Progressive Pieties Hollow Feminism

Public commitments to certain progressive practices (e.g., performative body‑positivity, compulsory openness to polyamory) can pressure feminist writers to trade humor, critique, or personal autonomy for ideological conformity, producing private harm and weakening feminism’s public appeal. A high‑profile case — Lindy West’s career, her memoiral confession of unhappiness, and her account of accepting non‑monogamy to signal progressive virtue — illustrates how cultural signaling can distort movement practice. — If true, this dynamic explains internal fractures in contemporary feminism and why parts of the public become alienated from progressive causes.