Posted by Beck on May 18, 1999 at 01:20:03 from 203.61.4.237:
In Reply to: Re: Childhood and Intellectual Freedom posted by Alan Hakim on May 17, 1999 at 12:40:38:
Alan, it seems to me that your definition of a feminist is at the narrow end of the spectrum - one that considers a feminist to be part of the post-war feminist movement (not the first movement by any means) beginning roughly with Simone de Beauvoir. Anne's and my definition includes AR because of his obvious and then-rare commitment to portraying his female characters as tough, resourceful, creative people with leadership skills and thus an unusual degree of power for female characters of that era. In other words, he worked deliberately and positively to create good female role models - went out of his way to ensure that female readers were included in the action. And this is unusual, and this is what makes AR a feminist! And to call him thus is not 'sloppy academic thinking' (which I must say is a bit of a patronising put-down - nice try!), it is no different from calling Christ a revolutionary - also a contemporary term for a historic figure. History is not just WHAT is written down, but is also WHO wrote it down. And history is not fixed, but a constant process of revision by multiple voices & multiple points of view, including feminist ones in all their permutations. And the more voices (which will always mean more dissent) the better!