Andrea Dworkin - Right-wing Women

and at the same time an obedient wife acting to protect her children. A singing career, especially a secular one, could never resolve this raging conflict.

Bryant, like all the rest of us, is trying to be a “good” woman.

Bryant, like all the rest of us, is desperate and dangerous, to herself

and to others, because “good” women live and die in silent selfless­

ness and real women cannot. Bryant, like all the rest of us, is having one hell of a hard time. *

Phyllis Schlafly, the Right’s not-born-again philosopher of the

absurd, is apparently not having a hard time. She seems possessed

by Machiavelli, not Jesus. It appears that she wants to be The

Prince. She might be viewed as that rare woman of any ideological

persuasion who really does see herself as one of the boys, even as

she claims to be one of the girls. Unlike most other right-wing

women, Schlafly, in her written and spoken work, does not acknowledge experiencing any of the difficulties that tear women apart. In the opinion of many, her ruthlessness as an organizer is

best demonstrated by her demagogic propaganda against the Equal

Rights Amendment, though she also waxes eloquent against reproductive freedom, the women’s movement, big government, and

*This analysis of Bryant’s situation was written in 1978 and published in

Ms. in June 1979. In May 1980, Bryant filed for divorce. In a statement

issued separately from the divorce petition, she contended that Green had

“violated my most precious asset—my conscience” (The New York Times ,

May 24, 1980). Within three weeks after the divorce decree (August 1980),

the state citrus agency of Florida, which Bryant had represented for eleven

years, decided she was no longer a suitable representative because of her

divorce: “The contract had to expire, because of the divorce and so forth, ”

one agency executive said (The New York Times , September 2, 1980). Feminist lawyer and former National Organization for Women president Karen DeCrow urged Bryant to bring suit under the 1977 Florida Human Rights

Act, which prohibits job discrimination on the basis of marital status.

Even before DeCrow’s sisterly act, however, Bryant had reevaluated her

position on the women’s movement, to which, under Green’s tutelage, she

had been bitterly opposed. “What has happened to me, ” Bryant told the

National Enquirer in June 1980, “makes me understand why there are angry

women who want to pass ERA [Equal Rights Amendment]. That still is

not the answer. But the church doesn’t deal with the problems of women

as it should. There’s been some really bad teachings, and I think that’s

why I’m really concerned for my own children—particularly the girls.

You have to recognize that there has been discrimination against women,

that women have not had the teaching of the fullness and uniqueness of

their abilities. ” Pace , sister.

the Panama Canal Treaty. Her roots, and perhaps her heart such

as it is, are in the Old Right, but she remained unknown to any

significant public until she mounted her crusade against the Equal

Rights Amendment. It is likely that her ambition is to use women

as a constituency to effect entry into the upper echelon of right-

wing male leadership. She may yet discover that she is a woman

(as feminists understand the meaning of the word) as her male colleagues refuse to let her escape the ghetto of female issues and enter the big tim e. * At any rate, she seems to be able to manipulate the

fears of women without experiencing them. If this is indeed the

case, this talent would give her an invaluable, cold-blooded detachment as a strategist determined to convert women into antifeminist activists. It is precisely because women have been trained to respect and follow those who use them that Schlafly inspires awe and

* According to many newspaper reports, Phyllis Schlafly wanted Reagan

to appoint her to a position in the Pentagon. This he did not do. In a

debate with Schlafly (Stanford University, January 26, 1982) lawyer

Catharine A. MacKinnon tried to make Schlafly understand that she had

been discriminated against as a woman: “Mrs. Schlafly tells us that being a

woman has not gotten in her way. I propose that any man who had a law

degree and graduate work in political science; had given testimony on a

wide range of important subjects for decades; had done effective and brilliant political, policy and organizational work within the party [the Republican Party]; had published widely, including nine books; and stopped a major social initiative to amend the constitution just short of victory dead

in its tracks [the Equal Rights Amendment]; and had a beautiful accomplished family— any man like that would have a place in the current administration.. . . I would accept correction if this is wrong; and she may yet be appointed. She was widely reported to have wanted such a post,

but I don’t believe everything I read, especially about women. I do think

she should have wanted one and they should have found her a place she

wanted. She certainly deserved a place in the Defense Department. Phyllis

Schlafly is a qualified woman. ” Answered Schlafly: “This has been an

interesting debate. More interesting than I thought it was going to be.. . .

I think my opponent did have one good point— [audience laughter] Well,

she had a couple of good points.. . . She did have a good point about the

Reagan administration, but it is the Reagan administration’s loss that they

didn’t ask me to [drowned out by audience applause] but it isn’t my loss. ”

devotion in women who are afraid that they w ill be deprived of the

form, shelter, safety, rules, and love that the Right promises and

on which they believe survival depends.

*

At the National Women’s Conference (Houston, Texas, November

1977), I spoke with many women on the Right. The conversations

were ludicrous, terrifying, bizarre, instructive, and, as other feminists have reported, sometimes strangely moving.

Right-wing women fear lesbians. A liberal black delegate from

Texas told me that local white women had tried to convince her

that lesbians at the conference would assault her, call her dirty