Defense Of The Sexual Revolution Debate

Bari Weiss put four women on stage in a sold-out theater downtown. So what's everyone complaining about?

The core of this debate is nondebatable. Unarguably, the sexual revolution brought lasting and profound transformation. The era ushered in radical change and challenged age-old norms to liberate women from narrowly carved societal roles. Taboos were shattered. The idea of pursuing personal freedoms - from a feminist standpoint - took center stage. The movement served as a cultural earthquake that sought to redefine ideals of love, desire, power and intimacy while juggling all the loaded contradictions that came with it.

Decades later, now that the dust has settled, the sexual revolution leaves behind complex and conflicting views wedged between equitable successes framed by modern expectations and haunting failures we still hesitate to acknowledge.

The question raised last Wednesday night, “are women happier post-revolution?”demanded honest reflection.

If you ask the liberal-leaning journalists in attendance, they'll tell you the event was a “meandering” disaster. In several articles, the event was framed as a bumbling failure in recaps meant to undermine the efforts, intellect, and intentions behind the four women participating. After all, that's what they have been trained to do: take offense when anything punches back at a predictably progressive script, exactly what The Free Press is guilty of.

These journalists, powered by the expectations of their outlets, seemed bothered that the lineup was not stocked with liberal puppets regurgitating PC lingo to explain or expand their points.

Bari Weiss is deemed a "cultural disruptor" for lighting a match on mainstream news. Anna Khachiyan is seen in Instagram squares shooting guns in the desert with Alex Jones. Louise Perry wants everyone to stop being "so weird" and listen to their grandmothers more. Grimes is strategically procreating with the wealthiest man in the world (who openly denounces Biden and pronouns), so collectively, three out of the four women are precisely what Angelenos reactively condemn.

But, I’m here to tell you, I had a blast and so did the grip of women I brought along with me to examine the event from varying perspectives (seen in videos below).

We all left the debate wanting to rehash everything presented. So why the sharp criticism? Bringing back the art of dialogue and discussion should be applauded. Five women packed a theater to debate a topic that has altered the landscape of human relationships and is, in many ways, still underwhelming and/or failing us. They even employed a bell timer to signal the talking limit on each response. I’m sorry, but give me all the 70s intellectual groundwork displayed by this kind of ringside brainiac bullfighting.

Below is a scattered recap + video conversations divided into three segments detailing the event (pre-show, afterparty show and morning after recap) + photos + notes + quips for those interested but couldn't make the debate—hopefully one of many to come.

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Penthouse InHabit

After two harrowing days battling refashioned hate on the internet after an unjust suspension, timing rewarded me with an email from Instagram informing me my account was reinstated, right when I was pulling up to the Ace Hotel last Wednesday. The team at Instagram apologized for the suspension and let me know their review showed no proof of any violations. This kind of elation manifested into fancy champagne indulges at noon.

I wanted to house a pre-debate cocktail hour, so I secured a suite up top and invited everyone over. Max occupancy is 10, but naturally we managed more.

Note: The protest signs are not etched with groundbreaking sentiments. More to amuse ourselves. I trust in time we’ll get better at our expressions.

Sidenote: From a sweeping city view surrounded by handsome skyscrapers one might almost forget what a grim turnoff downtown LA has become.

Sidenote: How amazing does everyone dressed up look?

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Preshow Podcast:

We sat down during our cocktail party to discuss debate expectations, Instagram suspensions, cult leader qualifications AND put out a brief hotel fire courtesy of highly flammable pom-poms purchased on Amazon.

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Scenes From Celebratory Greetings After Another IG Takedown

+ the “hot priests” who kindly posed for us in photos used as proof that even God is interested in New Age feminist combat.

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Tim Dillon

Was brash. Unhinged. Uncensored. Roaringly hilarious.

I had no idea who Tim was prior to this event (my friends will smack me for admitting this out loud) but I’m now his biggest fan.

Let’s face it, comedy is the last vein of free speech in culture. I can’t believe there are sour journalists who sit there and choose to embrace offense over laughter. Every. single. time.

“His targets were the “unhoused” (a word he said just as you imagine he would say it), the Ukrainian people, and trans children. Onstage, he mocked the idea that L.A.’s 70,000 homeless were suffering because of housing policy or the economy. “You’re going to give that guy a job?” he asked, and he began to shake, as if he were a mentally ill person with a tic. The Ace Theater boomed with laughter, a thousand bodies convulsing right back at him, blonde beach waves straight from the dry bar bouncing with mirth. That energy hit the stage. He kept shaking. This was not the sound of “offense,” but its opposite, the release of people hearing something they had long wanted to say, reassuring themselves that they are not culpable for the misery they Lyft beyond. The problem with all this freedom is the problem Khachiyan identifies, the problem that the sadness you feel is your own, and the broken society in which you live is a world your choices shape.”

- New York Mag

Counter Comments: Or he’s just doing his job. Breaking ice in a brilliant way. Making everyone uncomfortable enough so the debate is more digestible. An ideal ice breaker, if you ask me. In the span of those scathingly funny 20 minutes I laughed until it hurt.

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The Debate

Bari Weiss was a fantastic moderator: measured in redirecting, easing up and laughing at herself when necessary.

The point, for me, was not what issues divided these women. The point was how much women can, and will, come together and agree on major things when the opportunity is presented. Abortion and childcare in the workplace served as uniting factors between all four women on that stage. This mutual alignment, criticized by others, I especially appreciated.

Some found Grimes endearing because of her nervous stage presence. Others thought she came off irritating and unprepared. I’m just proud I acted like a professional and refrained from asking her about ramped-up custody issues with the moon man, whose blonde haired spawn I spotted getting into the elevator with two paranoid looking nannies.

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Commentary: Bari Weiss’ big L.A. debate was less ‘free expression’ than self-promotion by Lorraine Ali

“Former New York Times opinion writer and full-time agitator Bari Weiss moderated the most-certainly-not-right-wing-how-could-you-even-suggest-such-a-thing event, which kicked off with comedian Tim Dillon joking about transgender teens and how bored he was with the war in Ukraine. The panel then was split into two teams: Author and Daily Mail writer Louise Perry and “Red Scare” podcaster Anna Khachiyan were positioned to argue that the movement failed, while musician Grimes and writer and podcaster Sarah Haider took the other side.

If you’re looking for smart, incisive, even plain provocative dialogue about those questions, stop reading here. There was little to no daylight between the panelists’ views, and they were tethered by a common goal: calling attention to their own brands by sitting on the shoulders of the very movement that afforded them the freedom to sit on that stage and talk in circles.

As for the contentious viral moments that organizers might have hoped to leverage into financial support, followers or cultural cachet, those never happened. The audience of 1,600-plus, all primed to cheer the speakers’ adversarial views, found less and less to react to as the panel digressed. Rowdy millennials in Camille Paglia T-shirts, stoic middle-aged men in promotional “Free Press” baseball caps and well-groomed seniors in the pricey seats up front instead witnessed a group of like-minded women mostly agreeing with one another. There’s an art to skating on the edge of right-wing rage while pretending to be a nondenominational outsider, a skill Weiss has tried to harness over the years with varying degrees of success. Wednesday’s event was a prime example of what it looks like when the act falls flat.”

- LA Times

Counterpoint: Instead of making fun of the crowd and dismissing everything that irks personal politics as “right-wing rage,” maybe pause to appreciate that a stripped-down debate with alternative viewpoints filled a big theater and opened up provocative conversations on a live stage when online communication is in dire state, consistently plighted by insults, and overall shrinking in value.

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“Women will be obsolete in like five years. I hope living women still have a chance.” - Grimes (re: AI replacing women)

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Anna described herself as “a mother trying to keep her child out of the clutches of rabid ideologues, while making sure not to indoctrinate him too far in the opposite direction. Still, it would be hypocritical for me to blame the sexual revolution for everything. Instead I’d like to blame liberals.”

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“The idea that we live in a society where men are in charge, is funnier than anything Tim Dillon has ever said.” - Anna K

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“What does Grimes—who wants to die on Mars—know about living women?” - LARB

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Final Score: Has The Sexual Revolution Failed? 49% YES | 51% NO

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After Hours: post debate drinks + downtown debauchery + Jess hates men but more specifically Gemini men

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Afterparty Podcast: A Late Night Regroup

Podcast Hosts: Jennifer @jennifercee & Emilie @emilieknowseverything

Guests: Melissa (@sandiegoriseup) Matt Bilinsky (@mattbilinsky) and Holly (@hojojean)

“It’s not a radical idea to consider ideas together” - Melissa

“There’s a sickness in society. We’re all feeling the squeeze and need to do better.” -Melissa

“This is where the change happens- in the middle ground.” -Jennifer

“People are hungry for solutions.” - Melissa

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Rooftop: Hamish McKenzie (Co-founder of Substack) Sophia Efthimiatou (Head of Writer’s Relations, Substack) Anna Khachiyan (Russian-American cultural critic, writer, co-host of the Red Scare Podcast)

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Morning After Recap: Mimosas & Reflections

Recapping the night with Denise @denisebovee_avalos and Teagan @steezyteags

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- Keep an eye out over on The Free Press for updates on how and where to view the debate in its entirety.