Wendy Kaminer
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Wendy Kaminer (born 1949) is a
lawyer and
writer. She has written several books on contemporary social issues, including
A Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight From Equality, about the conflict between egalitarian and protectionist feminism;
(I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional|I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help Fashions), about the
self-help movement; and
Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials : The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety.
Early life
Kaminer graduated from
Smith College in 1971. She earned her law degree from
Boston University Law School and practiced law as a staff attorney in the
New York Legal Aid Society and the office of the
Mayor of New York City.
(1)Activism
Anti-pornography movement and anti-censorship movements
In the late 1970s, Kaminer worked with
Women Against Pornography, where she advocated in favor of private consciousness raising efforts and against legal efforts to censor pornography. She contributed a chapter to the anti-pornography anthology,
Take Back the Night, in which she defended First Amendment freedoms and explained the dangers of seeking legal solutions to the perceived problem of pornography. She opposed efforts by
Catharine MacKinnon and
Andrea Dworkin to define pornography as a civil rights violation, and she critiqued the pro-censorship movement in a 1992 article in
The Atlantic,
“Feminists Against the First Amendment.” An ardent free speech advocate, she is currently a member of the advisory board of the
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.Kaminer, an equality or individual rights feminist, was an early opponent of late 20th century “protectionist”
feminism, reflected in the movement to censor pornography, and of the “difference” feminism associated with
Carol Gilligan. She critiqued
“Feminism’s Identity Crisis” in an October 1993 cover story for
The Atlantic.
ACLU
Kaminer was a member of the board of the
American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts from the early 1990s until June 2009. She was a national board member of the
American Civil Liberties Union from 1999 until her term expired in June 2006. In 2003, during her tenure on the national board, she became a strong critic of the ACLU leadership and was centrally involved in a series of controversies that culminated in a highly publicized effort to prohibit board members from criticizing the ACLU.
(2) Her 2009 book
Worst Instincts: Cowardice, Conformity and the ACLU critiques what she regards as the ACLU’s ethical decline, ideological hypocrisy, and descent into groupthink.
Writings
Kaminer, a former
Guggenheim fellow, has published seven books, in addition to
Worst Instincts, including her landmark, 1992 critique of self-help and the recovery movement,
I’m Dysfunctional, You’re Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help Fashions. She has also written extensively about irrationalism, spiritualism, and the intersection of religion and politics in America, the subject of
Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Risks of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety. Her feminist writings include her 1990 book,
A Fearful Freedom: Women’s Flight from Equality, reviewing the historic conflict between equality and protectionism for women and exploring the legal and social pitfalls of protectionism. A former legal aid attorney, she is a staunch critic of the death penalty and the criminal justice system, the subject of
It’s all the Rage: Crime and Culture. She is also the author of
Free for All: Defending Liberty in America Today;
True Love Waits: Essays and Criticism; and
Women Volunteering: the Pleasure, Pain, & Politics of Unpaid Work.
(3)Personal life
On November 17, 2001 Kaminer married longtime companion Woody Kaplan.
(4) Kaplan, a former real estate developer, founded the
Civil Liberties List (a political action committee) and is a full-time political and civil liberties activist. Kaplan is president of the
Defending Dissent Foundation and chairs the advisory board of the
Secular Coalition for America.
(5) References
-
[American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina]
-
[How the ACLU Lost its Bearings]
-
[Bio: The Huffington Post]
-
[Secular Wedding Vows: Kaminer/Kaplan Wedding]
-
[Secular Coalition for America]
External links
- content above as imported from The Pseudopedia
- "Wendy Kaminer" does not exist on GetWiki
- time: 12:01pm EDT - Thu, Mar 18 2010
