A politically incorrect feminist : creating a movement with bitches, lunatics, dykes, prodigies, warriors, and wonder women

Format:

Book

Title:

A politically incorrect feminist : creating a movement with bitches, lunatics, dykes, prodigies, warriors, and wonder women

Author:

Chesler, Phyllis author

ISBN:

9781250094421

Edition:

First edition.

Publication:

New York : St. Martin's Press, 2018.

Physical Description:

ix, 304 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 22 cm

Contents:

Growing up as a girl in America -- Am I dreaming or am I awake? Feminist paradise rising -- Raising my consciousness and pioneering women's studies -- This first-generation American keynotes a historic speak-out on rape and joins a class-action lawsuit -- A psychiatrist sues me for $10 million, I publish Women and Madness, and I flee the country -- Fame hits hard, thousands of letters arrive, and I marry again -- Feminism becomes international -- Feminists and the Weather Underground and Lesbian Land on the West Coast -- The pornography wars commence, and I host the first feminist Passover seder in America -- Do women of color have the right to kill white male rapists in self-defense? Do lesbians have the right to custody of their children? -- Our sorely afflicted feminist geniuses -- Rape at the UN and an unexpected betrayal by the inveterate scene-stealer -- Whistleblowing and the inevitable blowback -- Mothers on trial and on the run -- I travel the wide world, pray at the Western Wall, and come to the aid of lesbian-feminists under siege in Mississippi -- The end of an era and saying goodbye to sister soldiers, brave and true, near and dear.

Summary:

"A powerful and revealing memoir about the pioneers of modern-day feminism Phyllis Chesler was a pioneer of Second Wave Feminism. Chesler and the women who came out swinging between 1967-1972 integrated the want ads, brought class action lawsuits on behalf of economic discrimination, opened rape crisis lines and shelters for battered women, held marches and sit-ins for abortion and equal rights, famously took over offices and buildings, and pioneered high profile Speak-outs. They began the first-ever national and international public conversations about birth control and abortion, sexual harassment, violence against women, female orgasm, and a woman's right to kill in self-defense. Now, Chesler has juicy stories to tell. The feminist movement has changed over the years, but Chesler knew some of its first pioneers, including Gloria Steinem, Kate Millett, and Andrea Dworkin. These women were fierce forces of nature, smoldering figures of sin and soul, rock stars and action heroes in real life. Some had been viewed as whores, witches, and madwomen, but were changing the world and becoming major players in history. In Memoir of a Politically Incorrect Feminist, Chesler gets chatty while introducing the reader to some of feminism's major players and world-changers"-- Provided by publisher.

Personal Subject:

Chesler, Phyllis.

Chesler, Phyllis

Subject(s):

Feminists -- United States -- Biography.

Feminism -- United States -- History -- 20th century.

Feminism -- Political aspects.

Second-wave feminism -- United States -- History -- 20th century.

Women -- Political activity -- United States -- History -- 20th century.

Geographic Term:

United States

Genre:

Nonfiction.

autobiographies (literary works)

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Salem Main Library	921 Chesler, Phyllis 2018	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

A powerful and revealing memoir about the pioneers of modern-day feminism

Phyllis Chesler was a pioneer of Second Wave Feminism. Chesler and the women who came out swinging between 1972-1975 integrated the want ads, brought class action lawsuits on behalf of economic discrimination, opened rape crisis lines and shelters for battered women, held marches and sit-ins for abortion and equal rights, famously took over offices and buildings, and pioneered high profile Speak-outs. They began the first-ever national and international public conversations about birth control and abortion, sexual harassment, violence against women, female orgasm, and a woman's right to kill in self-defense.

Now, Chesler has juicy stories to tell. The feminist movement has changed over the years, but Chesler knew some of its first pioneers, including Gloria Steinem, Kate Millett, Flo Kennedy, and Andrea Dworkin. These women were fierce forces of nature, smoldering figures of sin and soul, rock stars and action heroes in real life. Some had been viewed as whores, witches, and madwomen, but were changing the world and becoming major players in history. In A Politically Incorrect Feminist, Chesler gets chatty while introducing the reader to some of feminism's major players and world-changers.

Author Notes

Phyllis Chesler is an emerita professor of Psychology and Women's Studies at City University of New York, bestselling author of Women and Madness , legendary feminist leader, and psychotherapist. Dr. Chesler has appeared on CNN, Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor , The Today Show, Oprah , and multiple NPR programs, including NPR's At the Opera .

Reviews (3)

Kirkus Review

The author of Women and Madness (1972) looks back with a sharp eye at her sometimes-contentious engagement with the second-wave feminist revolution launched in the 1960s.Working from evidently voluminous diaries, Chesler (Emerita, Psychology and Women's Studies/CUNY; Islamic Gender Apartheid: Exposing a Veiled War Against Women, 2017, etc.) constructs a frequently scattered and highly entertaining account of her undomesticated life. Born in 1940 and brought up in Brooklyn by Orthodox Jewish immigrant parents, she rebelled early and often and was delighted to find fellow rebels among other mid-20th-century feminists. Though she made some lasting friends, her delight wasn't enduring, and she devotes much of the book to settling scores with former friends and delineating the "incomprehensibly vicious behavior among feminist leaders." She was scorned by many of her peers because she was a "man junkie" and "hopelessly straight." Readers familiar with figures like Gloria Steinem and Andrew Dworkin will either be delighted or appalled by gossipy accounts of consciousness-raising groups where, for example, lesbian activist Jill Johnston "cried and made a sceneshe actually threw potato chips at usthen left and refused to return." Chesler describes one of her comrades as a "lesbian lush" and another as "a hot Jewish tamale." Those who don't already know the major players are likely to be confused, since the author tends to drop names without much elaboration. Some of her claimse.g., that "every woman I knew had had an abortion"strain credulity, and the chapter titles suggest the author's chatty, rapid-fire approach to narrative: "Fame Hits Hard, Thousands of Letters Arrive, I Marry Again"; "I Travel the Wide World, Pray at the Western Wall, and Come to the Aid of Lesbian-Feminists Under Siege in Mississippi."Often scattershot but never boring, Chesler's memoir will raise more than a few hackles. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Chesler (An American Bride in Kabul , 2013) is an outspoken veteran of second-wave feminism (1967-72), and her memoir is an unsentimental look at the pioneers of one of the most important political movements of the twentieth century. As she observes, she has been close to most of our feminist visionaries and icons. . . . Our feminist pioneers were only mortal; they were as flawed as anyone else save in their work, which was both extraordinary and overinflated. They're all here Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Kate Millett, Andrea Dworkin, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Jill Johnston, and Robin Morgan along with their clashing egos, competing agendas, and conflicting personalities. In discussing one of the movement's most well-known figures, she observes: What can I say about Gloria? Only this: My generation of feminists needed Susan B. Anthony but we got Mary Tyler Moore. We needed Harriet Tubman but we got Jane Fonda. Chesler's thoughtful and bracing reflections bring to life a remarkable group of women and a pivotal moment in U.S. history. An essential selection for American-history and women's-studies collections.--Carolyn Mulac Copyright 2018 Booklist

Library Journal Review

In her latest work, Chesler (The Death of Feminism) does her best to establish her centrality to the second-wave feminist movement. The book is mostly a memoir and one written with the desire to expose the human side of other women in the movement, most frequently in ways far more flattering to Chesler than to her colleagues. Chesler dismantles concepts of sisterhood and draws attention to inconsistencies, in-fighting, and "mean girl" behavior that impacted her relationships with, for example, Andrea Dworkin, Kate Millet, and Gloria Steinem. Chesler addresses some of the same theoretical tensions in feminism that Susan Gubar explores in True Confessions: Feminist Professors Tell Stories out of School (2011). Where Gubar writes with grace and critical acumen, Chesler displays a sense of entitlement and privilege, often setting herself apart from women and using arguments that challenge the value of what and how other women worked for social, political, and academic change. Chesler's descriptions of her sexual relationships, her experiences of academic sexism, her depictions of feminist misogyny and its impact on a movement rooted in ideas of solidarity, and her discussions of sexual assault and abortion provide valuable contexts for feminist theory along with useful parallels for more recent issues. Verdict Rarely does the book move far enough from the autobiographical to serve as a new way of thinking about feminist theory in and as practice. Professors might choose this as supplementary reading for upper division feminist theory classes.-Emily Bowles, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.