The Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism

by Dorchen Leidholdt (Editor), Janice G. Raymond (Editor)

Essays which originated as speeches and panel presentations at a conference on April 6, 1987, at the New York University Law School.

Contents:
Liberalism and the death of feminism / Catharine A. MacKinnon
Sexology and antifeminism / Sheila Jeffreys
Woman-hating right and left / Andrea Dworkin
Making an issue of incest / Louise Armstrong
Taking our eyes off the guys / Sonia Johnson
Family matters / Ann Jones
Confronting the liberal lies about prostitution / Evelina Giobbe
The new reproductive technologies / Gena Corea
Mothers on trial : custody and the "Baby M" case/ Phyllis Chesler
Sexual and reproductive liberalism / Janice G. Raymond
In the best interest of the sperm / Pauline B. Bart
Abortion and pornography / Twiss Butler
When women defend pornography / Dorchen Leidholdt
Eroticizing women's subordination / Sheila Jeffreys
Resistance / Andrea Dworkin
Sex resistance in heterosexual arrangements / A Southern Women's WritingCollective
Toward a feminist praxis of sexuality / Wendy Stock
Sexual liberalism and survivors of sexual abuse / Valerie Heller
The many faces of backlash / Florence Rush
Liberals, libertarianism and the liberal arts establishment / Susanne Kappeler
You can't fight homophobia and protect the pornographers at the same time / John Stoltenberg
A view from another country / Susan G. Cole
Women and civil liberties / Kathleen A. Lahey
Be-witching / Mary Dale. Not a sentimental journey: women's friendships / Janice G. Raymond

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Sexuality, Politics, Essays, Anthologies, Theory

256 pages, Softcover

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful, brilliant summary of the problems with "if it gives someone a boner it can't be bad"-style lee-bruhl-ism, and the disastrous consequences that that's had for women/feminism. Highly recommended.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good intro into what being sex/kink critical is really all about. I really wish I read this when I was younger and gleaned a better understanding that sex, like many other aspects including gender itself, is a social construction. You might not be literally "brainwashed" but that stuff - porn, pop culture, etc. - does mess with your preferences and desires. And that being said, the very superficial and vapid rhetoric of a woman making "choices" and that's therefore empowering - simply isn't enough anymore.

[A.M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is probably best approached as a document/artifact from the end of an era in feminism sometimes referred to as the Sex Wars. These began in the 1970s with disagreements over issues like pornography, prostitution, and political lesbianism (or even celibacy). Depending on who you talk to, it was a war between the anti-sex/sex-negative feminism and pro-sex/sex-positive feminism, or between radical/cultural feminism and liberal feminism (The latter is a somewhat tougher definition to argue for, as some of the sex-positive crowd would class as some kind of radical leftist. But no matter). These issues came to a head in the mid-80s, when McKinnon and Dworkin pushed for anti-pornography legislation, which other feminists fought against.

Many feminists on the side of McKinnon/Dworkin refused to regard these "sexual liberals" as true feminists. Those in the liberal camp tended not to go this far, accepting the radicals as feminists while keeping a distance. After this period, the movement began to reassess some of its approach, became more diverse and more self-critical, leading to the 3rd wave.

This book was published in 1990 and the majority of the works included were drawn from panel lectures at a conference of the same name, held in 1987 at the New York University Law School. It features many of the key players in radical cultural feminism, like Dworkin, McKinnon, Daly, and so forth. Many of the names I was less familiar with, but after researching do not seem minor.

For anyone trying to get a picture of the period and its aftermath, this is a pretty good document of everything from the perspective of the cultural, radical, "sex-negative" crowd. How you rate it might well depend on how you generally react to this kind of rhetoric, or how far you're willing to go with some of the arguments.

While I am not a fan of Dworkin and her ilk, one criticism that radical feminism still have a valid point on is the issue of "choice" or any kind of feminism that emphasizes this as the ultimate goal. They rightly acknowledge that even choices that seem freely made are influenced by our culture (hence "cultural feminism") or are otherwise constrained in such a way that it is preferable to uphold restrictive gender roles. Culture doesn't change when people continue to make the same choices. We can't just wave these concerns away by declaring, "Well, now women have a choice whether to be housewives or CEOs, problem solved!" Especially not if they continue falling into the same patterns.

Another legitimate argument throughout these pieces is the tendency of sexual liberals to hand-wave at certain problems. For instance, I support legalized (or at least decriminalized) prostitution, but I'd never argue that the majority of prostitutes freely chose their careers. Statistically, there's just not much support for it. Yet some people who share my position just blithely shrug it off. Sometimes we do need to look beyond the issue of rights and consider whether someone's being harmed.

Ultimately, however, I side with the "sexual liberals" and believe the tactics chosen by Dworkin et. al. are misguided and even at times Puritanical. Their all or nothing ideological approach means that they don't always look critically at their statistics or methodological approach. They see all sex as utterly tainted--total depravity the feminist edition. They're incapable of seeing fantasy and play as a potential for working-through our programming, of even acknowledging fantasy is just that. The complaints go on and on and on.

So yes, an interesting document of an era and worth reading if you want to know something about the commonly cited figures within radical/cultural feminism. It gives a more realistic picture than cherry-picked quotes ever will.

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of thought-provoking stuff!! Kinda a bummer to read something from 1990 talking about their fears that substantive work on important issues was grinding to a halt and their hopes the trend could be reversed, when what they tried to prevent ended up escalating in a lot of ways since then. Good though

[Manu Schon · Rating 5 out of 5]

YES YES YES. This book is a treasure. Full of powerfull speeches and valuable short essays. We can learn so much of all these great women and men that contributed to this. Read about the betrayal of the liberals - it is all summed up here.

[M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't get on board with the anti-family, pro-abortion, even at times anti-sex (a radical celibacy which is purely politically motivated), other times it's about a political homosexuality, or the anarchy / Marxism. The tension radical feminists must live in by simultaneously wanting abortion on demand while knowing this automatically benefits sexually liberal men is part of the reason why I don't want to be in their shoes.

I can't agree with Mary Daly's paganism (the fact that she was a Catholic theology teacher for years despite this is baffling, but it's not the first time a radical feminist sort of "infiltrates" or becomes one while in the Catholic Church), I found her text unsufferable.

That being said, this text deserves four stars because it makes some good points against assisted reproductive technology, which enslave and harm women, the "choice" rhetoric of sexual liberalism and libertarianism in the shape of prostitution and pornography, as well as it questions mainstream sexology, psychology and their shaky foundations.

[Sabrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I want a women’s revolution like a lover. I lust for it, I want so much this freedom, this end to struggle and fear and lies we all exhale, that I could die just with the passionate uttering of that desire.”

[Grace · Rating 1 out of 5]

I attempted to read this so I could like know my enemy but didn't even make it a page in before I was too offended and upset to continue. I did look at the index to find their commentary on works that I've read and thus found an absolutely ridiculous analysis of "What We're Rolling Around in Bed With" (Moraga & Hollibaugh) based on a literal interpretation of like 2 sentences in the essay (I may be judging this on a similarly brief part of it, but I'm sure not saying terrible things its authors' identities).

[Meen]

I'm kinda scared to read this one b/c I AM a sexual liberal! :)

[Charlie Sanjaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, this is more of a mixed bag with some essays better than the others, but I can't overestimate its importance in the contemporary feminist discourse.

[Rosie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of the writings of many fantastic, house-hold radical feminist names. My favorites were Sheila Jeffreys, Andrea Dworkin, and Catharine MacKinnon. Least favorite: Mary Daly. Sorry - I can't ever get behind her use of language. For some reason, it just infuriates and irritates me, her weird, hambly pambly, spiritual, unserious, playful, semi-pretentious writing.

In general, this was a good collection, but some of the writing wasn't as interesting or well written as others, or I didn't agree with it all, so the five star rating I was original planning on giving this at the beginning will have to be downgraded to a four. Nonetheless, do read this! It's incredible all these women got together to write this, and the subject/general thesis is certainly a vitally important one that I agree with wholeheartedly.

[Eavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not of uniform quality, but interesting from a historical perspective.