Family, Friends Honor Frug

Friends and family of the late Mary Joe Frug honored the memory of the murdered law professor at a showing for her new, posthumously published book last night at the Inn at Harvard.

Two law professors and a Bunting Fellow read selected passages from "Postmodern" Legal Feminism," a collection of essays by the late professor of the New England School of Law who was fatally stabbed last year.

The essays, which examine the relationship between gender and law, were compiled by Frug's husband, Professor of Law Gerald E. Frug, who said her writing was not edited.

"It's her words. It reads like her; it sounds like her," he said.

The author's ability to express her ideas clearly in her writing made it possible to publish the work without editing even after her death, Frug said.

"It's difficult to publish a book posthumously," said Frug. "It's a miracle that it reads as well as it does."

Judith G. Greenberg, a professor at the New England School of Law who wrote the introduction to Frug's book, began the evening's readings.

"Mary Joe's approach to feminism was to look for a multiplicity of meanings as opposed to a particular one," said Greenberg after the reading. "In her mind, women would only be free when the term sex no longer means either male or female."

"She wanted to break open these categories," said Greenberg who was a close friend of Frug's. "That there would be more possibilities than just the two roles that our discourses about gender usually give us."

Bunting Fellow Florence C. Lad, also a friend of Frug's, read a selection that discusses gender and career choice options.

And Professor of Law David W. Kennedy, recited passages from chapter seven of Frug's book: "Rescuing Impossibility Doctrine: A Postmodern Feminist Analysis of Contract Law," a selection that concluded the reading.

After the readings, Frug thanked his wife, Greenberg and the Routledge Publishing Company for their efforts in producing the book.

"It will serve for many years as an instructive guide to postmodern legal feminism," he said.