It’s not surprising marriage and a child catalyzed Mary Harrington into a rich observer of the human condition. Her experience shows it’s dangerous to encourage delayed family formation because that connects people to reality.
Slowly accepting her body’s uniquely female capacities and consequently undergoing a philosophical makeover formed Harrington into a hopeful representative of escaping the sexual revolution’s house of horrors. Her inaugural book, “Feminism Against Progress,” seeks to reduce the kind of casualties she almost became. “Like many kinds of revolution,” she says, “losing my faith happened slowly, then all at once.”
It’s a gentle effort that will speak to the millions brutalized by the social Marxist war against both sexes. She’s so persuasive, her book release has been the target of the usual cancellation attempts.
Yet Harrington’s new anthropology also appears incomplete. She’s a feminist mugged by reality, but not reality-checked enough to stop supporting feminism, at least in name. That’s important because names ought to describe reality. They can be more or less accurate, and inaccuracy creates grave problems.
Will Harrington halt her reorientation toward reality before she’s reached it in full? This book, at least, records her at such a pause. Thankfully for readers, this journey is worth joining her on.
Mary Harrington Against Progress That Isn’t
Harrington’s voice is abloom. She of course has a Substack, plus writes at UnHerd and First Things. The Brit blends a thoughtful, conversational style with an interesting combination of left and right political views. That makes her
