Feminist Fantasies (Hardcover)

~ Phyllis Schlafly (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her foreword, Coulter asserts that Gen-X conservative divas may have sprung from the femme fatale-cum-right-wing wellspring Schlafly established over four decades ago with her group, Eagle Forum. Schlafly's conservative thinking might have been razor-sharp 38 years ago when she wrote her ideological groundbreaker A Choice Not an Echo. In this volume, her rhetoric has retained all of its harshness but lost its intellectual edge; her writing and cant are murky and overwrought. The short essays, written throughout the 1980s and '90s, from the woman Coulter claims singlehandedly defeated the ERA, have snappy titles reminiscent of Coulter's recent Slander but lack substance, cohesion and contemporary knowledge. Schlafly presumes certain ideological and demographic traits (white, middle class, college-educated) to force her arguments that the majority of women neither have to nor want to work. Marriage and motherhood cannot sustain the travail of women working, Schlafly declares; it leads to the disintegration of the family. She cites jobs in general and military jobs in particular as a huge threat to maintaining gender difference. Rammed home in over 50 essays in which she cites unnamed and undated studies, Schlafly's thesis is this: feminism tried to destroy femininity, masculinity, marriage, motherhood and the security of both the economy and family, but has succeeded only in damaging the foundations, not crumbling the whole. Schlafly's politics, while passionate, are as out of date as Trent Lott on race.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The one person most responsible for the defeat of the equal rights amendment is nothing if not articulate, cogent, and persuasive, as page after page of this selection of her syndicated columns, statements before congressional committees, and other short writings amply attests. Altogether these pieces constitute a united front against radical feminism, and the five sections into which they are sorted represent different campaigns, so to speak, in a war against ideological extremism. "The Revolution Is Over" contains analyses and celebrations of the exhaustion of radical feminism from the 1980s on. The pieces in "The Media" expose the biases and contradictions in journalistic presentations of women's issues. In "Questioning a Woman's Place," Schlafly flays radical feminist proposals for equal rights for women, which she argues would benefit only well-to-do career women. "A Gender-Neutral Military?" devastates ongoing efforts to place women in combat, in particular, and "Marriage and Motherhood" defends traditional women's roles against unfair taxation, mandatory day care, pressure to work outside the home, and government interference with child rearing. Essential public-affairs reading. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Spence Publishing Company (February 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890626465
• ISBN-13: 978-1890626464
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #708,089 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A worthy collection of essays but could use a careful edit, April 1, 2003

By	Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This is a fine collection of the best of Schlafly's columns that center on women and the family versus feminism and the trends in modern society. They range from a very astute observation about how much time is REALLY needed to teach a child to read versus the hours of ineffective busywork in schools and how schools actually destroy the ability to learn, to trends that harm the family in our society.

This book could have used some updating and careful editing. For example, the title of the book is "Feminist Fantasies" but one of the essays deals with rape as an erotic theme in literature. Since feminists don't like rape anymore than Mrs. Schlafly, it would have been better, in my opinion, to leave out this section. Mrs. Schlafly argues in one essay that women could stay home as half their salaries are often used towards childcare. But the salary figure quoted as "comfortable" is now quite dated. Schlafly's assessment of an income that would be lavish at the time she wrote the essay would today be a hardship for a family of four in many parts of the country. In another essay, she discusses how the tax system in the US forces women out of the home. Which is really the case for the majority, that women work outside the home because they must, or to to pay for a lavish lifestyle? (I personally believe it is now primarily because the majority of women must work.) And neither essay discusses the choice of some women to use their talents, as Mrs. Schlafly certainly does, to be both mother, homemaker and also accomplished in their career. Or the choice to choose career over homemaker and the right to choose, which was afforded by co-education, the right to vote, and changes in lending laws.

I think this book would have had greater impact if some time had been spent updating, commenting and crafting the combination of essays more carefully. As an overview of Schlafly's conservative thought on these issues, this book is a valuable resource. But the book's organization and content weaken the arguments.

65 of 95 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Answering the feminists, November 10, 2003

By	William Muehlenberg (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

If there is one name in America that strikes terror in the hearts of most feminists, it is Phyllis Schlafly. For over four decades she has championed the cause of faith and family, and has resisted the radical social engineering of radical feminists, the homosexual lobby and other coercive utopians.

She is perhaps most famous for almost single-handedly knocking down the feminist Equal Rights Amendment. Her 1964 book on what women really want, A Choice Not an Echo, sold 3 million copies.

This volume is a collection of her columns, articles and essays written over the years. Arranged topically, they cover a number of important issues, including affirmative action, women in the military, the importance of marriage and family, women in the workplace, and so on. The offer some of the most insightful and challenging remarks found on these vital issues. Each pithy essay (there are around one hundred) is a minor classic.

Take for example her 1987 piece, "Why Affirmative Action is Wrong for Women". The first two (of seven) reasons are worth citing: First, "the woman receiving the benefit is not a woman who was ever discriminated against. The benefits are not targeted for the victims. Nobody should be entitled to receive a remedy for any injury suffered by someone else."

Second, "it is based on a theory of group rights as opposed to the American tradition of individual rights. Women are not a monolithic, cohesive group in which a grievance suffered by one woman should translate into a right or a remedy granted to another woman."

Or consider the so-called glass ceiling. Says Schlafly, "Just because there is a small percentage of women in senior management does not prove discrimination. It proves instead that the majority of women have made other choices - usually family choices - rather than devoting themselves to the corporate world for sixty to eighty hours a week."

The short essays contained in this book will not take long to read. But they will provide much food for thouht, rattle a few cages, and cause much mirth (depending on where you stand on the issues). With the overwhelming proliferation of the feminist worldview in the media and elsewhere, it is reassuring to know that countering voices still exist. And this is one of the best.

34 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Common Sense Never Loses Relevance, April 14, 2003

By A Customer

I'm not surprised that the Publisher's Weekly review cited above is a slam....Phyllis Schlafly has been slammed in the media her entire career.

Yep...Phyllis Schlafly pretty much single-handedly stopped the Equal Rights Amendment. But before you label her a right-wing zealot, did you know that the ERA would have made young women (even young mothers) susceptible to the military draft?

The fact of the matter is that this is a very sensible book, written by a very sensible and intelligent lady. While the P.C. forces of the world try to convince us that women aren't really THAT interested in having kids, and that kids are just as happy to be in daycare as they are to be with their own mothers, Schlafly brushes aside the baloney and speaks the truths we all know so well (but some of us refuse to admit).

The fact of the matter is that "feminism" has been judging the success of females in strictly MASCULINE terms for the last 35 years...focusing more on material wealth and power than on children and family. Schlafly demonstrates over and over again how the so-called "sexual revolution" did more to HARM women than any other social movement since WWII, what with the explosion of no-fault divorce, abortion, and single motherhood.

This little old lady has some important things to say. I am glad that I gave her a listen.