A while back, I gave the world the finger about it’s dissing of mainstream feminism for not being all things to all people on every corner in every village at every moment everywhere on the planet even as misogyny reigns unchecked. Katha Pollitt, at The Nation, agrees; we’re both fed up with Cro Magnons trolling to see which feminist hasn’t denounced, and single handedly ended, the atrocity of the day. She’s circulating the below open letter which I proudly signed. Last count, she was at about 500 names. I hope it reaches a million. No, writing open letters doesn’t save a raped woman from Sharia law in Nigeria. They just tell you to kiss off while we work on it, which is a hell of a lot more than the folks at National Review are doing. Hell no, I won’t link to them.
An Open Letter from American Feminists
Columnists and opinion writers from The Weekly Standard to the Washington Post to Slate have recently accused American feminists of focusing obsessively on minor or even nonexistent injustices in the United States while ignoring atrocities against women in other countries, especially the Muslim world. A number of reasons are given for this supposed neglect: narcissism, ideological rigidity, reflexive anti-Americanism, fear of seeming insensitive or even racist. Yet what is the evidence for this apparently now broadly accepted claim that feminists don’t support the struggles of women around the globe? It usually comes down to a quick scan of the home page of the National Organization for Women’s website, observing that a particular writer hasn’t covered a particular outrage, plus a handful of quotes wrenched out of context.
In fact, as a bit of research would easily show, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of US feminist organizations involved in promoting women’s rights and well-being around the globe — V-Day, Equality Now, MADRE, the Global Fund for Women, the International Women’s Health Coalition and Feminist Majority, to name some of the most prominent. (The National Organization for Women itself has a section on its website devoted to global feminism, on which it denounces a wide array of practices including female genital mutilation (FGM), “honor” murder, trafficking, dowry deaths and domestic violence). Feminists at Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations have moved those organizations to add the rights of women and girls to their agenda. Feminist magazines and blogs– Ms, Feministing.com, Salon.com’s Broadsheet feature, womensenews,com (which has an edition in Arabic) — as well as feminist reporters and commentators in the mainstream media, regularly report on and condemn outrages against women wherever they occur, from rape, battery and murder in the US to the denial of women’s human rights in the developing or Muslim world.
As feminists, we call on journalists and opinion writers to report the true position of our movement. We believe that women’s rights are human rights, and stand in solidarity with our sisters who are fighting for equal political, economic, social and reproductive rights around the globe. Specifically, contrary to the accusations of pundits, we support their struggle against female genital mutilation, “honor” murder, forced marriage, child marriage, compulsory Islamic dress codes, the criminalization of sex outside marriage, brutal punishments like lashing and stoning, family laws that favor men and that place adult women under the legal power of fathers, brothers, and husbands, and laws that discount legal testimony made by women. We strongly oppose the denial of education, health care and equal political and economic rights to women.
We reject the use of women’s rights language to justify invading foreign countries. Instead, we call on the United States government to live up to its expressed commitment to women’s rights through peaceful means. Specifically, we call upon it to:
– offer asylum to women and girls fleeing gender-based persecution, including female genital mutilation, domestic violence, and forced marriage;
– promote women’s rights and well-being in all their foreign policy and foreign aid decisions;
– use its diplomatic powers to pressure its allies — especially Saudi Arabia, one of the most oppressive countries in the world for women — to embrace women’s rights;
– drop the Mexico City policy–aka the ‘gag rule’–which bars funds for AIDS-related and contraception-related health services abroad if they provide abortions, abortion information, or advocate for legalizing abortion;
– generously support the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which supports women’s reproductive health including safe maternity around the globe, and whose funding is vetoed every year by President Bush;
– become a signatory to The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the basic UN women’s human rights document, now signed by 185 nations. The US is one of a handful of holdouts, along with Iran, Sudan, and Somalia.
Finally, we call upon the United States, and all the industrialized nations of the West, to share their unprecedented wealth, often gained at the expense of the developing world, with those who need it in such a way that women benefit.
Signed,
Katha Pollitt, writer
Marge Piercy, writer
Susan Faludi, writer
Alix Kates Shulman, writer
Julianne Malveaux, President, Bennett College for Women
Anne Lamott, writer
Mary Gordon, writer
Linda Gordon, historian, NYU
Judith Ezekiel, historian, Wright State U/U de Toulouse
Jennifer Baumgardner, writer
Ruth Rosen, historian
Jane Smiley, writer
Anna Fels, MD, psychiatrist and writer
Debra Dickerson, writer/blogger, MotherJones.com
Margo Jefferson, writer
Jessica Valenti, writer/blogger, www.feministing.com
Dana Goldstein, The American Prospect
Karen Houppert, writer
Gloria Jacobs, The Feminist Press
Carole Joffe, Sociology, UC Davis
Janet Afary, Middle East Historian, Purdue University
Barrie Thorne, Chair,Gender & Women’s Studies, UC, Berkeley
Catharine R. Stimpson, Dean, NYU
Lakshmi Chaudhry, writer
Rosalyn Baxandall, chair, American Studies SUNY-Old Westbury
Naomi Weisstein
Alisa Solomon,writer
Barbara Bick
Amy Swerdlow
Kathryn Scarbrough
Bea Kreloff, Drucilla Cornell, prof., political science, women’s studies,comp lit, Rutgers.
Sonia Jaffe Robbins, writer/editor
Laura X, activist
Linda Stein, sculptor
Stephanie Gilmore, historian, Trinity College
Ariel Dougherty, Media Equity Collaborative, co-founder of Women Make Movies
Amie Newman, Associate editor, RH Reality check
Merle Hoffman, Choices Women’s Medical Center and On the Issues magazine
Adele M. Stan, columnist, American Prospect Online
Michelle Goldberg, writer
Agnieszka Graff, scholar, writer and activist, Warsaw, Poland
Margaret Morgenroth Gullette, Women’s Studies Research Center, Brandeis
Eleanor Bader, writer and educator
Eileen Boris, Hull Professor, Women’s Studies UCSB
Cynthia L Cooper, “words of choice”
Jennifer Pozner, Women in Media and News
Dolores Hayden, prof, Yale
Kelli Zaytoun, English and women’s Studies, Wright State U
Laura Ross, liaison, Indigenous Women’s Political Caucus
Melody Berger, writer
Donna Schaper, Senior minister, Judson memorial church
Carol Sternhell, professor of journalism NYU
Mari Matsuda, law professor, PLACE TK
Michele Barry, professor of medicine and global health yale
Meredith Tax, writer, president, Women’s WORLD
Estelle Freedman Robinson Professor, History, Stanford University
Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freedom from Religion foundation
Heather Nijoli Robinson, Equal Access Fund of Tennessee
Anna Clark, writer
Colleen Kelly Johnston, activist for owmen and peace
Emily Apter, literary theorist, NYU
Laura Zimmerman Co-founder, Center for New Words
Diane Wahto, Chair, Peace and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas
Rev. Linda Pashby Kaufman, Unitarian Universalist Community Minister, Seattle,
Deanna Zandt, Media Technologist
Linda Ann Wheeler Hilton, artist and writer, Arizona
D. H. Melhem, Ph.D., poet & writer, New York City
Barbara Winslow, Women’s studies and school of Ed., Bklyn College
Courtney E. Martin, Brooklyn-based writer and teacher
Lucinda Marshall, Founder, Feminist Peace Network
Jill Filipovic, feministe.us/blog
Alison Redford, homemaker & civic volunteer, Wellington, Kansas
Vickie Sandell Stangl, Wichita State University, Political Science Dept.
Meredith Michaels, philosophy dept, Smith college
Muriel Dimen, writer and Psychoanalyst, NYU
Susan Yanow, MSWReproductive Health Consultant Cambridge, MA
Nancy Folbre, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Judy Norsigian, Executive Director, Co-author Our Bodies Ourselves
Kathleen Gerson, sociologist, New York University
Amy King, Poet and Educator, SUNY Nassau Community College
Ana Bozicevic, Poet, New York City
Debbie Rogow, Co-Director, Rethinking Sexuality Education Project, Population Council Program on Poverty, Gender, and Youth
Katherine Ellis, Rutgers
Dr. Suellen Miller, Director, Safe Motherhood Programs Women’s Global Health ImperativeUCSF
Janine Jackson, program director, FAIR
Lise Vogel Professor Emerita of Sociology, Rider University
Lisa Jervis, bitch
Nora Bredes, Director, Susan B. Anthony Center for Women’s Leadership
Emily Gordon, writer and editor
Sophie Pollitt-Cohen, writer and student
Naela El-Hinnawy, ethnographer
Joan D. Mandle, Colgate University, Emerita
Esther Newton Women’s Studies, University of Michigan
Marti Copleman, lawyer, board member Women for Afghan Women
Liza Featherstone, journalist/author
Vivian Gornick
Dorothy C. Miller, D.S.W., Director
Flora Stone Mather Center for Women & Clinical Associate Professor Mandel School For Applied Social Sciences Case Western Reserve University
J. Goodrich, blogger, “Echidne of the Snakes”
Victoria Rosenwald, RN MPH
Sonali Kolhatkar, Co-Director of Afghan Women’s Mission
Beccah Golubock Watson, Legal Momentum
Veronica I. Arreola, Ctr for Research on Women & Gender, U Ill- Chicago
Jane Mansbridge, Kennedy School of Govt
Patricia Thorpe, writer
Sheila Weller / writer
Amy Richards, Soapbox, Inc
Joanne Landy Co-Director, Campaign for Peace and Democracy
Cynthia Carr, writer
Sigrid Nunez, wrier
Mary Kay Blakely, author and essayist, Missouri School of Journalism
Jennifer Ball, PhD Assoc. Prof of Economics Washburn U School of Business
Barbara R. Bergmann Professor Emerita of Economics, UMd and American U
Andrew I. Kohen, Professor of Economics & Women’s Studies James Madison U
Gish Jen, writer
Laurie Stone, writer
Susan Feiner, prof econ and women’s studies, USM
Elizabeth Kendall, prof, Eugene lang College
Erica Jong, poet and novelist
Atina Grossman, historian, Cooper Union
Patricia Beninato Webmaster, ImNotSorry.net
Ulla Grapard, economist, director of women’s studies, Colgate University
Kay Trimberger, scholar & writer, Berkeley, CA
Dr. Sandra Morgen, Prof Women’s Studies, Penn State U
Carol Anshaw, writer
Neva Goodwin, Co-director Global Development And Environment Institute, Tufts
Rosalind C. Barnett, psychologist
Winifred Breines, Professor of Sociology Northeastern University
Jan Clausen Poet, novelist
Mary Ann Caws, Distinguished Prof. English, French, Comp Lit, Grad Ctr, CUNY
Lyn Mikel Brown, educator/author, founder, Hardy Girls Healthy Women.
Michele Naples, Economics, The College of New Jersey
Deborah Billings, Researcher, Ipas (www.ipas.org)
Roberta L. Salper, Women’s Studies Research, Brandeis
Rickie Solinger, historian, curator
Nanette Funk, Professor of philosophy, CUNY
Kate Daniels, writer, Vanderbilt University
Leila Hessini, ipas,org
Susan Yankowitz, playwright and novelist
Lee Ann Banaszak, Political Science and Women’s Studies Penn St U
Ana Victoria Soady, Chair, Modern and Classical LanguagesValdosta St U
Honor Moore, writer
Fahima Vorgetts, Director, Afghan Women’s Fund
Vicky Lovell, policy researcher
Amy Erdman Farrell, Women’s Studies and American Studies, Dickinson College
Brigitte Bechtold, Professor of Sociology and Director, Center for Research on Poverty, Central Michigan U
Marty Jarrell, communications director ipas
Laura Kipnis, Northwestern University, writer
Abby Scher, Political Research Associates
Deb Hoskins, PhD, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Uwisc- La Crosse
Rachel M. Brownstein, CUNY
Lisa M. Amoroso, Roosevelt College of Business Administration, board member,IMPACT Chicago
Virginia Sole-Smith, writer
Monica J. Casper, Dir, Women’s and Gender Studies,Vanderbilt
Marianne T. Hill, Economist, Mississippi Center for Policy Research
Amy Reid, Assoc Prof of French/Coordinator of Gender Studies, New College of Florida
Jane O’Reilly, writer
Catherine Haustein, Department of Chemistry
Ellen Leopold, writer
Cathleen Schine, writer
Heather M. Dalmage, Director, Mansfield Institute for Social JusticeProfessor of Sociology Roosevelt U
Sarah Hernandez, Sociology, Associate Professor
Erika Munk, writer
Betsy Damon, Eco activist, artist
Joan Ferrante, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature, Columbia
Vivian Stromberg, (Executive Director) MADRE
Yifat Susskind, (Communications Director) MADRE
Leora Tannenbaum, writer
Martha Thompson, Professor Emeritus, Sociology and Women’s Studies. Northeastern Illinois University and Director, IMPACT Chicago
Anna Lena Phillips, poetry editor, Fringe magazine
Elizabeth R. Stark, editor, Fringe magazine
B. Ruby Rich Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz
Christina Pacosz, poet, writer, retired teacher, Kansas City, Missouri
Alice K. Turner, editor/ writer
Lyndi Hewitt, Ph.D. Student, Department of Sociology Research Assistant, Global Feminisms Collaborative Vanderbilt University
Claudia Angelos, prof law, NYU
Natalia Deeb-Sossa, assistant prof Sociology, UC Davis.
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Professor of Pastoral Theology, Vanderbilt Div School
Randy Albelda, economist, UMass-boston
Nicole Hollander, creator of cartoon strip Sylvia
Susan O’Malley, activist, CUNY
Nikki Keddie, Professor Emerita of History, UCLA
Julia Alvarez, Writer & Teacher
Claire Keyes, Professor EmeritaSalem State College
Barbara Katz Rothman, Professor, CUNY
Miranda Spencer, Writer
Janet Spitz PhD, Assoc. Professor of Business, Albany NY
Dorothy Allison, writer
Pamela Grossman, writer and editor
Rayna Rapp, NYU, anthropologist
Eileen Boris, historian Uc-SB
Amy Hoffman, Editor in Chief Women’s Review of Books
Rev. Katherine Ragsdale, episcopal priest, executive director, Political Research Associates
Katharine Baker, Visiting Faculty Religion & PhilosophySouthwestern U
Laura Dickinson, Prof, International Human Rights Law, U Conn School of Law.
John Exdell, Department of Philosophy, Kansas State University
M. V. Lee Badgett, economist, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Carol Gilligan
Glenna Matthews, Visiting Scholar, Starr King School for the Ministry, Berkeley,
Marjorie C. Miller, Professor of Philosophy, Gender Studies, Asian Studies, Purchase College, SUNY
Celia Gilbert, poet
Prof. Nina Pelikan Straus, Humanities, Purchase College,SUNY.
Beverly R. Voloshin, Professor of English, San Francisco State University
Rebecca Traister, journalist
Julia Henderson, Art Editor/Webmistress, Fringe Magazine
Nancy K. Miller, English, The Graduate Center
Martha Vicinus
Eliza M. Mosher, Distinguished University Professor, Department of English University of Michigan
Margaret Willson, International director, Bahia Street
Nancy Bacon, Program director, Bahia Street
Carol Ann Dalto, Chair, Psychology, Merrimack College
Jill M. Wood, Women’s Studies, Penn State University
Estelle Jelinek, Ph.D., writer, Berkeley, CA
Loretta J. Ross, National Coordinator SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective
Deirdre English, Director Felker Magazine Center Graduate School of Journalism University of California, Berkeley,
Haley Swenson, writer
Judith E. Johnson, Professor Emerita, English and Women’s Studies at SUNY-Albany. Editor 13th moon press
Trude Bennett, Maternal and Child Health, UNC-Chapel Hill
Demie Kurz, Co-Director Women’s Studies &The Alice Paul Center, U Penn
Su Friedrich, filmmaker, professor, Princeton University
Gillian Bell, artist and reproductive rights activist
Katie Buckland, Exec. Director ,California Women’s Law Center
Aimee Thorne-Thomsen, (executive director, Pro-Choice Education Project)
Pat Schneider, Writer
Jacqui Ceballos, President – Veteran Feminists of America
Ariel Levy, writer
Bobbie Birleffi, Producer/Director
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Professor Emeritus, California State University
Kate Gordon, Lawyer and policy wonk
Sheila Collins, professor,Political Science William Paterson University
Carmen Gimenez Smith, English, New Mexico State University
Maxine Kumin, poet
Alice Echols, Associate Professor, eng, USC
Dr. Robin Andersen, Prof Communication and Media Studies, Fordham
Rhoda Unger, Women’s Studies Research Center,Brandeis
Alice Radosh, psychologist/volunteer fire fighter
Barbara Garson Playwright
Marcia Ann Gillespie, writer
Gail Pellett, Documentary film director, writer, producer
Gloria Feldt, author, activist
Rosalind Petchesky, Distinguished Professor, Hunter College & Graduate Center, CUNY
AliceJ Wolfson, co-founder, National Women’s Health Network
Sara M. Evans, Historian University of Minnesota
June Millington, musician/songwriter, Artistic Dir. IMA
Bettina Aptheker, Professor Feminist Studies,UCSanta Cruz
Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz,,Visiting Prof,Jewish Studies, Comp Lit, & History Queens College/CUNY
Leslie Cagan, National Coordinator, United for Peace and Justice
Marta Murray, Close Graduate student in economics University of Michigan
Karen Judd, UNIFEM
Blanche Wiesen Cook, distinguished professor, John Jay &The Graduate Center, CUNY
Ophelia Benson, writer and editor, Butterflies and Wheels
Toni Armstrong Jr., editor/teacher/organizer/musician
Orit Schwartz, Occupational Therapist, Chicago Public Schools
Betsy Reed, The Nation
Catherine Daly, writer
Katherine Drabek PhD
Nina Carroll MD, Gynecologist
Robin Morgan
Maxine Hong Kingston
Marilyn Myerson, Ph.D., Graduate Director, Women’s Studies Dept., University of South Florida.
Micaela di Leonardo, Professor Anthropology, Performance Studies Northwestern University
Heather Fowler-Salamini, Bradley University, History and Women’s Studies
Julie R. Enszer, writer
Dr. Paulette Olson, Department of Economics, Wright State University
Phyllis Ewen, Artist
Madeleine M. Kunin, former Governor of Verrmont
Noreen Connell, former president of NOW-NYS and NOW-NYC
Yvette Koch, board of NNAF
Karen Lindsey, writer, adjunct in women’s studies, U.Mass.Boston
Dr. Lorraine Dowler, Dept of Geography and Women’s Studies Penn State University
Diana Strassmann, Editor, Feminist Economics, Professor of the Practice, Rice University
Judith Stacey, NYU
Susan Meiselas, photographer
Lisa Kahane, photographer, NYC
Elaine Tyler May, Regents Professor Departments of American Studies and History University of Minnesota
Yvonne Daniel
Robert Drago, takecarenet.org
Joanne Edgar, writer, editor
Sharon Arslanian, prof. Greenfield Community College, Greenfield, MA
Sondra G. Stein, educator, former director, Equipped for the Future
Cynthia Enloe, political scientist, Clark University
Mary Thom, Editor, The Women’s Media Center (website)
Yvonne Payne Daniel, Ph.D.Professor Emerita of Dance and Afro-American Studies,Smith College
Brenda Wineapple, writer
Laurel Long, student and writer
Marcia Folsom, Harvard University
Lynne Phillips, writer, cartoonist
Dorothy Sue Cobble, Rutgers University
Florence Howe
Charlotte Bunch, Executive Director, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University
Helen Hardacre, Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University
Jann Matlock, university professor (and American citizen), University College London
Ellen DuBois, Professor of History, UCLA
Ellen McGrath Smith, English/University of Pittsburgh
Mary Schweitzer, Ph.D., economic historian
Ellen Moody, teacher, literary scholar, George Mason University
Joan Korenman, Professor Emerita of English and Women’s Studies, UMBC
Anna Stange, folksinger
Leila J. Rupp, historian, University of California, Santa Barbara
