Laura Kipnis, Northwestern Author, Reviewed in the Chicago Tribune
Laura Kipnis, author of “The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability”, was written about in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune.
I Have lived in the Chicago area for nearly thirty years, most of the time being spent in the Evanston area, and I still usually hear about the faculty pursuits or cool student events through the news media rather than directly.
A case in point is that I was at least peripherally ignorant of Laura Kipnis until reading the article about her in the Chicago Tribune yesterday. Now, I am very interested in reading not only her most recent book “The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability” but some of her earlier work as well.
I had to read the Nara Schoenberg article in the paper yesterday and then again in the online Tribune before getting the gist of what Kipnis writes about. But some of her ideas and questions sound quite good and on target. I have noticed lately that feminists are going in all different directions, and that there is more individuality in being a feminist than their used to be. I know, however, that I was extremely disappointed in Christina Hoff Sommers’ presentation at the Mens Day Celebration at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, IL a couple of years ago whereby she acted somewhat giddily amused that the microphone would not function when she presented the traditional feminist’s point of view and would blare out when she presented the men’s point of view. [Sommers is considered something of a “turncoat”, and is the author of “The War on Boys”]
At any rate, I plan to read Kipnis’ work, and see if I can understand her philosophical statements and appreciate them better than I do those of Sommers.
By Flo Crew
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