Janice Fiamengo is a professor of English at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada. She has recently begun to speak out on men's issues, having become appalled by the bigotry, hypocrisy, and dangerous magical thinking of the modern feminist movement. She is the author of The Famiengo File, a series of YouTube videos on academic feminism, the situation of men in modern culture, and free speech, and has published numerous essays on feminism and cultural decline at PJ Media and Front Page Magazine.
00:00:30.000This is Radio 314 on the Red Ice Radio Network.
00:01:00.000This is Radio 314 on the Red Ice Radio Network.
00:01:29.980But these conferences always start so early and it seems everyone mainly comes for the after party.
00:01:35.500And so we were disappointed that we couldn't broadcast from the after party, but the connection was lousy.
00:01:40.800We also had the challenge of recruiting those who wanted to be filmed, which is not a lot of people, sadly.
00:01:46.480But looking ahead, this first Saturday in June will mark our first live stream show for Red Ice members, so look out for that.
00:01:53.200My lovely guest today is Janice Fiamengo, a professor of English at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada.
00:02:00.580Recently, she has begun to speak out on men's issues, having become appalled by the bigotry, hypocrisy, and dangerous magical thinking of the modern feminist movement.
00:02:09.620She is the author of The Fiamengo File, a series of YouTube videos on academic feminism, the situation of men in modern culture, and free speech.
00:02:19.520She has published numerous essays on feminism and cultural decline at PJ Media and Front Page Magazine.
00:02:26.400We'll talk all about feminism, among a few other things.
00:03:14.520He has been teaching a course on men in literature for the last number of years at his college.
00:03:20.820And a few students complained about the course, and he has essentially been told that he can't teach the course anymore.
00:03:31.460He's been denied a sabbatical application to do some male-positive research to contribute to a volume of essays on male studies.
00:03:44.380And he's just generally been given a hard time, has had his course methods and his assignments scrutinized and been made to feel that his perspective isn't welcome at the university.
00:03:58.080And this is, you know, at a time when there are all sorts of courses that have an overtly ideological slant that lots of students might find potentially, you know, distressing or offensive.
00:04:09.640Women in literature, African-American literature, Aboriginal literature, all those kinds of things.
00:04:14.960And it's absolutely inconceivable to try to imagine a case where a woman in literature course, having been protested by a few disgruntled male students, would then be cancelled,
00:04:28.480or the instructor would be told that she had to modify how she taught the course or how she evaluated her students.
00:04:35.380So there is a bias, especially, I think, against male professors.
00:04:40.580I have my female privilege, so I can play with a lot that a man who was interested in talking about men's issues wouldn't be able to get away with.
00:04:49.980That's true. Well, you did spend years studying feminist theory.
00:04:53.540You worked at a woman's rape center, right? You even said you cut your hair short and had hairy legs, right?
00:04:58.060You took part and take back the night marches. So when did all of this change for you?
00:05:02.160Well, it was a gradual process. I guess I would say that when I started my first job in 1999, I probably still identified,
00:05:11.040that was my first real job at the University of Saskatchewan, probably still identified at that point as a feminist,
00:05:16.220although I was already starting to question the mythology.
00:05:21.400But then very quickly, within about the first year of my having a full-time job at the University of Saskatchewan,
00:05:28.440I just, the whole thing started to fall apart like a house of cards.
00:05:34.160It started to look more and more unreal to me that this myth that women were somehow still oppressed or marginalized
00:05:43.860or that, you know, we needed special measures to protect our vulnerability,
00:05:48.920that we still lived in a patriarchal society, that men were in any way privileged.
00:05:54.100I could see so clearly that the young men in my classes weren't privileged and they had to sit there in class after class
00:06:02.920listening to professors telling them that their sex was responsible for everything that was wrong with the world,
00:06:10.220that they needed to apologize for some unearned advantages and that, you know, women were their moral superiors
00:06:20.940and that they should step back and allow their sisters to, you know, take up the positions of power
00:06:26.760that had been unjustly denied them for centuries, that men had had it really good for a long time
00:06:32.920and that they should be ashamed about that.
00:06:35.640And it just seemed to, began to seem to me obscene, actually.
00:06:40.280And I also participated in that very first year of my employment on hiring committees
00:06:46.140where we were determined to hire women if we possibly could,
00:06:50.540all in the name of some sort of, you know, righteous ideal of equality.
00:06:55.120But it was clear to me, participating in that process, that there was no equality whatsoever
00:07:00.700and that, if anything, men, high-achieving men were being denied positions that they would have rightfully earned
00:07:08.520in a fair process simply because they were men.
00:07:11.320They were being made to pay for the so-called sins of their fathers.
00:46:01.340was worth trying to rebuild but I don't know I
00:46:04.560really I think there is a sort of death wish in
00:46:08.620in people living in the west and it's a weird
00:46:12.000situation in which a lot of people a lot of
00:46:15.000leftist members of the intelligentsia members
00:46:18.120of the elite they really do seem to have come to
00:46:21.420hate what we have built yes they do and I don't
00:46:26.300know whether I mean this is these are questions
00:46:28.220it's pretty hard to answer like is there
00:46:30.060something that just happens to human beings
00:46:33.000when you're in a position where you don't have to
00:46:35.240fight to survive anymore where you know essentially
00:46:37.940everything is provided for us we have lives of
00:46:41.680absolutely you know previously unimaginable
00:46:44.620ease and security and does that then breed a kind of
00:46:49.120bizarre hatred of that very ease and security I don't know what I
00:46:54.680wonder this all the time and it's also created a self-hatred a lot of western
00:46:58.920people they hate themselves they they don't like their people and once you
00:47:03.500allow and entertain those kinds of thoughts you're doomed
00:47:06.760if you can't even love yourself anymore
00:47:09.940in your own history wow I find it bizarre I and you know of course that is the
00:47:16.180other aspect of what's going on at western universities is this really deep self-loathing
00:47:24.360western culture is now taught as a record of atrocities and if you ask
00:47:31.180school children or first-year university students about the history of their country
00:47:35.880or the history of the west in general they'll tell you that it is no better and probably even
00:47:42.680worse than the history of any other civilization that the west has been uniquely you know rapacious
00:47:49.000and violent and unjust and unfairing in its treatment of others and all of this there's
00:47:55.700no sense of pride at all in what we achieved and yet any objective analysis of the record of western
00:48:04.560civilization would have to concede that it has been amazingly tolerant and humane
00:48:09.960so as a result largely because of the judeo-christian heritage and um the um enlightenment the belief that
00:48:21.180our world was knowable that it was ordered that it was a good thing for human beings to pursue truth
00:48:28.020and to pursue understanding all of that which is so rare so miraculous I mean it should be taught
00:48:35.060that should be the one thing that every university student um you know in the west learns is is to
00:48:41.660appreciate how amazing our achievements are and to feel gratitude to those people who brought us the
00:48:50.200kind of civilization we have and yet it's it's the exact opposite uh people are taught contempt and
00:48:57.200hatred for it I think that's the root of it is school education and then here in America we have our media
00:49:02.580blasting the same thing entertainment blasting the same thing so it's it's really just everywhere
00:49:07.580these young kids look and they grow up that way actually in Canada there's have you heard of
00:49:11.780Ricardo Duchesne he's okay yeah he's written a great book I wish there were more teachers like you guys
00:49:17.320because that would really change everything because we're not even being taught about the beauty of our
00:49:21.560culture and the good aspects right we just hear all the negative aspects of European culture all day
00:49:26.040long I know Canadians are really getting hammered right now too I was surprised what I hear coming out
00:49:31.100from there you know yeah um you know Canadians we've created human rights tribunals so that anybody who
00:49:40.100feels that in some way you know they are aggrieved uh they've been offended in some way they can take
00:49:48.240people through these extremely unpleasant experiences where they have to defend themselves against charges of
00:49:56.380hate speech etc etc etc and of course if you are white and male uh your offense doesn't count for
00:50:04.140anything yeah you know it's only um particular uh victim groups who can uh charge others with these
00:50:12.260terrible crimes of hatred and yeah it's like we decided to become a country that wanted to devour its
00:50:20.060best and its brightest and yeah I know Ricardo a little bit and um I really admire his work and he is
00:50:28.480yeah maybe the most hated professor in all of Canada he he's constantly slandered uh he's you know held up as
00:50:38.080sort of you know terrible racist and and um you know ethnocentric uh hater and all of this and he isn't he is
00:50:47.200very carefully studied what it is that uh allows cultures to to have liberal values and to prosper and
00:50:57.140to be um culturally unified and to flourish and uh and what he has found is that multiculturalism actually
00:51:06.980leads to the opposite and um that's a an issue that should be respectfully debated and just
00:51:15.740obviously it makes a lot of people unhappy because we're so deeply wedded to the um multicultural ideal
00:51:23.540um but um surely this is something worth very serious consideration for people who care about
00:51:30.780the future exactly I mean what we're promoting is true diversity right we want cultures to to remain
00:51:36.220distinct and be separate so that they can exist but the question is they're not pushing multiculturalism
00:51:42.140anywhere else it just seems to be happening in the western countries right right right you know nobody
00:51:47.220would say that you know if Japan should open its doors to the world and should happily accept the
00:51:53.920complete dissolution of its culture uh that would seem bizarre and if if um you know Japanese nationals
00:52:02.900said hey you know we we want our country to stay essentially the way it has always been we we love
00:52:09.700what we have and we want to protect it nobody would say that was terribly terribly racist or anything
00:52:14.820like that if anybody says that uh in in Canada or elsewhere uh the charge of racism comes out
00:52:22.860automatically oh yeah very good as soon as they're losing a debate they just say racist right yeah I mean
00:52:28.420the whole range of the most pressing issues facing our culture um it's no longer possible to talk about
00:52:34.540those either at university or in you know sort of the public domain generally and so all we resort to
00:52:41.080are these kinds of name callings and it almost sounds like you you need to create like almost like a secret
00:52:46.800society a network of teachers who are kind of under the radar but know this stuff and maybe you can kind
00:52:52.320of you know ease it into some of the curriculum or something because you almost have to go underground
00:52:57.020like the communists went underground now right if you're if you're more traditional or on the right
00:53:02.380you can't be so outspoken about it because a lot of people can get fired and harassed these days
00:53:06.860yeah no it's pretty uncomfortable to uh to identify as as a conservative or any or libertarian
00:53:14.980or anyone who objects in any way to the reigning orthodoxies about about gender about race about
00:53:22.460Islam about um whatever it happens to be and uh yeah um you know part of the uh um i mean certainly
00:53:32.360there are similarities to the situation under communism but i guess the difference was that
00:53:37.100under communism i don't think many of the citizens actually believed that um the press was free you
00:53:43.840know or that what they read in the state-controlled newspapers uh watched on the state uh controlled
00:53:50.960um television uh shows nobody believed that that was the truth they knew it was propaganda and so
00:53:58.880although um that was obviously a very repressive environment at least people you know they knew
00:54:06.460what they were up against whereas my sense now and i have conversations with a lot of people is that
00:54:11.920um they don't believe that we are living in a similarly kind of um distorted media environment where
00:54:20.500much of what we read in the newspapers and watch on television news is so distorted as to be
00:54:27.580very similar to the kind of communist propaganda that was being spread uh you know during the days of
00:54:33.400the uh of the iron curtain and um you know most people i think think that what they hear on
00:54:39.320state-funded broadcasters in canada for instance are are cbc that that is actually the truth
00:54:47.380and so the level of um to what the extent to which people are deceived by mainstream propaganda seems
00:54:56.120to me um really dangerously near total yeah well that's a course that should be taught right critical
00:55:03.640thinking how to really break apart what's being said in the media because people just don't do it
00:55:08.520anymore they just believe whatever is there exactly that's incredibly dangerous yeah yeah but whenever you
00:55:14.380hear the phrase critical thinking or critical theory in university it means leftist oh yeah that's true
00:55:21.560that is true the students soon learn that there are certain approved ideas and certain that you
00:55:27.640absolutely cannot express if you hope to get out of university alive so critical thinking you know real
00:55:32.660thinking um logical thinking logical argument those are the last things that are being taught in most
00:55:39.840university classrooms yeah it's a real shame and and it's it's frightening do you think women today are
00:55:46.680unhappier than they used to be in traditional times or even let's say the 50s i mean i look at 50s in
00:55:52.320america women they looked more attractive they were fit they had these cute families you know versus today
00:55:58.380it just seems like women are they're more miserable today do you see that in canada too do you think some of
00:56:03.460that is feminism i don't know about that i mean i i'm i personally i'm very well you're happy but
00:56:11.500maybe your average you know feminist today maybe she's really underneath they're unhappy miserable
00:56:17.120well i it certainly seems that a lot of feminists aren't very happy um you know the the relentless
00:56:25.720focus on all the things that are wrong with our society just can't produce happiness i don't think
00:56:32.920i don't know i mean uh it's the question of what one does with one's freedom and i think women are
00:56:40.740more free today than we have ever been in the past and um i think actually that is a difficult thing i
00:56:50.620think freedom um means that we have to take responsibility for our choices and that means that
00:56:57.440when we fail um we have to face the fact uh that that we're responsible for our failures and so i
00:57:06.600think um maybe feminism is a way of avoiding that reality it's it's the um the framework that says
00:57:13.480that when we fail it's because uh all of the forces ranged against us i mean i don't know i think the
00:57:20.600human condition is is to be unhappy actually and i think it just simply takes different cultural forms
00:57:28.220depending on the moment so i'm not sure about about women's happiness level so last question for you i
00:57:36.500know this is a huge one but have you thought of any ways how we begin to defeat this mental disorder
00:57:42.460you know called feminism or any of this anti-western kind of mentality because it seems like a virus to
00:57:48.460me so i mean have you thought about ways to combat it well i have this conversation with friends of
00:57:54.640mine who are involved in in the men's advocacy movement and uh i'm not the best person to ask
00:58:01.700about it because i like you i really do think it is a kind of mental virus i was speaking with my friend
00:58:07.260steve brulee the other day who does the uh films my my film angle files and uh he thinks we're in a
00:58:13.560period of mass hysteria um where really there is no way of reaching logically or reasonably people in
00:58:22.000the grip of of these completely you know irrational um beliefs um you you can't do it through argument
00:58:30.700uh you you can't do it through reason discussion so what do you do one of my friends think uh thinks
00:58:38.280that men do it um um through self-sacrifice that he he imagines that a movement in which men uh allow
00:58:48.380themselves to be harmed by feminist demonstrators and uh you know allow themselves to be uh brutalized
00:58:58.800in some ways and don't respond with anger respond in the way that they are not expected to respond by
00:59:07.380uh uh enduring their uh unjust treatment but standing up and articulating it he hopes that
00:59:15.500that is one of the ways that we'll finally get through so the the whole idea of of a kind of
00:59:20.980righteous passive resistance of the sort for example that was pioneered by martin luther king for
00:59:29.160example of course that requires a mainstream culture that is capable of seeing the humanity
00:59:37.380uh those who are i think a lot of these leftists to me they they look like bolsheviks like when the
00:59:43.660time would come they would have no no problem being violent and killing people so i guess i feel
00:59:48.760the time for turning the other cheek might be over it might be time to just say you know what we're
00:59:54.220going to go build our society over here and then we'll watch that society flourish right these
00:59:58.920towns and communities that are flourishing that are away from that okay you hate the patriarchy then
01:00:03.380we'll go over here and you can have that right yeah that was ayn rand's notion of you know the
01:00:09.760brilliant ones of the society going on strike right and i have another friend of mine that's that's his
01:00:16.280solution men have to go on strike because if they did this society would collapse immediately within a
01:00:25.100few hours it wouldn't it wouldn't be functioning and so yeah he he wants a general strike of men
01:00:30.880now i just don't think that's very likely because i think too many men are too deeply programmed with
01:00:37.160a sense of commitment to their women their families their societies i don't think they would do it and
01:00:43.500so yeah i don't know i mean i yeah i i'd like to go to that island or that you know that part of the
01:00:51.880country where um we could escape to to build our version of the good functioning society i'd love to
01:01:00.240but i don't know where it is so when you find it let you know and my husband and i would love to come
01:01:07.200well you'll always be welcome you know by the way i think it's interesting you know identity politics
01:01:12.700it's become so important and i really think in the west especially amongst europeans because we've lost
01:01:18.120touch of you know our culture our heritage our roots our society has become so degenerate and
01:01:24.000meaningless so i think a lot of these young kids are are going to identity politics looking for
01:01:28.720something to belong to or a tribe or a group would you agree with that sure it's a kind of faith and
01:01:34.420it offers a lot of what traditional um religious faiths offer not the good things of religious faith
01:01:40.020the deeper meaning the notion of the loving god who for whom no sin is too great to be forgiven
01:01:45.320but it does offer you know something to believe in and uh and that's what a lot of young people are
01:01:51.280are searching for and so it's possible that uh you know something more positive can be offered to them
01:01:57.320to replace the identity that they're claiming through victim politics maybe they want some kind
01:02:04.000of brotherhood or sisterhood or family i think maybe that's been missing because we've been so
01:02:08.320individualistic in western society you know absolutely yeah secular society leaves um a big gap of meaning
01:02:16.000for a lot of people and of course that's the way in which the left does step in because it offers this
01:02:21.180you know complete utopia i haven't on earth you know for society that unfortunately you have to
01:02:27.320create a gulag and then you have to create a bigger and bigger gulag and the utopian community gets
01:02:32.060smaller and smaller but uh but still that vision seems um it seems unkillable in a way you know no matter
01:02:39.120how many times these utopian communities are shown to fail and to be miserable um they the idea of it
01:02:47.940remains alive in people's imaginations well janice tell us about your youtube channel and what you have
01:02:54.600going on i know you do some talks here and there do you have anything coming up yeah well right now the
01:02:59.260big thing that i'm working on right now that i would like to plug is that um i am inviting submissions
01:03:04.580for a book that i'm working on and it's called sons of feminism and it came to me as an idea um as a
01:03:12.300result of doing my pia mango files on youtube and having lots of young men and and not so young as i
01:03:19.000said write to me about their experiences and i thought these experiences need to be published this is
01:03:24.520my one small hope although i'm not a very hopeful person my one small hope for reaching people is if
01:03:31.100they could read all of these stories of what this supposed movement for equality between the
01:03:36.860sexes has actually meant for men the so-called privilege oppressors if they could read about
01:03:42.540their stories uh it might touch people and so um i'm seeking to publish next year and i'm looking for
01:03:50.360men to write to me with their stories about what it means to grow up in a post-feminist society
01:03:55.780and how feminism has affected men whether it be at school or in the family or in a school divorce or
01:04:04.220in the workplace you know whatever the experience whatever the focus is so that's what i'm working
01:04:09.660on this summer i'm going to continue to make videos my i enjoyed doing my pia mango files and um i'm
01:04:16.880speaking this uh this july at the international uh conference on men's issues in london england where
01:04:23.840there will be a gathering of people concerned about the kinds of problems that we've just been
01:04:29.340discussing well you're doing great work and it's rare to meet female university professors such as
01:04:34.060yourself so i have a lot of respect for you thank you and i appreciate your time this evening thank you
01:04:38.880lana it's been great talking to you most logical thinking people can see how academic feminism is
01:04:45.360connected to the ongoing destruction of western culture and society it's not hard to see what better
01:04:51.800way to bring down a civilization than destroying the most important relationship the one between men
01:04:57.260and women leftists are insane and should be treated as such they live in utter denial of nature of
01:05:03.820reality we can only be equal under the law equality in any other way is impossible but as crazy as lefties
01:05:11.100are if we don't stop them they'll use forced medications surgery mandatory breeding programs and
01:05:17.960eventually mass murder in their attempt to make everyone equal what that really means prop up the
01:05:24.020lowest common denominator and destroy those who excel above and beyond if we let this continue it will
01:05:29.920not end until there is only one sex one race one culture one uniform thought all across the world
01:05:37.220all across the board for now they use words but ultimately they will use violence to enforce the
01:05:43.240uniformity they call equality but it's contrived it's anti-nature and it's a lie so it will not last
01:05:49.860we're dealing with crazy people who would ultimately genetically engineer and perform lobotomies to make
01:05:55.880a lion lay with a lamb because hierarchy means inequality women in the west have it the best and we did
01:06:02.640until forced mass immigration which is now creating a true rape culture and violence against women and we
01:06:08.920should be loud about that fact many women however are waking up to this reality but it's the job of
01:06:14.580women like us to inform other women about this reality thanks for listening and supporting red
01:06:19.680ice your membership helps make what we do possible just like the lefties like to say we have a lot of
01:06:25.460work to do when it comes to race well we feel the same way find me on facebook twitter google plus and be
01:06:31.860sure to subscribe to our red ice radio youtube channel we'll talk more later have a good night
01:06:38.920if you ask any girl from the parish around what pleases her most from her head to her toes she'll say
01:07:03.120i'm not sure that it's business of yours but i do like to waltz with the log driver for he goes
01:07:09.940burling down and down wipe water that's where the log driver learns to step lightly
01:07:16.560it's burling down and down wipe water the log driver's waltz pleases girls completely
01:07:23.600when the drive's when the drive's when the drive's when the drive's daily over i like to go down and watch all the lads as they work on the river i know that come evening they'll be in the town and we all like to waltz with the log driver for he goes
01:07:41.420burling down and down and down wipe water that's where the log driver learns to step lightly
01:07:48.240it's burling down and down wipe water a log driver's waltz pleases girls completely
01:07:55.240to please both my parents to please both my parents i've had to give way
01:08:02.060and dance with the doctors and merchants and lawyers their manners are fine but their feet are of play
01:08:09.060for there's none with the style of my log driver for he goes
01:08:13.060burling down and down wipe water that's where the log driver learns to step lightly
01:08:19.560it's burling down and down wipe water a log driver's waltz pleases girls completely
01:08:26.440now i've had my chances with all sorts of men but none is so fine as my lad on the river so when the drive's over if he asks me again
01:08:40.380i think i will marry my log driver for he goes
01:08:44.560burling down and down wipe water that's where the log driver learns to step lightly
01:08:51.100it's burling down and down wipe water a log driver's waltz pleases girls completely
01:08:57.980burling down and down wipe water a log driver's waltz pleases girls completely