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Go Home Schlafly's (dis)honorary Doctorate

THE PLANK MAY 15, 2008

Schlafly's (dis)honorary Doctorate

BY TNR STAFF

If the university doesn't accede to the great many protests that have sprung up in response to the news (and it doesn't look as if they will), Phyllis Schlafly will earn an honorary doctorate from Washington University in Saint Louis tomorrow. Schlafly, of course, has been an immeasurable force for bad over her long life, her torpedoing of the Equal Rights Amendment being just her most famous act in a series of acts that have done great damage to the cause of gender equality. So, while Schlafly is being feted tomorrow, it's important to read (or re-read) Alan Wolfe's excellent 2006 piece on her, entitled "Mrs. America." Just one of many key passages:

The ugliness of American politics today can be directly traced back to Schlafly's vituperative, apocalyptic, character-assassinating campaign against the ERA. In Slander, her 2002 contribution to American letters, Ann Coulter described Schlafly as "one of the most accomplished and influential people in America" and "a senior statesman in the Republican Party." Coulter was right. Karl Rove only perfected what Phyllis Schlafly invented. And the wild, filthy rhetoric of Coulter and some of her screaming reactionary colleagues owes a great deal to Schlafly. We are lucky, come to think of it, that Schlafly flourished in the days before cable.  

Again, here's the link.

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19 comments

Funny you should put "Mrs. America" in your heading.  When I was a kid I confused her with Phyllis George, a former Miss America.  It seemed completely logical that a former pageant queen would be a feminist basher.

- MOLLYSIMON

May 15, 2008 at 6:52pm

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I didn't know you could give a Doctorate to a dead person. What, you mean she is still alive? She has to be, what, 110 or so. Sorry, can't get that indignant about such an fossil.

- blackton

May 15, 2008 at 7:01pm

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But Blackie, she did so much lasting harm.  The beautiful irony is that the son of this gay-baiting bitch turned out to be gay.  

- MOLLYSIMON

May 15, 2008 at 7:28pm

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People, read the essay by Alan Wolfe. When I saw that the topic du jour was Schlafly, I immediately thought of his fine piece and as I scrolled down, there was the mention of and link to it. I recall discussing the essay over coffee with a friend after Mr. Wolfe's essay appeared in TNR in 2006 and I was stunned that he - a long - time liberal - had never heard of her. Ann Coulter is a direct descendant of hers; the hell - spawn of Phyllis S. The only places that she should get honorary degrees are Bob Jones and Liberty universities and their like.

- liberal reformer

May 15, 2008 at 7:44pm

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Apparently, receiving honorary degrees alongside her will be Christ Matthews and Quincy Jones.

Her brief bio on the WUSL site includes the following:

"Named one of the 100 most important women of the 20th century by Ladies Home Journal and one of the 10 most admired women in the world by Good Housekeeping, she is a well-known advocate for the role of a full-time homemaker."

I like to see the academy keeping abreast of the most important developments in popular culture.

- ironyroad

May 15, 2008 at 8:04pm

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"The beautiful irony is that the son of this gay-baiting bitch turned out to be gay."

Awesome, molly; I didn't know that. Today's California court ruling on gay marriage was the cake, and your comment the icing.

Maybe my wiccan girlfriend is right: there really is a Goddess.

- williamyard

May 15, 2008 at 8:08pm

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molly, if she were my mother I would be gay too if only to drive her batshit.

- blackton

May 15, 2008 at 8:18pm

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Christ? Matthews -  Not that good

- jemerk

May 15, 2008 at 8:31pm

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Oh shit!  Sorry!  That was some typo.  Lord, I wish that TNR would develop a better text box with a bigger font and/or a proof-reading capability before posting.

- ironyroad

May 15, 2008 at 8:46pm

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maybe we could all pitch in and fund TNR's hiring of copy editors.

- liberal reformer

May 15, 2008 at 9:24pm

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I feel nothing but contempt for Phyllis Schlafly. I often use her as an example of perplexing conservative ypocrisy.

The rapidly anti-feminist Schlafly has three degrees (B.A. Wash U of St.Louis; MA, Radcliffe; J.D. Wash U. of St. Louis) in an age when few women earned degrees (the 1940s) and obtained a law degree in 1978 when few women  attended law school. Why?  Why didn't that bitch stay home and bake cookies? Y'know, a woman's place and all that. Maybe if she'd done so, her son wouldn't have grown up to be gay. Worse, still is the clown lives at home with his mother (WEIRD!!)  and works for the anti-gay Eagle Forum.  So Schlafly, has the educational pedigree of few women of her generation (she is 83) and allows her gay son to be the director of a branch of her anti-homosexual (among other things) interest group. Rich.

These facts point to another reason why I hate the MSM. I've seen Schlafly interviewed and the reporters never asks her to square the circles. My first question to her would be: Bitch, with three degrees, and your deep involvement i public affairs, how can you call yourself a traditionalist?  You seem like a femi-nazi to me. My second question: Do you know that by working for a living, that you are causing a labor surplus and depressing men's wages, and thus destroying the traditional family? My third question: Do you know where your son is now? How can you call yourself a Christian and allow your son to advance the homosexual agenda under your own roof?

- tec619

May 15, 2008 at 9:41pm

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Hey, I got my law degree in 1978 and about 40% of my class were women, including, of course, the valedictorian and only summa of the year, damn her.

- roidubouloi

May 15, 2008 at 10:40pm

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Whining about the evil Phyllis torpedoing the ERA is more than lame. Sorry, the ERA was Big, um, Sister government at its worst. The failure of the ERA was the best thing that ever happened to the feminist movement. I would not give Phyllis an honorary high-school diploma, but the venom sent her way is simply a tribute to her effectiveness as a right-wing propagandist. We do live in a democracy, folks. A lot of people agreed with what she said.

- AMVHuck

May 15, 2008 at 11:12pm

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After reading this article about Schafly I had to dig out my yellowed disintegrating copy of "A Choice Not An Echo" and relive my rabid conservatism of that time. The book was mostly about how the kingmakers since 1936 always kept the "peoples' candidate" from the GOP nomination. She had a point. Unfortunately for the people when they got their candidate in 1964 an electoral disaster ensued. Goldwater (and I) changed views on a lot of things after that but Schafly didn't.

- lesserliz

May 15, 2008 at 11:18pm

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Wash U, my alma mater, also paid Alberto Gonzales to come and speak there. Whee!

- psantillana

May 16, 2008 at 1:41am

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Tec619: What is "rapidly anti - feminist"? Do you mean "rabidly"? You seem more than a little misogynistic with your repeated use of the "b" word

I always thought it interesting that Schlafly ran around the country saying that a woman's place is in the home. Another book that Schlafly wrote (co - authored with Admiral Chester Ward) was Kissinger on the Couch. It is not worth the paper it is printed on.

- liberal reformer

May 16, 2008 at 7:48am

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We're slamming Phyllis Schlafly for her role in the culture wars, but she was arguably more destructive

- Anonymous

May 16, 2008 at 1:11pm

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LibRef: Yes, I meant "rabidly. Rushing causes  fumble fingers. Seems I also misspelled "hypocrisy."

I not a misogynist. I just like to use the the "b" word for mega-hypocrites like Schlafly. I save the "f" word for anti-gay homosexuals and pseudo-macho types such as Bush and Cheney.

- tec619

May 16, 2008 at 4:08pm

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In view of current events, the following phrase in Wolfe's article struck me: "Perhaps the single major fault of Critchlow's book is that he completely swallows the currently fashionable idea that the rise of conservatism in American politics is a backlash against the elitist and haughty policies of out-of-touch liberals." How much daylight is there between the two Goldwater Girls, Phyllis and Hillary?

- geoffgraham

May 16, 2008 at 4:09pm

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