Feminist Critic Ellen Willis
Willis is known for taking on diverse topics ranging from rock music, pornography, and domesticity. Now in her 40s, she is raising a child with her partner -- an arrangement, she admits, resembles the nuclear family in all but name. Willis is the senior editor at the Village Voice.
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Other segments from the episode on February 14, 1989
An American Original Struggles for Success
Charlie Rich was a jazz enthusiast who wrote for many legendary country and rock musicians on the Sun Record Label. Rock historian Ed Ward says, for Rich, recording his own, original music was an afterthought. He had a few hits on various Memphis-area labels, but could never break through into the mainstream.
David Leavitt Explores the Complexities of Gay Family Life
Leavitt's writing focuses on the family lives of gay men and women. He says families can alternately be sanctuaries and dangerous communities for for them. His new book, set in the suburbs, is called Equal Affections.
Unpacking the "Satanic Verses" Controversy
Novelist Salman Rushdie's new book has been banned in several countries because of what many see as its blasphemous take on Islam. Book critic John Leonard says the novel is indeed blasphemous, but Rushdie directs his ire ecumenically, critiquing Indian culture and Margaret Thatcher as well. The narrative is messy, but it's the messiness that makes it interesting.
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Examining the Limitations of Identity Politics
Terry has a discussion about the politics of identity, the strengths and limitations of social and political movements that define themselves by ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexual orientation. She talks with Ellen Willis, professor of journalism at NYU; Edward Said, professor of literature at Columbia; and Gayle Pemberton, associate director of African American studies at Princeton.
Rock, Feminism, Families, and God.
Ellen Willis is a writer for the the New Yorker. Her collection of essays, "Beginning to See the Light: Pieces of a Decade," covers many of the social and political issues of the last ten years. Feminism, rock music, 60s counter-culture and the backlash against it, the changing definitions of "family" amongst the left, religion, and abortion are covered. She also discovers her reconsidering of Judaism and God in general, after a her brother became Orthodox. She joins the show to discuss the book and its subjects.
New Attitudes Toward Pregnancy and Motherhood
Feminist scholar Barbara Katz Rothman says that feminists must confront the cultural shift toward privileging the unborn fetus over the pregnant women. New technologies and the rise of paid surrogacy, Rothman argues, have contributed to this change.