229. Women, Vengeance and Cancel Culture

Nancy and Sarah talk about “The Great Feminization,” a Compact essay that’s stirred the hornet’s nest of social media. The recent story, by Helen Andrews, argues that many recent cultural shifts — cancel culture, wokeness, safetyism — can be explained by the influence of women, who tend to prioritize empathy over rationality and cohesion over competition. Is it true? Is it offensive? Let’s discuss!

Also discussed:

• Compliment sandwiches

• Twelve-year-old Nancy gets piled on by the older girls at camp

• Dreamy Argentinian boys causing trouble

• Spilling to a journalist = tattling to the teacher?

• “Math is hard”

• Male bosses versus female bosses

• Mean-girl behavior

• “I think” versus “I feel”

• Am I allowed to get an orange soda?

• Nancy equates cancel culture with communism; Sarah says, WTF?

• No adults in the room

• What is a “meta-textual performance? Is it a puppet show?

• “Misogynist howlers”

Plus, a true-crime documentary that exposes surveillance culture, Nancy on the chef whose recipes actually work — and more!

Thank you to Andrew Wimsatt, who snatched our video from the jaws of defeat. It’s one battle after another with technology around here! As penance for being later than we’d like, please accept an image of the homemade lasagna Nancy is making, more on that in the hot box