Catherine Alicia Young (born Yekaterina Jung; ; 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
Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...
'', and a regular columnist for ''
Newsday
''Newsday'' is a daily newspaper in the United States primarily serving Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI" ...
''. In 2022, she joined ''
The Bulwark'' as a staff writer. She describes her political views as "libertarian/conservative".
Life and career
Born in
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
to a Jewish family, 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
Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...
in 1988. 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
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine.
Feminism
Views
In her second book, ''Ceasefire!: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality'', published in 1999, Young criticized both
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
and
traditionalism from what she described as a "pro-equality point of view", a philosophy which she says may be called "feminism or something else". Young has defended the social media campaign
Women Against Feminism.
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'."
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.
In a response, Sulkowicz described Young as an "
anti-feminist", saying that Young published
Facebook
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
conversations between her and her alleged rapist to shame her.
Heather Wilhelm wrote in RealClearPolitics that Young's article about Sulkowicz "sets aside the hype and soberly assesses the facts." Citing Young's article, Katie Zavadski described her in ''
New York'' magazine as a "contrarian feminist".
Young supports legally recognizing
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...
s. She describes her political views as "
libertarian/
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
".
Reception
Young co-founded the
Women's Freedom Network in 1993.
The group aims to provide an alternative to "extremist, ideological feminism" as well as to "antifeminist traditionalism". According to historian Debra L. Schultz, the group represents mostly "conservative ideologues in the
political correctness debates".
In his book ''
The Blank Slate'',
Steven Pinker
Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychology, cognitive psychologist, psycholinguistics, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psycholo ...
identifies Young as an "
equity feminist",
and further describes her as an "iconoclastic columnist" who has argued against rape-related "dogma".
[ She has also written stories critical of campus anti-rape activism.] '' 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".
Bibliography
* ''Growing Up In Moscow: Memories of a Soviet Girlhood'' (1989) ()
* ''Ceasefire!: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality'' (1999) ()
References
External links
Young's collected writings at ''Reason'' magazine website
Young's website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Cathy
1963 births
Living people
American women bloggers
American bloggers
American columnists
American feminists
American libertarians
American memoirists
American political writers
20th-century American Jews
Jewish American feminists
Jewish women writers
Cato Institute people
Feminist bloggers
Feminist critics of feminism
Individualist feminists
Rutgers University alumni
Soviet emigrants to the United States
The Boston Globe people
The American Spectator people
Writers from Moscow
21st-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American women writers
American women memoirists
American women columnists
Naturalized citizens of the United States
21st-century American women writers
21st-century American Jews
Jewish bloggers