The New Girl Disorder | City Journal
The demographic makeup of the university demonstrations was something new for the United States. American women have led political protests before, but those generally concerned women s issues, such as Prohibition, abortion, #MeToo, and the like. Granted, women marched with men in the 1960s civil rights and anti Vietnam War protests, but they usually played secondary roles, such as cooking food, typing speeches, and sometimes serving as playmates; The only position of women in SNCC is prone, in the memorable words of Stokely Carmichael. (Recognizing their second-class status among otherwise progressive male comrades motivated activist women of the era to start building the second-wave feminist movement.) Decades later, at Occupy Wall Street, a male protester produced a Tumblr video featuring photos of some of the comelier females sitting in at Zuccotti Park. He called it Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street. Those days are over. Imagine publicizing a Hot Chicks of the Campus Encampments video in 2024; the writer would have to go into a witness-protection program.
The vibe has shifted and not for a reason that the Ayatollah would celebrate: women are all but conquering the twenty-first-century academy. They not only make up well over half of undergrads and graduate students on university campuses; they also hold half of all professor positions, as well as six out of eight Ivy League presidencies and more than a third of college presidencies overall. Younger women who came of age in the new millennium have been thoroughly prepped for leadership as valedictorians, debate-club and student-council presidents, and Rhodes, Marshall, and Truman Scholars. If the protests offer further evidence for the dimming of patriarchy, they also show how women s growing dominance in social institutions introduces new and ambiguous power dynamics.
It’s true. The vibe has truly shifted. Seems to be shifting markedly leftward, and based on overheard conversations of faculty members, I’d say towards an utterly unapologetic sexism. It’s ok to be sexist now, as long as you’re against men, especially white men, but all men are game. It’s a good time to be getting out of the academic biz, especially if you’re a man.
I hardly know how to advise my sons. Don’t go into academics and don’t go into anything political are two pieces of advice. Tech will be male dominated for a while yet however. So there’s that.