Author Says Women's Movement Under Fire

The women's movement is coming under increasing attack from angry men and an anxious culture, said best-selling author Susan C. Faludi '81 at the Gutman Library Wednesday night.

The soft-spoken author of Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women told an overflow audience of 500 that the popular media and reactionary politicians have launched an "insidious attack" on women's rights.

"Lately lifestyle journalists, eager for the latest trend story, have been phoning me and asking if the backlash is over," said Faludi, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Wall Street Journal. "That was last year,' they say. 'What's new for 1992?' "

"The backlash doesn't work like hemlines," Faludi continued. "It's still here, and the effects... are increasingly being felt on every front."

Republican administrations are attacking abortion rights, slashing family planning services and allowing corporations to limit affirmative action, said Faludi, a former managing editor of The Crimson.

The backlash is fueled, she said, by a "perception that women are stealing some crumbs from the male bread- winner pie, and the fear that that pie isshrinking."

Politicians tapped into this fear and are usingwomen as a scapegoat for the country's economicand social problems, she said.

In the '80s, Reagan blamed the country's woeson the "evil career women," said Faludi. UnderBush, the focus of blame has changed. "Now it iswelfare mothers who are said to be destroying thefabric of society and causing the deficit," shesaid.

"The backlash, in short, hasn't gone away,"Faludi continued. "It's just changed itscoloration and lingo."

While women as a whole have suffered setbacks,attacks on feminism have also undergone a change.In the 1980s, feminists were criticized for beingtoo loud and shrill, said Faludi. "Now in the '90swhen we protest, we're labeled as whiny."

In a climate of backlash, women are criticizedno matter what they do, said Faludi. Critics useinvalid scientific studies and misogynistic humorto attack women's rights, she said.

Faludi cited the recent Harvard LawReview parody as an example of the use ofmisogynistic humor to undermine women.

The presgitious law journal's annual parodycontained a satire of an article by murderedfeminist law scholar Mary Joe Frug which manycalled offensive