WE Launch
and you are invited to join us
WE have now launched a new Substack, Final Waive Feminism and posted our foundational article, What Is Final Waive Feminism?. Importantly, this is a metateam effort, actualizing a concept described by Hanzi Freinacht. We begin as a group of five writers with room to grow. WE are more than co-creators, we are friends. And I am the convenor of this new initiative.
I began Metamodern Wannabes on October 29, 2023. That was an individual effort, and I would now like to work as part of a collective. And my focus has now shifted to elevating the voices of women. I see a role for men, and I would like to develop a Queen and her Knights approach. Together, hopefully, we will be a force for the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.
Notice the interplay between WE and we. WE, the Writers of FWF, are all members of the Wisdom Exchange, an online community founded by Claudia Dommaschk, the container in which this idea took root. The first paragraph of the WE Vision, Mission, and Purpose statement reads as follows:
Welcome to our community where the mature feminine spirit is celebrated in collective leadership with the mature masculine spirit and therefore, both are at the heart of everything we do. With a deep commitment to metamodern values (that is, to embracing complexity), we strive to create a trusting environment where differences are appreciated and good sense-making is collaborative. Our main mission is to make wisdom more common by engaging in difficult yet compassionate conversations.
Yesterday Christopher Armitage asked impotant questions that caught our attention and his answer resonated.
Women have never built a dictatorship. Not once. Is sexism the reason? Or is there more to it?
Dominance hierarchies are ancient. They predate human civilization by hundreds of millions of years. Every social species that has organized itself has sorted individuals by status, and in most of those species, males compete for position through displays of dominance and the willingness to use force. Testosterone is the primary biological driver of that competition.
I am reminded of my own essay About Testosterone and I will quote the last paragraph:
In closing, I would like to thank my new friend, Claudia Dommaschk, for bringing a radio program to my attention, Testosterone by This American Life. Not only was it informative and delightful, it yielded a surprising insight. It felt rich and ALIVE and in contrast made the above paragraphs by ChatGPT seem impoverished and dead. This points the way to learn more about testosterone, from stories told by human beings with hormones in their veins. As impressed as I am with ChatGPT, it lacks something perhaps captured by the idea that it lacks hormones.
Making sense with retrospective coherence, over five years ago I wrote an essay About Women.
Before I turn my attention to the three women that currently intrigue me, I want to focus on men leading three very interesting organizations: Rebel Wisdom - led by David Fuller and Alexander Beiner; Perspectiva - led by Jonathan Rowson and Tomas Björkman; The Stoa - stewarded by Peter Limberg. What do these have in common? All are involved in some way with a Game A to Game B transition. And all are men, white men (as am I). There is something about this picture that does not feel right.
So, where are the women?
Five years later, I am disappointed by the metamodern community for its lack of progress in this and other areas. My Metamodern Wannabe energy is fading. But WE and FWF feel ALIVE with Possibility.
A couple of years ago I wrote About Feminism.
I am interested in connecting and collaborating with others interested in next wave feminism as something radically new.
So today is, for me, the start of a dream come true.