Wendy Kaminer
Wendy Kaminer (born December 28, 1949) is an American lawyer and writer. She has written several books on contemporary social issues, including A Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight From Equality, about the conflict between egalitarian and protectionist feminism; I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help Fashions, about the self-help movement; and Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety.
Early life
Kaminer graduated from
Activism
Anti-pornography movement and anti-censorship movements
In the late 1970s, Kaminer worked with
Kaminer, a self-described equality or "individual rights feminist", was an early opponent of late 20th-century "protectionist" feminism, reflected in the movement to censor pornography, and of the "difference" feminism associated with Carol Gilligan. She critiqued "Feminism's Identity Crisis" in an October 1993 cover story for The Atlantic.[3]
ACLU
Kaminer was a member of the board of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts from the early 1990s until June 2009. She was a national board member of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1999 until her term expired in June 2006. In 2003, during her tenure on the national board, she became a strong critic of the ACLU leadership and was centrally involved in a series of controversies, including the attempted ouster of the executive director, that culminated in a highly publicized effort to prohibit board members from criticizing the ACLU.[4][5] In 2009 she published a book on her experience and views, called Worst Instincts: Cowardice, Conformity and the ACLU.
As of 2018, Kaminer still comments on the ACLU and what she believes is the appropriate relationship between protecting civil liberties and civil rights. "No one else is doing this work with the kind of national impact, and the kind of skilled lawyering."[6]
Writings
Kaminer, a former
Personal life
On November 17, 2001 Kaminer married longtime companion Woody Kaplan.
References
- ^ American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina
- ^ Kaminer, Wendy Feminists Against the First Amendment, The Atlantic
- ^ Kaminer, Wendy "Feminism's Identity Crisis", The Atlantic
- ^ How the ACLU Lost its Bearings
- ^ Sherman, Scott (January 18, 2007). "ACLU v. ACLU". The Nation. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014.
- ^ "Opinion | The ACLU's divided heart". The Washington Post. June 26, 2018. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
- ^ Bio: The Huffington Post
- ^ Secular Wedding Vows: Kaminer/Kaplan Wedding
- ^ Secular Coalition for America
- ^ Bryan Marquard Globe (August 27, 2023). "Woody Kaplan, an activist 'unafraid to stand up for the unpopular,' dies at 80". The Boston Globe. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
- ^ Secular Coalition for America Advisory Board Biography
External links
- Wendy Kaminer, blog at The Huffington Post
- Wendy Kaminer at The Atlantic
- Appearances on C-SPAN