Why Are We Afraid of Flounces and Frills?

An excerpt from Fashion | Sense: On Philosophy and Fashion

Why do most philosophers hate clothes—or rather, hate fashion? The majority rule seems to be to treat the outer surface with either ritual formality or complete derision, as if the less you comb your hair the closer you are to truth....

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Why Are We Afraid of Flounces and Frills?

The Philosophy of Ripped Jeans

An interview with Gwenda-lin Grewal about her new book on the intersection of philosophy and fashion

Fashion is always threatening to undermine autonomy but also always presenting you with the opportunity of taking it back. That is what’s lost when you say fashion is just for shallow people, it’s only about appearances, or that it doesn’t have anything to do with reality. I think quite the ...
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The Philosophy of Ripped Jeans

Mikhail Gorbachev

Past Present Podcast, Episode 341

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Former leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev has died. We reflected on the slew of essays in U.S. publications remembering Gorbachev through a mostly positive light. Neil mentioned Saturday Night Live’s frequent send-ups of Gorbachev.   In our regular closing feature, ...
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Mikhail Gorbachev

Good Jewish Boys Gone Bad

Did the sexual monstrosity of Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein have cultural roots?

Harvey Weinstein—like Jeffrey Epstein—was the product not of a liberated sexuality gone haywire but of a liberated sexuality that passed them by when it mattered most. ...

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Good Jewish Boys Gone Bad

When Fascism Is Female

In Europe, right-wing feminism is on the rise—and nationalist women are taking power

This fascist “fire” that Meloni references and kindles is burning throughout Europe, and she is not alone in tending to its flames....

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When Fascism Is Female

There Can Be No Nonviolence in Human Gestation

Feminist scholar Sophie Lewis talks to Natasha Lennard about reproductive freedom and why we can embrace abortion as a form of killing

Even if all the people who currently “mother” in society were suddenly magically treated with respect by courts and medical doctors, left alone by cops and social workers, supported and assisted to become parents, and lavished with strings-free checks courtesy of the state, it would still be necessary to deprivatize ...
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There Can Be No Nonviolence in Human Gestation

The Grassroots Fight for Legal Abortion Has Always Been Bipartisan

The cross-party effort in Kansas has a long precedent begun in the 1960s by New York Republican Constance E. Cook

New York became the second state to legalize abortion (the first was Hawai’i), and the only state that lacked a residency requirement. Within two years over 200,000 women poured into the state for safe, legal abortions. And by setting a standard of 24 weeks, New York’s law influenced the ruling ...
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The Grassroots Fight for Legal Abortion Has Always Been Bipartisan

Reimagining Nature—The High Line Experiment

How plant design preserved the High Line for a city craving natural space

Meandering around the gardens, it is easy to imagine the trees, shrubs, and ferns just sprouting between the rusty tracks. In reality, it takes a lot of effort from the gardening team, working behind the scenes, to maintain the pastoral ambience. ...

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Reimagining Nature—The High Line Experiment

Burning Cities

The Natural History of Destruction examines the European bombing campaigns of WWII with provocative disregard for convention

Part of the film’s thrill is its boldness in posing these ethical questions through sound and imagery. He makes them come alive through his fictionalizing interventions into the archival material, with the extensive foley work and the assemblage of disparate material. It is, dare I say it, entertaining. Destruction is ...
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Burning Cities