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Remembering Liberal Feminism in Radical Ways: Locating Conservative Strategies in the Narratives of Dr University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 1-1-2009 Remembering Liberal Feminism in Radical Ways: Locating Conservative Strategies in the Narratives of Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers, Tammy Bruce, and Dr. Laura Schlessinger Jenni Marie Simon University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Simon, Jenni Marie, "Remembering Liberal Feminism in Radical Ways: Locating Conservative Strategies in the Narratives of Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers, Tammy Bruce, and Dr. Laura Schlessinger" (2009). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 929. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/929 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. REMEMBERING LIBERAL FEMINISM IN RADICAL WAYS: LOCATING CONSERVATIVE STRATEGIES IN THE NARRATIVES OF DR. CHRISTINA HOFF SOMMERS, TAMMY BRUCE, AND DR. LAURA SCHLESSINGER __________ A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Social Sciences University of Denver __________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy __________ by Jenni M. Simon November 2009 Advisor: Dr. Christina Foust Author: Jenni M. Simon Title: REMEMBERING LIBERAL FEMINISM IN RADICAL WAYS: LOCATING CONSERVATIVE STRATEGIES IN THE NARRATIVES OF DR. CHRISTINA HOFF SOMMERS, TAMMY BRUCE, AND DR. LAURA SCHLESSINGER Advisor: Dr. Christina R. Foust Degree Date: November, 2009 ABSTRACT This dissertation identifies and challenges post-feminist narratives that remember the second wave or 1960s and 1970s liberal feminism as a radical form of activism. The narratives of three prominent post-feminist authors: Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers, Tammy Bruce and Dr. Laura Schlessinger are used as examples of how identification works as a rhetorical device that motivates individual actors to join in a struggle against liberal and radical feminist ideologies. I argue that each author draws on classically liberal and politically conservative virtues to define a “true” feminism that is at odds with alternative feminist commitments. I demonstrate how these authors create a subject position of a “true feminist” that is reminiscent of the classically liberal suffragist. In Burkean terms, each author constitutes the suffragist as a friend and juxtaposes her with the enemy— modern liberal and radical feminists. I articulate the consequences of such dialectical portrayals of feminist activism and further suggest that these authors’ visions of feminism reinforce patriarchal practices, urging women to assimilate into a classically liberal society at the cost of social justice. In opposition to their memories of feminism, I offer a radical democratic approach of remembering feminism that is less concerned with the definition of feminism or feminist than it is with holistically addressing oppression and what oppression means to subjugated populations. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Christina Foust for her dedication to this project and the insight she has provided throughout its various stages. She has been an inspiration in her teaching, advising, and scholarship and I am fortunate to have her as an advisor. I would also like to extend my gratitude to my committee: Dr. Dan Lair, Dr. Kate Willink and Dr. Ann Dobyns. I appreciate their willingness to participate and their guidance. I would like to thank Dr. Richard Lee, whose untimely passing precludes him from reading this work, but rest assured, this dissertation, and my career would never have occurred without his careful mentoring. Finally, I would like to thank my family: My parents who serve as extraordinary role models, my sister, without whom I would have been very lonely trudging home from school in the South Dakota winters, and finally Daniel Simon. Danny, you are a pal and partner in every sense. I can never adequately thank you for your support, love and consistency throughout our lives and my education. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One ........................................................................................................................ 1 Collective Memory and Cultural Narratives ................................................................. 13 Liberal Feminism from its Classically Liberal Conceptions to its “Radical” Turn ...... 17 Introducing Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers, Tammy Bruce, and “Dr. Laura” Schlessinger ...................................................................................................................................... 20 Chapter Two ..................................................................................................................... 26 A Framework of Feminism: The Movement and Hoff Sommers’ Backlash ................ 29 Classically Liberal Thought as Ideology ...................................................................... 42 Solidifying a Subjectivity: Reconstituting the Suffragist as the Modern Day Feminist55 Drawing Conclusions: Implications of Equity Feminism ............................................. 62 Chapter Three ................................................................................................................... 67 Classically Liberal Thought and the New American Individual .................................. 71 NOW, Liberal Feminism, and the Authentic Feminist ................................................. 92 Conclusions and Implications ..................................................................................... 102 Chapter Four ................................................................................................................... 110 The Cult of True Womanhood: Constructing Identity with the Archetypal “True Woman” ...................................................................................................................... 114 Classically Liberal Thought and True Womanhood ................................................... 128 Collective Memory: Home, Family, and Feminism ................................................... 142 Drawing Conclusions: Collective Memory and Social Movements ........................... 144 Chapter Five .................................................................................................................... 150 Review: Re-membering a Liberal Feminism in a Post-Feminist Context .................. 153 Consequences of Remembering: Foreclosure and Censure ........................................ 164 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 171 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 175 iv Chapter One Introduction Feminist scholars have taken up the task of unpacking “why feminism remains marginalized and why power imbalances between men and women remain intractable.”1 In doing so, we have been implored to expose “virulently antifeminist organizations and campaigns at work in contemporary and political culture.”2 At the heart of such challenges is the assumption that within contemporary society, there remains strong opposition to social projects dedicated to gender equality and gender liberation. One method of meeting the challenges posed above is to confront prominent cultural narratives that continue to discipline gender and gender performance. In this dissertation, I argue that challenges to modern feminism come largely from conservative discourses that remember the liberal feminism of 1960s and 1970s as a radical form of activism. Three classically liberal and conservative political pundits exemplify the use of memories to discredit contemporary feminism, and sustain patriarchy: Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers, Tammy Bruce, and Dr. Laura Schlessinger. I consider their memories of the first wave, and 1960s and 1970s feminism, as a body of rhetoric in the following chapters. These narrative memories participate in a larger cultural narrative that “remembers” and “re-presents” feminism in the modern era, 1 Bonnie J. Dow and Celeste M. Condit, “State of the Art in Feminist Scholarship,” Journal of Communication, 55, (2005): 467. 2 Ibid. 1 revealing the overtly political act of collective remembering—a social process that is both inherently selective and always partial.3 Collective memories shape the social realities of a collectivity and support political attitudes through a partial memory of past events.4 Collective memory is an organizing tool that helps a group “make sense” of its history. It provides a means of foreclosing the possibilities for interpreting or understanding the past, and effectively allows a group to discipline social practices in the present. As Morris explains, “public memory is perhaps best conceived as an amalgam of the current hegemonic bloc’s cultural memory,” a grouping of partial recollections and interpretations that help to control current social attitudes and beliefs.5 This project employs collective memory as an interpretive tool to unpack the manner in which Hoff Sommers’, Bruce’s and Schlessinger’s narratives selectively remember liberal feminist activism. In addition, they not only discipline the movement, but contain it to the past. As this project will ultimately reveal, the authors’ memories define
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