When The Free Press decided to rent a theater with 1,600 seats for our first-ever live debate a few months ago, most people looked at us with a mixture of pity and concern. We would have to fill all 1,600 seats. The theater we’d booked in L.A.—not exactly a city known for its culture of public debates—was smack in the middle of downtown, where after-hours can look a little bit like San Francisco during the day. To make matters worse, we had only managed to get the place on a Wednesday night.
We did it anyway. And we sold out every seat in the house.
People came from all over: Vancouver, Seattle, New York, Nevada, Montana. Someone drove a retrofitted school bus from SF to hold an after-party for whoever wanted to come. There were three young priests who drove many miles to see the action, and at least one porn star who took a flight.
Also in attendance: libertarian frat bros in suits; e-girls with Elf Bars; trad boys who wondered aloud if the concession popcorn had seed oil; dads who had to run out to check in with the babysitter; actors from your favorite TV shows; comedians you’ve never heard of; writers you love to hate; angry Catholics; resigned atheists; closeted Trump voters; Mormons saving themselves for marriage; young gay couples in crop tops; feminists; anti-feminists; and a whole lot of podcasters.
The point is: that night, we got a sense of how diverse this community is, and holy shit, was it exciting. We learned that The FP isn’t just a newsletter and that Honestly isn’t just a podcast. We have built a community of curious people.
And most importantly, we learned that debate isn’t dead.
So for today’s episode, we wanted to share the full debate from that evening for those of you who couldn’t be in the theater. The proposition was this: has the sexual revolution failed?
With the hindsight that comes with half a century, four brilliant women—Sarah Haider, Grimes, Anna Khachiyan, and Louise Perry—debated whether the movement that promised women sexual equality and liberation has fulfilled its promises, or whether it has failed women. . . and maybe men too? Listen and decide for yourself.
Special and huge thanks to FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, without whom this event would never have been possible. If you care about free speech, and if you believe that it’s worth defending, FIRE is an organization that should be on your radar.
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The premise of whether the sexual revolution has failed is not a good one. The discussion went to the real question - what were the negative consequences of the sexual revolution and should we be concerned?
The two ladies representing 'Yes' were far more cogent and made many excellent points. The two ladies defending 'No', and Bari as well, were much less convincing and often defaulted to absurdity assuming the other side were proposing extreme and repressive things.
For example, Bari saying a woman in Iran was executed for showing her hair - how can we go back to that? That was intellectually pathetic and shallow. Perhaps the puritans had *some* views similar to Muslim theocratic states, but the sexual revolution happened in the 1950's and 60's and not the 1650's. The norms they were combatting were not execution for showing your ankles or hair.
As a listener in the grandmother generation, my main take is that anyone who thinks women don't have more agency now than they did 50 years ago is nuts. While I enjoyed listening, I do think the speakers were largely inarticulate, academic, and whiny. Too much victimhood.