katie roiphe

Catherine Driscoll catherine.driscoll at adelaide.edu.au
Sat Jun 12 20:47:12 PDT 1999


Jim Heartfield wrote:


>The central point is that the feminist movement has become conservative
>in its sex negativity, effectively coalescing with the moral panics of
>the Christian right. Who could disagree?

Well I think I could manage. What 'feminist movement' would this be? The academics/critics/theorists who've been arguing heatedly from many positions about this stuff for more than a century? Or the web of organisations that were so gleefully condemned on every American list I'm on for *not* think Clinton-Lewinsky was a big deal? Something else? Or just women in general? How ridiculous -- she makes Paglia look well-informed, judicious and insightful. The worst thing about her selective identification of 'feminists' as = 'feminism' and thus = to all feminists is that she doesn't even do those individuals justice for the most part.

I've only read The Morning After, but I'd want something really convincing to pick up another book by her. It's not worth the effort. If that's the kind of general polemic you're after there are far better versions around.

Catherine



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list