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No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays
Essays addressing issues of feminism, politics, and culture in the Reagan era and beyond confront the conservative backlash that has eroded the ideals of the 1960s and explore the internal debates that have splintered the political left
294 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1992
16 people are currently reading
1624 people want to read
About the author
Ellen Willis
24 books61 followersEllen Jane Willis was an American left-wing political essayist, journalist, and pop music critic.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 22, 2012
This is a collection of well-written and insightful essays, mostly on identity politics and feminism/sex radicalism. My favorite quote from the book is: "Western advocates of a post-modern politics are reacting to a hegemonic Marxism turned instrument of domination. Insisting on a variety of voices, a multiplicity of movements, and the decentralized guerilla tactics of deconstructive critique is a logical and healthy response. Yet it's not enough. Ideally, there should be a creative tension between building models of totality and tearing them down. Or, as two of our great systemic thinkers called it, a dialectic."
July 22, 2012
It's been a long time since I've read anything this garbled or confused.
On the one hand, Willis admits that patriarchy is institutional and systematic (not random or idiosyncratic in the lives of some individual women) - for instance, she admits that liberal feminism is nonsensical. But at the same time, she frequently talks about abstract systems and refuses to name the agent (i.e. men) of women's oppression. She talks about abstract systems and institutions, conveniently ignoring who controls/maintains/benefits from those institutions (men). She waxes sentimental about how patriarchy and standard gender roles are oppressive to men and hurt their feelings, but refuses to consider the fact men nevertheless choose to maintain the status quo because it benefits them materially and sexually. For someone who is ostensibly concerned about men and their humanity, Willis refuses to consider that her morally infantilizing men and cloaking them from taking responsibility for their actions is actually harming them a million times more than any radical feminist critique of (the current paradigm of) male sexuality.
Most laughably of all, she dismisses radical feminist discourse as "Neo-Victorian", as though prudishness and Puritanical sexual repression are the only reasons any woman could possibly have for abhoring rape and pornography. It is these sorts of reductiones ad absurdum, couple with breath-taking confusion about power and gender under patriarchy, that make it borderline impossible to take her seriously. If the sexploitation-positive crowd wants to engage in substantive debate and argumentation with radical feminists, abstaining from absurd charicatures of our views would be a great place to start.
On the one hand, Willis admits that patriarchy is institutional and systematic (not random or idiosyncratic in the lives of some individual women) - for instance, she admits that liberal feminism is nonsensical. But at the same time, she frequently talks about abstract systems and refuses to name the agent (i.e. men) of women's oppression. She talks about abstract systems and institutions, conveniently ignoring who controls/maintains/benefits from those institutions (men). She waxes sentimental about how patriarchy and standard gender roles are oppressive to men and hurt their feelings, but refuses to consider the fact men nevertheless choose to maintain the status quo because it benefits them materially and sexually. For someone who is ostensibly concerned about men and their humanity, Willis refuses to consider that her morally infantilizing men and cloaking them from taking responsibility for their actions is actually harming them a million times more than any radical feminist critique of (the current paradigm of) male sexuality.
Most laughably of all, she dismisses radical feminist discourse as "Neo-Victorian", as though prudishness and Puritanical sexual repression are the only reasons any woman could possibly have for abhoring rape and pornography. It is these sorts of reductiones ad absurdum, couple with breath-taking confusion about power and gender under patriarchy, that make it borderline impossible to take her seriously. If the sexploitation-positive crowd wants to engage in substantive debate and argumentation with radical feminists, abstaining from absurd charicatures of our views would be a great place to start.
March 19, 2009
witty, informative, and frequently cutting. just how i like my feminist lit.
February 11, 2011
Ellen Willis was the head of the journalism program I was in at NYU. She was brilliant. She passed away in 2006.
December 9, 2010
This is something I should have read 20 years ago, when it first came out and Radical Feminism was making waves and taking hostages.
It's difficult. Especially the stuff I don't agree with, such as her Reichian analysis offered to replace Freud's Oedipal & Electra complexes, which I don't agree with either. Fortunately she writes very well, despite the heavy stuff. Some goes down like good scotch. Some I have to stop after every paragraph to re-read so I can see if she says what I think she says, and how I feel about it. Her contempt for Dworkin is only matched by her anger and contempt for Freidan (yes, her).
Good fun and serious stuff about who we are and what matters about how we think about ourselves. Now, perhaps even more than more than ever, I could use a 60's hippie-chick telling me that I have an absolute right to my sexual joy, and so do you, and uh, can a buy you a drink?
It's difficult. Especially the stuff I don't agree with, such as her Reichian analysis offered to replace Freud's Oedipal & Electra complexes, which I don't agree with either. Fortunately she writes very well, despite the heavy stuff. Some goes down like good scotch. Some I have to stop after every paragraph to re-read so I can see if she says what I think she says, and how I feel about it. Her contempt for Dworkin is only matched by her anger and contempt for Freidan (yes, her).
Good fun and serious stuff about who we are and what matters about how we think about ourselves. Now, perhaps even more than more than ever, I could use a 60's hippie-chick telling me that I have an absolute right to my sexual joy, and so do you, and uh, can a buy you a drink?
March 29, 2008
This collection of essays will come as a shining relief and call to action for those of us who have been confused and angered by some of the turns taken by feminism in the 70s and 80s. Willis rejects cultural feminism and that which would place women on a pedestal, instead championing true equality rather than victimhood.
December 30, 2023
This book of essays describe a time in which Reagan was president, the Vietnam war was ongoing, and Roe v Wade won. The first half was hugely interesting--I was so intrigued at the ways Willis describes her experience as a Jewish feminist operating within Marxist and psychoanalyst circles. I think this book has aged fairly well, though there were some things that I disagreed with (namely her stance on pornography. Luckily Willis didn't live in a time where boys and men had 24/7 access to pornography on a pocket-sized device). However, this is probably not due to the fact that this book is now about 30 or 40 years old, but due to the fact that we simply disagree. I also found her arguments compelling and totally understandable--I get why she feels the way she does! And it enlightened me to an actual well-spoken difference in our experiences.
The latter half is about her lived experience in the United States, having traveled across the country by bus. She also discusses art criticism and more. Definitely a great read for all areas!
The latter half is about her lived experience in the United States, having traveled across the country by bus. She also discusses art criticism and more. Definitely a great read for all areas!
January 25, 2024
Contrary to the punkish title, this wonderful essay collection reveals Ellen Willis to be the best type of radical leftist: an eminently pragmatic one. Her methodical and well-argued thoughts on no fault divorce and intersectional feminism are very much ahead of their time and still incredibly cogent today (even if she is wrong about bell hooks). There's a nimble and principled critique of Betty Friedan about her neoliberalism and how she co-opted many of the radical strains of feminism. It's still just as applicable to the Roxane Gays and what I style the "capitalist neoliberal grifter" school of feminism and remains a mercantile anti-intellectualism that one needs to stay alert for. Not all the essays work, particularly when Willis strays into a 1970s progressive pastiche of sorts involving President Ray Gun, but this volume does reveal Willis's wonderful perspicacious mind, which was a hell of a lot more than an up-market rock critic. Given how awful journalism is today, it's astonishing that many of these thoughtful pieces ran in newspapers (and the much belated o.g. Voice).
March 27, 2020
Interesting look at a time
Feminism in the late 70s and 80s was new, but sort of the same as now. I would like to see these topics updated to 2020, but some of them wouldn't need to be.
Feminism in the late 70s and 80s was new, but sort of the same as now. I would like to see these topics updated to 2020, but some of them wouldn't need to be.
Want to read
May 12, 2015PUL
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews