Harvey C. Mansfield on how intellectuals replaced priests. .Harvey C. Mansfield on how intellectuals replaced priests. @audrey_unver
— University of Austin (UATX) (@uaustinorg) February 10, 2026
00:00 — Preview
00:35 — Is America too feminine?
01:01 — Men are unemployed
03:17 — What Simone de Beauvoir gets wrong
04:32 — Love vs. lust
06:08 — Do you want to be alone?
07:39 — How was Margaret… pic.twitter.com/B4qGsTOYWH
00:00 — Preview
00:35 — Is America too feminine?
01:01 — Men are unemployed.
[1:35] Feminism is an opinion that there's no serious differences between the sex, between the sexes, meaning that your sex doesn't give you duties or rights or status in any way different from the other sex. So that's the kind of equality that feminism wanted which means that the two sexes we're pretty much the same. In the 19th century, feminism was different. In the 19th century, women declared that women were superior not just equal but superior to men, especially in morals and this was an opinion a traditional opinion long time to be seen. You can see it in de Tocqueville's discussion of American women. And since women were more moral, if they had the vote, they would improve our politics and they would take us out of the corruption of the Big City bosses and parties and male voters getting drunk. And that to some extent succeeded, because we did give women the suffrage in the early 20th century. But that wasn't good enough for Simone de Beauvoir, the author of present-day feminism. She wrote a book called The Second Sex.
03:17 — What Simone de Beauvoir gets wrong
04:32 — Love vs. lust
06:08 — Do you want to be alone?
07:39 — How was Margaret Thatcher manly?
[7:40] One of the themes of your book on Manliness is your extraordinary and I think correct respect for both sexes there is such conscientiousness and respect woven throughout your text and I wonder for those who haven't yet had the chance to read your book tell us what is Manliness and how is Margaret Thatcher manly.
My quick definition of manliness is taking charge of things in a situation of risk. So manliness is a quality, sometimes good, sometimes bad, of those who seek to take charge and handle dangerous situations or at least tricky situations, and don't hang back or just watch or ponder things. So manliness is a quality of a very few men, not of most men or all men. That's why I distinguish Manliness from masculinity, or what's called toxic masculinity. There is a certain toxic masculinity that goes with being a male. But manliness is an attitude especially of those people who are manly against those men who aren't. It's not so much against women because they're excused from being manly. After all they're women. But manliness is just for the few. So it's not the same thing as being a gentleman, which is being gentle though strong. A person can be manly without being very gentle or being gentlemanly. So they're kind of levels of the quality of Manliness but it's also the case that there are exceptions and overlaps between men and women and Margaret Thatcher is an example of a woman who sought risk and suffered it in a manly fashion very bold and very durable, "The Iron Lady."
10:44 — Should conservatives police their ranks?
19:36 — How have our elites failed? What do populists get wrong?
25:43 — Anti-Americanism at Harvard
29:50 — Can the universities be saved?
30:41 — Why UATX?
37:51 — Remembering Leo Strauss
38:45 — Prof. Mansfield's intellectual adversary
47:06 — Should UATX be neutral?
48:52 — How Prof. Mansfield wastes time
49:07 — If mass culture poisons the soul, what should we consume instead?
