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How is it that Andrea Dworkin—a Jewish lesbian feminist—came to testify alongside conservative Christians at the 1986 Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography? To answer this question, this paper first revisits Dworkin’s 1983 book Right-Wing Women, which critically analyzed conservative Christian writers (Anita Bryant, Phyllis Schlafly, Marabel Morgan, Ruth Carter Stapleton) and their appeal to Catholic, mainline Protestant, and white evangelical women. Dworkin emphasized the antisemitism and homophobia of these writers but also suggested they offered relatively accurate diagnoses of misogyny that were neglected by gay, lesbian, and Left movements. Second, this paper examines how Dworkin discussed these right-wing women in her letters to other feminists as well as her personal correspondence with Schlafly about the 1986 Commission. This paper’s turn to Dworkin to answer this question extends Janet Jakobsen’s work, drawing out the contradictory ways that Christianity crossed paths with lesbian feminist movements—Christian, Jewish, and otherwise—of the 1970s-1980s.
Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)
How is it that Andrea Dworkin—a Jewish lesbian feminist—came to testify alongside conservative Christians at the 1986 Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography? To answer this question, this paper first revisits Dworkin’s 1983 book Right-Wing Women, which critically analyzed conservative Christian writers (Anita Bryant, Phyllis Schlafly, Marabel Morgan, Ruth Carter Stapleton) and their appeal to Catholic, mainline Protestant, and white evangelical women. Dworkin emphasized the antisemitism and homophobia of these writers but also suggested they offered relatively accurate diagnoses of misogyny that were neglected by gay, lesbian, and Left movements. Second, this paper examines how Dworkin discussed these right-wing women in her letters to other feminists as well as her personal correspondence with Schlafly about the 1986 Commission. This paper’s turn to Dworkin to answer this question extends Janet Jakobsen’s work, drawing out the contradictory ways that Christianity crossed paths with lesbian feminist movements—Christian, Jewish, and otherwise—of the 1970s-1980s.