Talking Philosophy with Bob Goodin The case against retweets, what’s wrong with the War on Terror, equality in light of difference, and more. Holly Lawford-Smith 11 Jul 2024 · 8 min read
What Heterodox Feminism Is Not It's not enough to be a dissenter: it also matters what you are dissenting from and what you're getting out of it. Holly Lawford-Smith 25 Jun 2024 · 9 min read
What Does It Mean for Something to Be Socially Constructed? There are at least three things that people might mean by ‘socially constructed’: that something is social, rather than natural; contextual, rather than universal; or that its importance has been inflated. Holly Lawford-Smith 27 May 2024 · 7 min read
Double Standards in the Gender Debate Butler’s latest book is leftist political propaganda masquerading as the dispassionate work of an academic. Holly Lawford-Smith 12 Apr 2024 · 13 min read
Is G Flip A Woman? If we siphon off all female diversity into categories like 'non-binary' we narrow the idea of what it means to be a woman. Holly Lawford-Smith 20 Mar 2024 · 7 min read
Not Everyone Who Disagrees with You Is An ‘Uncle Tom’ No one has an obligation to express, or refrain from expressing, a particular view, merely because they are part of a minority group. Holly Lawford-Smith 4 Mar 2024 · 11 min read
Is Sanity Returning to the Australian Gender Debate? There have been numerous incidents of vociferous trans activism in Tasmania, yet it was still possible to pass sensible legislation. Holly Lawford-Smith 21 Jan 2024 · 6 min read
How Australian Law Pushes Vulnerable Women Towards Hiring Male Carers The law prioritises a man’s sense of his identity over women’s safety, bodily integrity, privacy, dignity, and comfort. Holly Lawford-Smith 2 Jan 2024 · 9 min read
The Heckler’s Veto and the Right to Free Association It's not just a matter of weighing up one group’s free speech against another group’s counter-speech. It’s also about one group’s freedom of association being impeded. Holly Lawford-Smith 27 Nov 2023 · 8 min read
Trans Identity and the Right to Exist This is substance metaphysics for the twenty-first century. Holly Lawford-Smith 6 Oct 2023 · 10 min read
Sex Discrimination Without Sex Sex, according to the Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner, means almost nothing at all. Holly Lawford-Smith 15 Sep 2023 · 10 min read
Oppressed or Oppressor? Quillette Cetera Episode 16 Debating feminist philosopher Holly Lawford-Smith Zoe Booth / Holly Lawford-Smith 7 Sep 2023 · 1 min read
On Political Hatred On everything from Syrian refugees through Brexit and climate change to so-called gender-affirmative medicine, people take a totalizing approach to disagreement: either you agree with me, or you are despicable. Holly Lawford-Smith 24 Aug 2023 · 7 min read
What Even Is ‘Trans’? A new book on gender leaves no space for gender non-conformity that is not defined as 'trans' Holly Lawford-Smith 26 Jun 2023 · 7 min read
Campus Speech and Compromised Safety As universities try desperately to serve two masters (knowledge production; diversity and inclusion), they will increasingly end up sanctioning speech that should be protected. Holly Lawford-Smith 31 May 2023 · 9 min read