Kathy Shaidle briefly resurrects Shulamith Firestone, a feminist who was influential back in the 70s as one of the more radical gender deconstructionists, for another look before she finally slides into murky oblivion.
Firestone published her radical manifesto calling for the liberation of women from childbirth’s unfair burden—and from gender itself—at only 25. That’s around the age when schizophrenia tends to claim its victims, of which she was one.
The Dialectic of Sex proposed that, contra Marx, the key class struggle is between man and woman rather than owner and worker. Citing alleged discoveries by Professor John Money of Johns Hopkins, Firestone declared sexual identity a fluid and artificial construct.
[...]
Firestone’s friends, family, and feminist admirers duly posted effusive memorials all over the Internet, but none of them was with her when she passed away. She’d been dead for a week when her landlord discovered her decaying corpse.
So much for that “communitarian” spirit.
Maybe a little harsh. If she was truly insane, it isn’t so surprising that she died in that manner — the crazy ones usually end up alone.
However, it is instructive, if not surprising, that a mentally ill woman had such a profound effect on contemporary feminism.
I’m not sure whether it’s just me, but it seems that lately an awful lot of second wave feminists are “crossing the river,” so to speak. Interesting to see how they are giving up the ghost just as their influence appears to have reached its zenith.
