Review: I.M.A. Lederer on "The Death of Feminism" by Phyllis Chesler

ISRAEL HORIZONS - Summer 2006 

REVIEW by I. M. A. Lederer

THE DEATH OF FEMINISM: What's Next in the Struggle for Women's Freedom By Phyllis Chesler; Palgrave/Macmillian, 2005, 241 pp., hardcover, $24.95.

For those who prefer brief reviews, just this: Phyllis Chesler, author of the excellent WOMEN AND MADNESS, has radically changed her politics and her associates. Anyone sensitive to the escalating shrillness of the Israel-Palestine debate can understand the rationalizations and rage leading her to vote for George W. Bush and to write THE DEATH OF FEMINISM, a misleading title that belies its apparent main purpose — promoting an irredeemably negative view of Islam. One would wish Dr. Chesler a period of quiet contemplation leading to a more constructive response and a return to battle with more trustworthy allies. For readers desiring greater detail, read on.

Chomsky Moment

Early in the '80s, former ISRAEL HORIZONS editor Arieh Lebowitz accompanied me to a "teach-in" at Rutgers University. We knew that the sponsoring organization, despite Jewish participation, was moderately critical of Israel.

A young Palestinian man and I had been invited to lead a workshop following keynote speaker, Noam Chomsky, whose rambling tirade included frequent references to Israel as "little Satan," doing the bidding of "big Satan," the US. Chomsky took three times as long as scheduled, leaving the moderate Arab and the progressive Zionist barely half an hour for dialogue. Chomsky, an international celebrity, correctly assumed that no one would dare remind him of time constraints. Infuriated at Chomsky's tone and the jubilant reception he received, I told Arieh I was almost glad "that there's a Meir Kahane and an Arik Sharon." I expected Arieh's disapproval, but he admitted to negative feelings of his own and understood that my visceral response would soon give way to sanity.

This memory helps me understand THE DEATH OF FEMINISM — to a point. Phyllis Chesler has undoubtedly been provoked by the ignorance and go-for-the-jugular viciousness of circles she once considered her political home....

Feminism

The feminist movement, in which Phyllis had thrived and of which she now despairs, was indeed as described in THE DEATH OF FEMINISM. What a pity she didn't recognize sooner the anti-Semitism and other nasty elements in "the movement." Had it been led by, say, Barbara Ehrenreich and Barbara Jordan, less focused on getting goodies for middle class white women and the joys of "sexual freedom," the right would never have been permitted to abscond with its devious slogan, "Right to Life."

Whose life? Educated wealthy and middle-class white women have always had access to medically safe abortions. The majority of women, the most disadvantaged, in the climate which prevailed until the '70s — when a child out of wedlock or an extra mouth to feed meant disgrace, suffering, and even a bloody death — were desperate for relief. The movement's finest achievement, Roe V. Wade, brought that relief.

The movement splintered and lost support, partly because the focus on "choice" — as against what should have been denounced as the "right to life" for the fetus without concern for actual air-breathing children — convinced people (by no means all Republican, white or wealthy) that feminism was about promiscuous, frivolous and selfish females.

Unfortunately, that's not what THE DEATH OF FEMINISM explores. The third or so of this book dealing with the movement (the National Organization of Women and its offshoots) is Chesler's pointed finger at those who turned on her after she announced voting for George W. and began appearing with various right-wing Jewish groups for whom any criticism of Israel government policy is proof of anti-Semitism.

The movement's lip-service to "international solidarity" excused the warts of foreign cultures while denouncing the shortcomings of its own. Focused on achieving the best for the most privileged — in the boardroom, bedroom and in the courts — it ignored the majority of women, whose goal was survival, not fulfillment.

Despairing of old friends, this book may be the result of Chesler's own "Chomsky moment." What she wants us to support is something else entirely. Saying she "recants none of the visionary ideals of Second Wave feminism," not questioning whether support of those "visionary ideals" did not encourage the behavior she criticizes today, she lacks insight into the fact that others — no less visionary, no less feminist, and certainly no less loyal to Israel and the Jewish people — reject Bush and the goals and tactics of her new allies on the Christian and Jewish right.

It's not just the vote for W. Can she not see that the neo-conservative Jews serving the Bush administration only prove that even supposedly brilliant Jews don't understand how history repeats itself? They can't envision that they may be used yet again, albeit in the older way. (It's begun already, as stated in the Forward front-page editorial of March 24, "In Dark Times Blame the Jews," on Professors Mearsheimer and Walt)....

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