Professing Feminism: Cautionary Tales from the Strange World of Women's Studies (Paperback)

~ (Author), Noretta Koertge (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Two academics offer an unsparing account of the problems within women's studies programs.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Dismayed by what they claim are the dogmatic methods inherent in many women's studies programs, Patai and Koertge, two feminist academics, urgently call for introspection and reform. Recounting the experiences of colleagues who have grown alienated and disenchanted with the movement, the authors convincingly demonstrate that on many campuses feminist scholarship is being subverted by indoctrination, separatism, political agendas, and a militant intolerance for opposing viewpoints. The authors call for a new "humanistic feminism" that promotes the liberal principle of tolerance and inquiry. This study should alert concerned women to the dangers of ideological chauvinism and serve as a guide for the realignment of women's programs. Essential reading for anyone involved in women's studies.
Carol McAllister, Coll. of William & Mary Lib., Williamsburg, Va.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (October 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465098274
• ISBN-13: 978-0465098279
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #997,103 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest and Forthright, a Much Needed Investigation, April 8, 1999

By A Customer

Professing Feminism, Cautionary Tales From the Strange World of Women's Studies; is without doubt one of the most honest and forthright evaluations of the "discipline" Women's Studies ever written. Like "Who Stole Feminism" by Christina Hoff Sommers, it is a rather chilling tale of a noble endeavor transformed in to a totalitarian nightmare of ideological thought policing.

It is not written not by opponents of feminism but rather by strong and committed supporters, who are dismayed at the ever increasing radicalization and identity chauvinism of feminist activists in the Academy. Using "feminist" techniques of investigation (eg. experiential sharing ), as well as juxtaposition against the methodology of more conventional academic disciplines, this book exposes some of the serious and possibly crippling shortcomings of what "Women's Studies" has become.

The two female authors come from different perspectives and lifestyles, and yet found the courage to face facts about the ideological intolerance and thought policing increasingly common to this field. Their approach was to try and help fix what was wrong, rather than deliver negative information into the hands of the (ever growing) enemies of radical feminism. Unfortunately, their book has been mainly shunned by the very institutions and individuals it sought to reach, and in some cases stolen from libraries and destroyed as heresy.

Given the increasing polarization of "Women's Studies" from the rest of mainstream academia, and the burn down the meeting house approach of ever more radical activists, who would see the whole academy converted to their ideology -- or else, it is no surprise this book was so quickly suppressed. For those who can still find a copy, you will be impressed by the candor and honesty of the authors, who feel that the best way to preserve the valid and worthwhile facets of feminism is to honestly look at the attempts to subvert and control the agenda by radicals, who in turn have treated the authors in a manner similar to Christina Hoff Sommers, as Traitors to their Gender deserving only of shunning.

If you can find a copy, reading it will open up whole new perspectives on what Women's studies purported to be, and what the academic gravy train of financial empowerment through intimidation has allowed it to become.

Truly, a Cautionary Tale. Sadly, one that it is actively being suppressed by the radicals it seeks to expose and debunk.

5 Stars

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What happened to altruism?, May 27, 2000

By	Timothy P. Scanlon (Hyattsville, MDUSA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Professing Feminism: Cautionary Tales from the Strange World of Women's Studies (Hardcover)

The 1960s seemed like a good decade. The Vietnam war gave at least those of us of "the affluent society" something to fight against; many people, black and white, fought for the successes of the civil rights movement; "women's lib," which had its conspicuous beginnings in earlier centuries, gained strength with women's education and consciousness of inequities.

But something went wrong. The later 20th century reinterpretation of the benefits of the 60s contradicted the gains. Persons once sought equality. Now we find identity politics in which the allegedly downtrodden--often the more privileged segments of oppressed (sometimes really oppressed and sometimes self-designated as such) classes--depend on their status as victims to claim a new identity distinct--segregated--from AND morally superior to the rest of us. This book is an analysis of one sample of that segregation.

As earlier reviews have noted, the authors are not right-wing, "religious right," or other activists from whom one would expect a refutation of anything feminist. On the contrary, they are feminists themselves, and scholars. (Dr. Koertge has edited at least two other books in my libary on dimensions of critical thinking, of which she is an advocate. Such thinking is a rarity among the feminists the authors interviewed to write the book). They interviewed women, many of whom had enough faith in their movement to start women's studies programs. Yet some even of those pioneers left that movement quite disillusioned. After all the intellectual effort that went into creating such programs, various lesbian organizations claimed that a woman could not be feminist "enough" unless also lesbian, i.e., rejecting all that is ostensibly male; women not inclined to "true" or particularly zealous feminism were rejected by their women's studies classmates and faculty as, in effect, incomplete women; opinions differing from those of the zealots were seen as virtually seditious. So the "left" became the mirror image of the oppressive "right" it claimed to oppose on the historical day before.

Each chapter covers something else about this "movement" that, when not comical, is a sample of near fascism. From language perversions and interpretations used by the zealots to ensure their status as oppressed, to "social construction" amounting to no more than revisionist pseudo-science. I appreciate too the authors' perception that much of the feminist (and other!) rhetoric of the academy is more trendy than substantial. (No, I'm not making an anti-academic commentary. Rather, I'm corroborating that what I often hear from the "academic left" whose ideology one must buy to make heads or tails out of their balderdash!) And all too many of the women's studies faculty the authors talked with reject conventional scholarly practice. The authors plead for a return to that practice. (Portions of the book reminded me of a neighbor of mine, a Ph.D. who works for the government. She's a bright woman who "left academia" because those on the "academic left," despite their pathetically weak or nonexistene arguments, would even allow her to disagree with them!)

A chapter points out too that, while many of us would like to believe that the sort of "feminists" to whom the authors refer are a tiny minority of extremists, they are actually the rule rather than the exception. (And, as I work with many a "left" organization, feminist and in other dimensions "political," I corroborate that too; anti-racists, for example--nearly always white--who define racism to include anything they choose to disagree with, thereby excluding nearly everyone from their social and moral status).

The book is out of print at this point. One of the authors e-mailed me that they are working on a second edition. Hoping I could help them with a little critical advice, I suggested they consider eliminating some acronyms they created, e.g., "IDPOL" for "identity politics" and, coincidentally, "ideological policing," "TOTALREJ," and "WORDMAGIC." I felt, when I was about half way through the book, that these little word plays may minimize the impact of what the authors were saying. After completing the book I don't feel as strongly that way. If it's even possible that those "words" can evoke discussion of the issues, then the book has served a great political purpose: pursuit of the truth.

Needless to say, I recommend the book. My hope is that it's not just read by "the choir," but develops a following of its own. While some feminists reading this review will label me anti-feminist, I stress that I am far from that. I do, however, challenge any group that segregates itself based on false reasoning or pretentious morality, especially a group that claims it's fighting segregation and inequality.

What do I mean? Read the book, the original, or the revised edition. Then we can talk.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars They've got it right, July 20, 2001

By A Customer

I wish to god this book had been available when I was an undergrad at a university that was a nightmare of PC. Deserves to be kept in print until the current generation of posturing wackos have faded away.