Earlier last week, the American Enterprise Institute uploaded clips of a conversation between feminists Christina Hoff Sommers and Camille Paglia as they discuss the problems they see with feminism as it stands today. The videos belong to a web series called "Viewpoint," in which scholars discuss their perspectives in Modern America.
Factual feminist Christina Hoff Sommers became an idol for many gamers in recent months due to her involvement in the #GamerGate phenomenon, which has evolved beyond claims of sexism in video games and has turned into a rather bitter, contentious stand-off between the gamers and a legion of third-wave feminists. Using her web show "The Factual Feminist" as a medium to talk about the issue, Sommers defended gamers and their games as a community that is lively and open-minded, much different than how feminist dissidents like Anita Sarkeesian had been painting them. Despite never playing video games herself, Sommers' reasonable disposition towards the gamers has led to her being heralded by the gaming community as "Based Mom," a title she approves of since she said she is "a mom, and being 'based' means being authentic, genuine, no-nonsense and cool."
Sommers keeps up to date and talks to the gamers through her Twitter @CHSommers, which has 113,000 followers, many of them gamers themselves. There she introduced many to Camille Paglia, a feminist baby boomer and daughter of Italian immigrants, and professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she has taught for the past four decades.
My interview with Based Goddess Camille Paglia coming within the hour. Not to be missed. pic.twitter.com/dp3a5d3SkV
— Christina H. Sommers (@CHSommers) June">https://twitter.com/CHSommers/status/7449897328794... 20, 2016
"Based Goddess" is a nickname from the gaming community for Paglia, which she knew nothing about until this week.
Not all of the topics revolve around #GamerGate, however. In the videos below, there are a wide range of topics like the regressive attitudes contemporary feminism possesses, the infantilization of women through "Safe Spaces" and "Trigger Warnings," the persistence of male-bashing in public schools and the appropriation of intersectional feminism by middle-class white females.
The first video is Based Mom and Based Goddess discussing their history of advocating feminism, and giving their thoughts on contemporary feminism, noting what went wrong. Watch it below here:
Watch Based Mom and Based Goddess discuss #GamerGate:
Watch Based Mom and Based Goddess discuss Trigger Warnings and Overprotecting Students:
Watch Based Mom and Based Goddess discuss intersectional feminism and "safe spaces:"
Watch Based Mom and Based Goddess discuss the Fight for Student Liberties:
