Phyllis Schafly is coming to our campus. She was bitterly opposed to the ERA in its time; she continues to campaign for family values and homemaker rights. This woman calls herself a ["Positive Woman"] feminist. And I, for one, can't wait to hear her speak.

All right - I'm not a Phyllis Schafly scholar. This entry is based entirely on one speech I finished reading not ten minutes ago. Perhaps I judge her unfairly. Perhaps.

"...the [women's liberation] movement is having an adverse effect on family life, it is a major cause of divorce today, and it is highly detrimental to our country and our families."

Schafly contends that women in their 40s and 50s are hearing women's lib ideas for the first time and en masse leaving their homes and families. I would be interested in seeing her statistics. Besides, were this the case, perhaps there would be a dramatic increase in divorce rates back in the 70's. But the divorce rate has held, and grown: I don't think that many women at 40 and 50 are just now learning about women's lib, and if feminism affected them so strongly at a younger age perhaps they wouldn't have married at all.

I can't imagine ideas which proclaim women are equal to men would really cause such mass hysteria among housewives. And if some women are discovering there is more in life than wife and mother, more power to them. Women finding more joy in their lives, leading more fulfilling lives -- that would be a good thing, right? Absolutely not, says Phyllis...

The mother must be able to subordinate her self-fulfillment and her desire for a career to the well-being of her children so that she can answer her child's call any hour of the day and night.

Yes, I agree, motherhood requires an amount of self-sacrifice. This is why I do not want to be a mother. But Phyllis... WHY DON'T MEN HAVE TO, TOO? Women have to sacrifice their careers, indeed their entire lives, to their children, and men get to pursue all their goals and dreams? You cannot tell me that's not an incredibly harmful double standard.

The task of taking care of babies, despite its tedious drudgery, is better than most of the jobs of the world. Women should find out how exhausting most of the rest of the jobs of the world are.

Thank you for speaking for all of us. Thank you for letting me know what I'd most enjoy spending the rest of my life doing. To think of all the time I've been wasting, all the money I've been wasting, trying to find the answer to such questions by educating myself!

Marriage and motherhood must come first over selfish values.

I do not want children. I do not want a husband. Am I a freak? Am I not a real woman? I want to know how I got my priorities so mixed up. I am a horrible, immoral, selfish bitch. I must be. Every woman was made to have children, right? God intended us to be mothers, right? Fuuuck that.

The women's liberation movement teaches women this fundamental approach to life: Seek your own self-fulfillment over every other value."

Yes. That is my fundamental approach to life. As a feminist, as an armchair philosopher, and as a human being. That is not selfish. Self-fulfillment, personal evolution and discovery, knowledge and the attainment of our goals and desires... that is all we have. There is no higher value. If being a wife and mother is fulfilling to you, that is wonderful. I am not trying to persuade anyone that that is not a valid choice in life. But choosing not to be a wife and mother is also valid, and no one, certainly not Phyllis Schafly, has the right to make me feel otherwise.

It is all about the freedom of personal choice. It is personal so only you can decide what is right for you. And it is a choice so you are always in control of the decisions you make.

The point is, no one who is so willing to maintain the status quo can call h(im/er)self a feminist. Feminists seek equality, and what we have today is not equal. No one who advocates women giving up a part of their lives that would not also advocate men give up can call h(im/er)self a feminist. No one who believes women who do not give up their lives for their children are selfish can call h(im/er)self a feminist. Phyllis Schafly, in my estimation, is no feminist.