In this episode of Walt Right Perspectives I speak with Lirpa Strike (AKA April), an elder millennial woman originally from Minnesota and currently living in Northern Virginia.
April has a background in anarchism and contrarian feminism, and was originally activated by the Occupy movement during the early Obama years. She has since drifted toward more moderate positions and no longer identifies as a feminist.
Topics include:
April’s political initiation with the Bob Dole campaign
Her political trajectory through art school liberalism and the Occupy movement into anarchism and cynicism
Differences in racial attitude in Minnesota vs. Washington
Minnesota Somalians
Presidential elections of 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016
The Iraq War
The Elder Millennial love for Obama
Occupy Wall Street
April’s efforts to join Occupy with Tea Party libertarians
Our shared appreciation for people who go to war with their own side
April’s embrace of anarchism after the failure of Occupy
Sex-positive Millennial feminism vs sex-negative Zoomer feminism
How April learned to embrace her femininity later in life
Why April no longer calls herself a feminist.
How satisfaction in your love life makes you stop caring about gender politics.
How thirty-something women complain about men.
Women reward you for being a fuckboy
OkCupid vs. Tinder
Traumatic effects of early female puberty
Negative effects of endocrine disruptors
How men become addicted to transgressive/novel porn as prepubescent boys
How birth control went from coded as feminist among Millennials (Sandra Fluke) to coded as antifeminist among Zoomer women
Were Millennial women exploited by sex positivity?
Gen Z guys love the ahaego face
The Elder Millennial beauty standard (Feist, Zooey Deschanel)
Millennial hipster culture—IPAs, escape rooms, ax throwing
Early Millennials vs Late Millennials
How the particular year of your birth massively determines life outcomes
Remembering the fall of the USSR vs. 9/11
How America polarized on abortion
The short-sightedness and narcissism of prolife maximalists
April’s take on Trump
Hillary Clinton’s Faustian will to power
Why a right wing female President would be more viable than a liberal woman
How Millennial women turned on RBG
Abortion benefits the Republican Party
April’s thoughts on the 2024 election
How comedy is the ultimate form of propaganda
How April recently got into Lana Del Ray—”the Taylor Swift for grownups”
Turning 30 vs. Turning 40
Ways in which your thirties are better than your twenties
Lifestyle polarization of Zoomers (trads vs incels)
Sex at Dawn and polyamory
The male preference for polygamy
Anarchism as an impetus for polyamory
How safetyist culture makes polyamory groace
Inherent transactionality of heterosexual relationships
How marrying a more conservative man caused April to fight with liberal friends
How April lost friends playing devil’s advocate re: “Punch a Nazi” and Cville
Decline of MRA and Greek Alphabet Males into incel/chad binary
Episode 9 : Elder millennial feminism with Lirpa Strike