Holly Lawford-Smith
Would the world be better if we didn’t recognise genders? In such a world, there would be males and females, but nothing associated with what it means to be male or female other than biological facts. Men and women would be equally likely to be social leaders. And there would be no stereotypically male or…
In this episode, Jonathan engages in a conversation about conservatism with political philosopher and radical feminist Holly Lawford-Smith. They do so by discussing Burke's classic text, Reflections on The Revolution in France, which they both read (Holly for the first time) in preparation for the podcast.The conversation ranges across reform versus revolution, the strengths…
University of Melbourne Associate Professor Holly Lawford-Smith says she has been slammed for defending women and now is forced to teach with a security presence outside her classrooms.“There was some serious vandalism of the university campus relating to the activist campaign – or at least we think so,” she told Sky News host Rowan…
I had been planning to spend my Semester 1 (first half of the calendar year) 2024 sabbatical as a visitor at a philosophy department in the U.S. -- a good department, with plenty of political philosophers and with a reputation for being open-minded as to libertarian and conservative positions, in a swing state. After following-up…
Sex Matters addresses a cluster of related questions that arise from the conflict of interests between rights based on sex and rights based on gender identity. Some of these questions are theoretical, including: who has the more ambitious vision for women's liberation, gender-critical feminists or proponents of gender identity? How does each understand what gender…
Holly Lawford-Smith is an Associate Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Melbourne and a gender-critical feminist. She is the target of multiple ongoing campaigns by trans rights activists, who are calling for her removal from her teaching post. Posters and stickers placed around the university by the activists claim that her feminism philosophy…
Holly reads Gloria Steinem's short essay 'Transsexualism', first published in 1977, and later republished in her book ~Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions~ (1983).
A brief explainer of the legal case Tickle v Giggle, as at 3rd June 2023.Two notes: 1) At around 00.40 I said that Tickle claims to be legally female. Thus far he has not produced evidence to substantiate this claim. 2) Close to the end of the video, I talked about Tickle's costs being…
Abstract: In the last few years, many countries have introduced (or are proposing to introduce) legislation on ‘conversion therapy’, prohibiting attempts to change or suppress sexual orientation and/or gender identity. This legislation covers ‘aversion therapy’, a form of torture that has already been criminalized in most progressive countries, and ‘talk therapy’, involving things like counselling,…
A few days before my winter intensive ‘Feminism’ begins, activists vandalize a public-facing building at the University of Melbourne, and as a result the university assigns security to my course.There are articles about it here, here, and here; and I talked about the situation on Sky News’s Outsiders programme in July.
In this week's episode, Ricky and Jon interview return guest Holly Lawford-Smith. Holly is an Associate Professor in Political Philosophy at the University of Melbourne. She is currently the target of an ongoing campaign to get her fired from teaching at Melbourne University for attending Kellie-Jay Keen's Let Women Speak tour and publishing books critical…
An academic has lodged a formal complaint against the University of Melbourne alleging it failed to prove a safe workplace after she became a target of transgender activists, says Sky News host Rita Panahi.Ms Panahi discussed the issue with Associate Professor of Philosophy Dr Holly Lawford-Smith.
Holly Lawford-Smith is an Associate Professor in Political Philosophy at the University of Melbourne, and the author of two books, Gender-Critical Feminism and Sex Matters. In this conversation, we discuss the roots of Gender-Critical Feminism, the theory of gender as a social construct and gender as an identity, how all this potentially conflicts with women's…
