lilburne's Full Review: Phyllis Schlafly - Feminist Fantasies
If there is any person in the world whose sudden, violent death would be more pleasing to feminists than the death of Clarence Thomas, that person would have to be Phyllis Schlafly. Schlafly has been fighting the feminists since 1972, when the homemaker/author reluctantly took on the task of speaking against the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in a debate. Schlafly had previously specialized in defense affairs, not “women’s issues,” but she was so outraged at what she learned about the ERA that she devoted herself to defeating it.
And she succeeded. The ERA’s ratification deadline passed without the necessary 38 states voting to ratify. Although this triumph has been sullied by the U. S. Supreme Court’s attempt to enforce “equal rights” as if the ERA had become part of the Constitution, the fact that the seemingly-unstoppable ERA had been blocked was an important feather in Schlafly’s cap.
Since the ERA fight, Schlafly has been fighting other feminist initiatives through articles and Congressional testimony. The most important anti-feminist articles and speeches are collected in *Feminist Fantasies.* From the 1972 article “What’s Wrong with Equal Rights for Women?” to recent controversies over the role of women in the military, Schlafly is there, giving the feminists fits of apoplexy.
On issue after issue, Schlafly weighs the case for feminism in the balance and finds it wanting. Whether the dispute is over the misleading use of statistics about employment discrimination, or the feminist attempt to deny the biological component of differences between the sexes, Schlafly weighs in with her anti-feminist views. Schlafly even considers the implications for feminism of various items in the popular culture, including songs and movies which portray women in a non-feminist manner.
The only glaring factual error I found in “Feminist Fantasies” has to do with a work of fiction. Schlafly says that the hero of the novel *Gone With the Wind,* Scarlett O’Hara, is “a woman who faces life’s challenges without government help.” Excuse me, but didn’t Miss Scarlett use *convict labor* on her lumber mill? That qualifies as “government help,” I would think.
Apart from this mistake, the problems with the essays in this book are mainly stylistic. I don’t complain so much about the harsh tone, because such a tone seems to be common in political books. What is more jarring is the way Schlafly’s essays just seem to end, without a final paragraph summing up her main points. Many essays just peter out, instead of finishing off with a couple of pithy sentences. This is more often a problem in Schlafly’s newspaper columns; statements that she made when testifying to Congress seem to be tied together better.
I’m glad that there are women out there making the case against feminism, because I, as a male person, have a certain degree of shyness about criticizing feminism, especially in front of women. Attacking feminism might cut into my social life, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. So it’s good that Schlafly is out there fighting the good fight. You see-“fighting the good fight.” That’s a good way to end an essay. It doesn’t peter out.
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