Toxic Feminism

Send a text

https://www.bookclues.com

Feminism is supposed to make women safer, freer, and happier. So why does it so often leave behind loneliness, rivalry, collapsed families, and a constant need to prove we’re “enough”? I sit down with Dr. Carrie Gress, PhD, scholar at the Institute for Human Ecology at The Catholic University of America and author of “Something Wicked: Why Feminism Can’t Be Fused With Christianity,” to name the parts of the story we’re usually told to ignore. We go past slogans and into the worldview, because ideas don’t just change laws, they change what we think a woman is for.

We trace feminism’s intellectual history from Mary Wollstonecraft through Simone de Beauvoir and into the second wave, asking whether the movement was “broken from the beginning” and whether women’s legitimate social gains could have happened without feminism at all. Along the way, Carrie shares a vivid metaphor from the book’s cover art, a Robert Duncanson painting that looks serene until you realize it may be encoded with a hidden map, a reminder that experts can misread what’s right in front of them. That’s exactly how toxic feminism can operate: compassionate language on top, corrosive assumptions underneath.

We also talk about the real-world fallout: sexual autonomy as a supposed cure for vulnerability, abortion as the mechanism that keeps autonomy possible, and what happens to a civilization when monogamy and motherhood are treated as optional. Then we pivot to hope and rebuilding: John Paul II’s clarity about women and men, the difference between vulnerability and victimhood, why “local love” matters, and practical first steps for women who want something healthier than the girlboss script.

If you’re wrestling with Christianity and feminism, Catholic teaching on womanhood, the sexual revolution, or what a pro-family future could look like, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who will argue back, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Check out Dr Carrie Gress. https://theologyofhome.com/