Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 07:1 (Winter 1993)
Article: From My Point Of View: One Christian’s Commentary On Two Contemporary Secular Best Sellers
Author: Joanne Callahan

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PP 7:1 (Winter 1993) p. 13

From My Point Of View:
One Christian’s Commentary On
Two Contemporary Secular Best Sellers

Joanne Callahan

Joanne Callahan is a software engineer at Alcatel Network Systems in Richardson, Texas, and is the founder and coordinator of the CBE North Texas Chapter.

Just when the secular press declared the funeral of the contemporary women’s movement, two secular feminist books appeared: Susan Faludi’s BACKLASH: THE UNDECLARED WAR AGAINST AMERICAN WOMEN and Gloria Steinem’s REVOLUTION FROM WITHIN: A BOOK OF SELF-ESTEEM. Both books were on best-seller lists for many weeks. In particular, Faludi’s provocative, award-winning work generated such press coverage during that time that she had to quit her staff-reporter position at The Wall Street Journal in order to handle a surprising multitude of speaking engagements. Faludi is currently working on a book about men and masculinity which, because of the success of BACKLASH will undoubtedly generate even more waves of publicity for the controversial author.

In contrast, Steinem’s REVOLUTION FROM WITHIN received only lukewarm reviews but intensified her celebrity status. Even in conservative Dallas, Steinem was besieged by crowds of admirers.

Undeniably, these two best-sellers helped turn many apolitical women into activists, and contributed to recent impressive female gains in both the United Stales Senate and the House of Representatives.

My question is: Haw should biblical egalitarians respond to these two works? Answers may not be as obvious as some think.

Because feminism has gotten such an undeservedly bad “rap” from both the evangelical and secular press, even some CBE types will defensively say, “I’m not a feminist,” or “I don’t like the women’s movement” or “I’m not a women’s libber, but...” However, it is irresponsible for Christians to judge all of feminism, by biased reports of the news media (especially when that same media often shows a similar bias against the church) or to condemn all feminist aspirations on account of some radical tactics of the National Organization of Women, After all, we don’t judge Christianity by the shenanigans of a discredited televangelist, or deny sympathy to civil rights movements because of the Los Angeles riots.

As Elaine Slorkey demonstrated in WHAT’S RIGHT WITH FEMINISM the women’s movement is very complex. We can forget that it was the secular feminists who fought so selflessly for the vote, for the civil rights acts, the equal pay act, laws against sexual harassment, for equal credit rights and for equality in higher education, and who continuously add to our reservoir of knowledge about gender relations.

An...

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