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Cathy Young

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For other similarly-named people, see Catherine Young (disambiguation).

Cathy Young
Born
Yekaterina Jung

(1963-02-10) February 10, 1963 (age 61)
Moscow, Soviet Union (now Russia)
Other namesCatherine Alicia Young
EducationRutgers University, New Brunswick (BA)
OccupationJournalist

Catherine Alicia Young (born Yekaterina Jung;[1] Russian: Екатерина Юнг; born February 10, 1963) is a Russian-American journalist. Young is primarily known for her writing about feminism and other cultural issues, as well as about Russia and the former Soviet Union. She is the author of two books, a frequent contributor to the American libertarian monthly Reason, and a regular columnist for Newsday. In 2022, she joined The Bulwark as a staff writer. She describes her political views as "libertarian/conservative".[2]

Life and career

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Born in Moscow to a Jewish family,[3] Ekaterina Jung was 17 when her family emigrated to the United States in 1980. She became a naturalized citizen in 1987 as Catherine Alicia Young and graduated from Rutgers University in 1988.[4] She completed her autobiography, Growing Up in Moscow: Memories of a Soviet Girlhood, published in 1989.

Young is a contributing editor at Reason. Since 2014, she has regularly contributed to Time magazine.[5]

Feminism

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Views

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In her second book, Ceasefire!: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality, published in 1999, Young criticized both feminism and traditionalism from what she described as a "pro-equality point of view",[6] a philosophy which she says may be called "feminism or something else".[7] Young has defended the social media campaign Women Against Feminism.[8]

Describing the Gamergate controversy in relation to feminism, Young has stated that she believes that Gamergate is a backlash against feminism but one that is "against a particular kind of feminism, one that has a tendency to look obsessively for offences, read ideology into everything, and demonize male sexuality under the pretext of stamping out 'the objectification of women'."[9]

In 2015, Young wrote an article in The Daily Beast in which she interviewed the student whom anti-rape activist Emma Sulkowicz accused of rape.[10] In a response, Sulkowicz described Young as an "anti-feminist", saying that Young published Facebook conversations between her and her alleged rapist to shame her.[11][12][13] Heather Wilhelm wrote in RealClearPolitics that Young's article about Sulkowicz "sets aside the hype and soberly assesses the facts."[14] Citing Young's article, Katie Zavadski described her in New York magazine as a "contrarian feminist".[15]

Young supports legally recognizing same-sex marriages.[16] She describes her political views as "libertarian/conservative".[2]

Reception

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Young co-founded the Women's Freedom Network in 1993.[17] The group aims to provide an alternative to "extremist, ideological feminism" as well as to "antifeminist traditionalism".[18] According to historian Debra L. Schultz, the group represents mostly "conservative ideologues in the political correctness debates". [18]

In his book The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker identifies Young as an "equity feminist",[19]: 342  and further describes her as an "iconoclastic columnist" who has argued against rape-related "dogma".[19]: 360  She has also written stories critical of campus anti-rape activism.[11][20] Commentary magazine stated that Young re-investigates "atrocious coverage of campus sexual assault myths" in the "hopes of setting the record straight and minimizing some of the incredible damage the accusations have done".[21]

Bibliography

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  • Growing Up In Moscow: Memories of a Soviet Girlhood (1989) (ISBN 0709041306)
  • Ceasefire!: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality (1999) (ISBN 0684834421)

References

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  1. ^ Huberman, Jack (2008). The Quotable Atheist: Ammunition for Nonbelievers, Political Junkies, Gadflies, and Those Generally Hell-Bound. PublicAffairs. p. 408. ISBN 978-1-56858-419-5.
  2. ^ a b Young, Cathy. "Welcome to the website of writer and journalist Cathy Young". Archived from the original on June 11, 2009. Retrieved July 12, 2009.
  3. ^ Young, Cathy (3 October 2017). "Is Communism Worse Than Nazism?" Forward. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
  4. ^ Riley, Sam G. (1995). Biographical Dictionary of American Newspaper Columnists. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 363.
  5. ^ "Cathy Young". Time. Retrieved February 18, 2014.
  6. ^ Young, Cathy (1999), Ceasefire!: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality (New York: Free Press, (ISBN 0-684-83442-1)), p. 10 (Introduction: The Gender Wars).
  7. ^ Young, Cathy, Ceasefire!, op. cit., p. 11 (Introduction).
  8. ^ Butler, Bethonie (July 30, 2014). "Is this what an anti-feminist movement looks like?". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  9. ^ Weinman, Jaime (December 8, 2014). "How a gamer fight turned into an all-out culture war". Maclean's. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  10. ^ Young, Cathy (February 3, 2015). "Columbia Student: I Didn't Rape Her". The Daily Beast. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
  11. ^ a b Kaplan, Sarah (February 4, 2015). "In Columbia University rape case, accuser and accused are now fighting it out in public". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  12. ^ Zeilinger, Julie (February 3, 2015). "The Treatment of Emma Sulkowicz Proves We Still Have No Idea How to Talk About Rape". Mic.com. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  13. ^ Young, Cathy (February 3, 2015). "Columbia Student: I Didn't Rape Her". The Daily Beast. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
  14. ^ Wilhelm, Heather (February 5, 2015). "The Rise of the Weak-Kneed Feminists". Real Clear Politics. Retrieved February 18, 2015.
  15. ^ Zavadski, Katie (February 3, 2015). "Alleged Rapist in Columbia Case Offers His Version of Events, Produces Message Transcripts". New York. Retrieved February 18, 2015.
  16. ^ Young, Cathy (April 22, 2014). "Freedom to Marry, Freedom to Dissent: Why We Must Have Both". Real Clear Politics.
  17. ^ Rapping, Elayne (Spring 1996). "The Ladies Who Lynch". On the Issues. 5 (2): 7–9, 56. ISSN 0895-6014.
  18. ^ a b Schultz, Debra L. (2000). "Women's Studies: Backlash". In Kramarae, Cheris; Spender, Dale (eds.). Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women's Issues and Knowledge. New York: Routledge. p. 2072. ISBN 978-1-135-96315-6.
  19. ^ a b Pinker, Steven (2003). The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature. Penguin.
  20. ^ McDonough, Katie (February 3, 2015). "The 'perfect victim' myth: How attempts to discredit rape survivors stand in the way of real change". Salon. Retrieved February 16, 2015.
  21. ^ Mandel, Seth (February 3, 2015). "Kirsten Gillibrand's Cruel Assault on Justice". Commentary. Archived from the original on February 18, 2015. Retrieved February 18, 2015.
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