'You are not responsible' sang the sirens of Liberation. 'Whatever you do that does not bring you joy --- from living in the suburbs and having babies to hanging out in bars and being promiscuous to spending your days in a job that bores you --- is not your fault.
They -- men, society, your mothers, your fathers -- made you do it.' What can be more tempting than the notion that no decision taken in your life for which you may harbor some regret was a decision actually taken by you for yourself?
And thus the whining began, cast, to be sure, in the language of social justice, and revolutionary determination, but whining all the same. So it went -- and went with flying success -- in those early years.
Now it's three decades later.
Young women are being as mercilessly exploited as young men in the white-shoe law firms, girl marines slog through the mud at Parris Island, and females train for the attempt to land airplanes on aircraft carriers.... Successful careers turn out to be a source not of liberation but of unending worry and demand.
From "Liberating Germaine Greer," a review by Midge Decter "First Things," 10/99
Alan: There is much to dislike about Midge Decter's participation in right-wing politics, including her close association with Donald Rumsfeld, a pompous ass if ever there was one.
However, as a conservative convert from the revolutionary liberalism of the 1960s, I believe Decter deserves the attention that most apostates deserve.
Apostates are the only people who have not only studied "both sides" of the political spectrum but have fought on both sides.
Midge Decter
Jewish Women's Archive Encyclopedia
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