The Fiamengo File

It’s difficult to assess the prevalence of the Clancy phenomenon, in which a female-dominated consensus, sentimental and vicious, formed swiftly around the alleged suffering and humanity of a woman who killed her three children in a premeditated act.

Following her death last Wednesday at age 92, Gloria Steinem has been described as “a woman who mattered,” “a feminist icon,” and even “the personification of the women’s movement.” Here, I look at some of Steinem’s early essays (1962-82) outlining her views. Steinem gained national attention for her writing in the same year, 1963, that Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, which allegedly unveiled the miseries of women trapped in suburban domesticity.

The only thing more striking than the adulation that has erupted in response to Lindsay Clancy’s admitted killing of her three children has been the torrent of anger and suspicion poured out against then-husband Patrick Clancy. I can’t think of a single example, recent or historical, in which a bereaved mother, her children dead at her ex-husband’s hand, has been subject to anything other than profound sympathy.

Hundreds of pink-toned supporters gather to cry, make speeches, and show their love for confessed child-murderer Lindsay Clancy The headlines are standard: “Women in pink rally in support of Lindsay Clancy who is on trial for killing 3 children,’” “America’s saddest murder trial: mental health in focus in Lindsay Clancy case,” “Lindsay Clancy’s trial shows how badly the system fails mothers,” and “Everyone Failed Lindsay Clancy.” The headlines look away from the actual victims in the case:...

What feminism has wrought: enraged women in love with themselves and an idea of victimhood [This is a slightly revised excerpt from the Foreword to my new book, published today by New English Review Press, The Goddess That Failed: Feminism’s Unending War Against Men, Families, and Civilization Itself] Feminism poses a threat to everything good in western culture, perhaps especially to women’s capacity to love, reason, and exercise self-restraint.

Feminist politicians urge more government funding to oppose the antifeminist “manosphere” It’s difficult to be surprised by last month’s Report of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, entitled “Confronting Antifeminist Ideologies in Canada”—but it is nonetheless remarkable that such tone-deaf anti-male pap continues to preoccupy the Canadian federal government. The Standing Committee on the Status of Women is the bureaucratic arm of Canada’s radical feminist movement.

With apologies to Bettina Arndt, who has written more and better on this topic than I ever could Over the past decade, studies and related articles have gushed about the connection between male domesticity and a satisfying sex life. The more housework a man does, we are told, the more and better sex he can hope for in his relationship. “Fair division of household chores can help your sex life,” trumpeted the CBC, Canada’s state-sanctioned and funded media outlet. It’s difficult to believe.

Virgie Tovar, an activist for fat acceptance, was hired by the San Francisco Department of Public Health in late 2024 to advise the department on weight bias. Some feminists want to see more fat women in movies, advertising, and on the fashion runway. Writing for Vox magazine in late 2023, culture correspondent Constance Grady expressed her dismay at Hollywood’s embrace of Ozempic and other weight loss drugs.

Marching in pussy hats, baring their breasts to save the earth, fighting with ICE agents, declaring themselves “nasty,” feminist women today are self-evidently the least contented and most rancorous women in America, preoccupied with victimhood, consumed by the politics of despair, and experiencing higher rates of depression (and corresponding anti-depressant use) than non-feminist women.

The smoldering gaze of anti-male exterminationist Valerie Solanas, played by Lili Taylor, is designed to make the feminists swoon Feminists’ excuse for their anti-male hatred has always been disingenuous. When women hate men, feminists claim, it merely hurts men’s feelings. Men’s hatred of women, on the other hand, can be lethal. When men hate women, they kill them. This would be nonsense even if men were the only sex that kills. Hatred has many damaging effects aside from bloodshed.