenced4390]

What a terrifying series of events. I value logic above all else. Watching these people literally throw it away is horrifying. I don't know how to argue with my feelings so I'll never be on equal footing with them (thank god).

[@barrygormley3986]

Academia is not, nor should it be regarded, as the sole vehicle for Philosophy in society. Particularly not in the age of the Internet. If things keep going the way they're going, I foresee people are serious about Philosophy abandoning the classroom for the modern day agora that is videos and podcasts.

[@FireAirand]

always love your videos!

[@SlyNine]

Oh, welcome BACK!

[@JoeyJ0J0]

"hostile to women " means not feminist enough

[@pameladelarosa3059]

As a graduated philosophy student (B.A.) and feminist, I must say I felt VERY safe choosing this major. For as far as I could tell all of my professors and fellow students were such bright and open minded individuals that I often times completely forgot about any of our genders (honestly!). But thats the purpose of philosophy, among many, and that is why I love it.

[@jhl3653]

As a male philosopher (yep, teaching undergrads), this makes me very, very upset.... These ridiculous third-wave feminists are going to be the ruin of all that was once great about university-level learning.... I wonder if all this nonsense is making parents think twice about sending their children to college. What a waste of time and money it turns out to be for so many, even at the most "elite" institutions.... Makes me want to puke.

[@zur9165]

I remember taking a course on postmodern ethics and I had to read an article on feminist epistemology. In short, reason is masculine and intuition is feminine, therefore, philosophy has a sexist bent and we need to make intuition more of a thing. Now while I do think that intuition is a form of knowing, I do think reason is normative. Honestly philosophy, done well, is a beautiful thing. They're dragging it through the mud. P.S. Isn't it sexist to say that all women are more intuitive than reasonable? Ayyy... P.P.S. I studied History and Religious Studies for undergraduate and I am now pursuing a Master in Divinity. So uh, I'm sure I have a bias somewhere.

[@SnakesGames]

I'm just waiting for a new episode of this series by watching previous ones.

[@VladimirTheAesthete]

0:41 - "You Can't Name Five Women in Philosophy". Oh, really?: Linda Zagzebski Patricia Churchland Susan Haack Mary Wollstonecraft Emilie du Chatelet What do I win?

[@TheOrdener]

My experience as a philosophy student was that the focus was on the ideas, not the people. There was very little argumentation between students. We were just trying to understand the professors. :)

[@xjuhox]

The new academic discipline is *Women's logic*

[@amerasian1123]

My mom gave me Bertrand Russell's "History of Western Philosophy" my senior year too, as a graduation gift.

[@Solcollector1]

I'm a dual major in Molecular bio and Psych. So far, in all of the classes put together, there are about 7-8 dudes including myself.

[@skaduskitai8721]

I think this 'new feminism' or whatever it's called has a bad influence on academia by trying to replace real science and scholarship with their victimology. And they have a bad influence on women (and men) by teaching them to be professional victims instead of learning real science and history or other useful skills. I see alot of women being good at all kinds of stuff, music, science, you name it. And that is because they have been educated or have educated themselves real skills and knowledge, which is always admirable. Teaching spoiled rich kids, because it seems to be an explicitly middle or upper class phenomena, how to go around and pretend that they are so terribly oppressed when they are the least oppressed group in the history of mankind, is not admirable. To us less fortunate who happen to be or know real victims of abuse or mental illness or bullying or discrimination or even occassionally actual misogony it's actually pretty insulting to hear about some rich kid being a 'victim' of 'manspreading' and similar nonsense.

[@krdoug82]

I would love to hear about the Factual Feminist's take on women in combat roles. Dr. Sommers' book, "Freedom Feminism," spent a lot of time explaining the defeat of the sex equality amendment to the US constitution, which became unpopular in the face of the expectation that women could be drafted into war. Now women can volunteer to go into combat. What's your take Dr. Sommers?

[@namelessone302]

This was a beautiful rebuttal by the factual feminist. Philosophy is one of humanity's greatest accomplishments and should never be stifled by modern sociological rhetoric.

[@paulajessop1218]

Hi Christina. I find your videos very interesting and agree with most of what you have to say. There's only one thing which I wonder about and that is the differences occurring in how we are taught in different countries at university. I had a Women's and Gender Studies major while studying in NZ. I began my degree in 1999. I was very much taught most of the types of statistics and material you are discussing. Our lecturers often did not use textbooks as such and I do consider we were taught both sides of most issues most of the time. None of what you discuss in your videos is new to me as it's all the types of issues we were discussing as students in Women's Studies. Neither did we have any of this carry on about 'safe spaces' on campus and all of that type of thing. I'm fascinated to hear of the behaviour of young feminists in American universities. Never seen any of that type of behaviour here in NZ at all.

[@amandagarcia2848]

Do you think one of the few things that are holding women back is because men in society are not seen to be caretakers? Maybe the one main thing we need to change is that men are allowed to "womens" work like housework, caregiving, etc. If men are also allowed to be caregivers at home, women will now have more freedom to choose more demanding jobs.

[@presa609]

Wow! After working the family Farm while attending college and Law School ; I never expected that my marginally educated sisters would overnight mom out of town after Dad died in order to inherit said dirty farm. They had found out it had oil and kept the fact from me. Then they produced fraudulent letters saying that I did not want the farm I had worked all my life for. They beat me, a lawyer! Now the farm lies fallow as sisters enjoy Las Vegas money. No manufacturing jobs for veterans, no solar/wind refrigeration. Just Gravy.

[@blah7983]

I either have a conservative teacher or someone conservative influencing our curriculum because we read Harrison Bergeron(and watched 2081), talked about when books should and shouldn't be censored ( we read Tom Sawyer which one teacher in our grade didn't like because there was 2-3 pages where Tom was racist and used the N word.), and read Anthem by Ayn Rand, accompanied by a debate concerning the pros and cons of objectivism/individualism that probably had some quality responses for both sides.

[@Anonymous__-uo6zq]

I received a PhD in Anthropology in 2017. Since then, I have applied to over 100 positions. I guess you can say I am lucky in that I have a position at all now. After graduation, I was rejected from every permanent position i applied for. I was offered a two year postdoc contract. so I took it. When that contract was ending, I applied to another 30 positions or so all over the world. I was again rejected from every single permanent position I applied for. I was however, yet again offered another two year postdoc contract at a different university on another continent. So sold my house, packed a couple of suitcases and moved abroad. Next, as that contract ended, I applied for another 40 or so positions. Yet again.... rejected from every single permanent position I applied for. and yet again, managed to snag one offer, a third two year postdoc at another university. So i once again packed up and moved across the ocean again to another part of the United States. I am now finishing that contract and on the market yet again. Over the past years, I have applied for over 1000 permanent jobs in my field and have been rejected for every one. I am not applying above my level, as I have a PhD and have established a name for myself and my research at an international level. But hiring in academia is absolutely absurd now. the presenter here is correct, in university settings, women absolutely have a great advantage for education and employment. For example, when applying to positions, I will research the department I applying to. Without fail, the departmental faculty has a majority of females. Which is fine by me, as the student body in my field tends to slant more towards females. But the problem lies in the hiring practices. Though departments are already skewed towards women, in nearly every job listing, you can find the sentence "Women are strongly encouraged to apply". The job market for all young academics is brutal now. No one is fairing well. But of the colleagues I know who graduated near the same time I did, literally 100% of them that have secured positions in universities are women. Not a single male colleague of mine from my cohort has secured a permanent position. I understand the value of feminist movements, and I acknowledge that there is pervasive sexism against women in various parts of American society. But I think we may have passed equality and the pendulum has swung the other way in some cases. When women were less likely to go to college due to social constraints and generally sexist systems, it was important to specifically promote women to give them the opportunities men had. It was necessary to intervene with regulations, funding, etc. to help equalize things, in my opinion. But now, we wont take our foot off the gas. We still are giving those same advantages to women in educational contexts that were necessary to even things, even though they now have the majority. Can we not now just not give either sex an advantage? It was wrong when men were prioritized in education and employment at the expense of women, and it is wrong that now women are prioritized in the same fashion. It seems it is no longer about equality, its about retribution.

[@happybird4942]

6:50 is spot on. You read Bertrand Russel's book and loved it. That's it. Who on earth reads it and thinks, "zomg the author is a different gender than me. This is a problem". Who on earth thinks that of any book or presented idea.

[@bv7920]

Love your videos!

[@Lieutenant_Dude]

VET MED!!! GO US!!! I am one of 15 men in my 100 student class in vet med. Go figure.

[@GReesor]

If I may make the observation, the question shown "Name Five Women in Philosophy. Bet You Can't." is just as valid as a question that I've posed more than once in other venues. "Name three of the most recent Nobel Prize winners." Nobody could, but they sure could name the starting lineup of the New York Yankees or the Dallas Cowboys or the cast of Big Bang Theory. That's not a problem for women, it's a problem for society, when intelligentsia is either ignored or derided as being "less than", somehow, where the "big kill" industries of sports, acting, and popular culture are well known and celebrated. 1:27 I'd just like to say that Philosophy (from my understanding) IS competitive and combative. Philosophy requires the debate and discussion of ideas and ideals. Not everyone will have the same viewpoint. That doesn't make it "hypermasculine", though, which you already addressed.

[@bookoflists]

It's good to have an articulate voice to criticise the pretty influential dogmas of feminism. I've only listened to a couple of videos. All good, except the focus, that I've seen, is almost entirely critical (leads me to wonder how the channel's name is justified). I think you should spend more of each talk outlining a positive feminist agenda. So the 'facts' are wrong or overly selective - where are the alternative facts? Are you an (f)actual feminist? What does a good feminist argument look like to you?

[@CheshireAndAliceee]

I have not yet entered university. With a Facebook friend count of 171, I am the only person who makes statuses relating to philosophy. The only person who likes these statuses, is a girl. In senior year of high school, 3 of us would regularly discuss philosophy in Literature. Me, a boy and another girl. In year 10 I had one girl friend I would have deep long philosophical conversations with. Just some personal statistics for ya. In my life experience, philosophy is female dominated, because all I think is, where are the philosophers? Men or women! When I attend university, I won't be worrying about the ratio, I'll just be glad I'll have some people to talk about interesting things with!

[@Lvl22Cowboy]

love you, mom. Keep it up. Sad how Haslinger is most likely describing herself more than any other woman

[@thinkingthoughts6079]

Thank you for being The Factual Feminist.

[@fastenbulbous]

This type of thinking will inevitably lead to high unemployment rates for men. Female dominated fields go unquestioned, while male dominated fields are enforcing gender quotas and heavily favouring women when hiring. How can they not see this as a problem? Have they given the implications of their ideas a moment's thought?

[@kentse3455]

Thank you for this series of video. Nicely done.

[@visualbrain5810]

Women are probably more skilled than men when it comes to collective intelligence, so it is more difficult to pick up a single name Conversely, men are better at individual competition, so it is easier to identify a champion.

[@thel33tpenguinftw40]

"Yes let us have more girls waste their time with a useless degree!" This seems to go against the interests of women

[@LegendaryAbysss]

Philosophy is also a major that leads nowhere unless you pursue graduate level education, which most people do not pursue in general.

[@TheLordmep]

I'm not all that interested in philosophy, but it just seems like this is yet another front of the feminist war on men in schools.

[@DeliaCore]

I doubt that women are somehow biologically predisposed to be more likely to not enjoy philosophy. It's more likely that subtle social trends and the more benign gender roles tend to guide American women towards certain interests. This can obviously be fixed by trying to actively appeal to women but provided there is not a hostile environment for women, I see no reason philosophy majors at colleges need to reorient themselves to cater to a specific group that for completely unrelated societal reasons are less likely to be interested in the subject in the first place.

[@Psity]

From the top of my head, naming women Philosophers (Warning, I am Mexican): Melanie Klein, Anna Freud, Simone de Beuvoir, Mary Shelly, Marie Curie, Frida Kalho, Hermelinda Galindo , Julieta Kristeva, Karen Straughan, Alison Tieman, Erin Pizzey, Julieta Ortiz de Dominguez, Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz, Christina Hoff Summers, Dr. Janice Fiamengo. This people only pray on their own ignorance. 

[@janicefiamengo993]

So the bias against men in the field of Philosophy is concerning mainly because it might scare women away from pursuing philosophy. Yes, I can see that.

[@LarrySanger]

Well done, Dr. Sommers!

[@EissoPost]

I think in the Netherlands philosophy is very much a feminist/SJW thing. I meet quite some people, especially women, who study or studied philosophy and use all kinds of sophistry to prove feminism is right, the whole world is 'gender fluid' etc. The tragic thing is that they are very often nice, kind, but horribly misled people. By the way, the same goes for the Arts Academy, I don't know why.

[@The1stMachinist]

Thank you. Love you.

[@tryforthesky2224]

As a woman who loves philosophy, I am horrified by the shameful conduct of these women who are obsessed with some notion of identity over truth. I was always welcome and challenged (and challenging!) in my university philosophy courses, and I'm embarrassed to think that when people who fail at philosophy (or any other endeavour) happen to be women, they're now encouraged to express "rage" and try to tear down the system and high standards--rather than improve themselves and the quality of their own reasoning. I think these women's actions are (ironically) demeaning to women everywhere.

[@Darkshizumaru]

I always loved philosophy in college. I wanted to pursue writing instead. Aside from writing being my major, I was also put off by the price of going for such a degree. As a woman, I find that false feminist hookum about being oppressed and pushed out very insulting. If someone really had told me to get out of my philosophy club because I was a woman... it would have been a fight, also weird as well since our professor was also a woman. I wont and never have allowed myself to be called a feminist because of these crazies. You are one of the few who make it not look such a horrible victim-cult. I despise the idea of being even slightly associated with those third wave crybullies. It seems to me... that these people are suffering from some sever paranoia as well as a complete failure to understand social interactions. It would be sad, if they were not actually believed and taken as representing the rest of women. We need a way to show these organizations that when third wave feminists tell people we're just internalized misogynists it is an outright fallacy. We need to take back representation of our own gender somehow. I feel high jacked by these clowns and it sickens me that men are going to be pushed out of their pursuits and women forced in for nothing more then the "vibes" a small group of loud circular logic wielding sexists calling themselves feminists had. I love your work Christina, this video was at least entertaining as it sugared the pill of how terrible things are getting on campus. ~

[@scdobserver835]

welcome back, based mum! once again you aced it, logically and indeed factually...

[@ChernobylPizza]

Bracing for the accusations of sexism in chess.

[@kurtcostigan6625]

Their approach in antithetical to the concept of philosophy itself.