Mary Harrington: Family Formation in the 2020s

“The long-term problem there is that if your feminism becomes associated with anti-natalism, sooner or later it’s going to trigger a backlash, and that backlash is not going to look very nice for women.”

On May 13th, Mary Harrington joined Merion West editor Erich Prince to discuss, in particular, her recent work at UnHerd addressing family and gender, along with a more general conversation about her worldview. Having written a number of widely-discussed recent pieces at UnHerd but also at First Things and Plough, Ms. Harrington is establishing herself as an influential voice on cultural issues, including on issues affecting both women and men. In this conversation, Ms. Harrington and Mr. Prince discuss a recent piece of hers on masculinity, declining birth rates in the United States and Europe, and the idea of embracing obligations and limits, including how this pertains to family formation.

Mary, I took a look at a number of your recent pieces, and there were two that jumped out in particular. One was last month at UnHerd about “the virtues of masculinity.” You’re talking about this “insufferable rooster.” Apparently, he’s running amok and being very, I think you said, “obnoxious.” Then you have this telling line, and I quote, “but for men whose personalities tend toward aggression, protectiveness, competition, and stoicism, what honorable roles are left?”

This is something one hears from a number of voices in today’s discourse: this idea of roles for men such as these potentially disappearing. And you allude—in the piece—to what some of the consequences of that might be.