Thursday, February 21, 2008

Phyllis Schlafly speaks at DePaul University

A legend in the conservative movement, but by no means out of touch today, Phyllis Schlafly spoke at DePaul University Tuesday night, and I was pleased to be in attendance.

Best known today for her role in leading the fight to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and early 1980s, her public life advocating conservative causes predates that episode, and she's still fighting the fight today.

Early on in her speech, Schlafly voiced a regret:
I was hoping that the students with the women's studies department would come tonight, so they could hear another view.
It probably would've been the only opportunity for those students, and their professors, to hear something that varied from the hard-left feminist groupthink that all women's studies departments are hobbled by.

We later found out one showed up.

Schafly spoke on a whole range of topics, including the Larry Summers travesty at Harvard, the destructive effects of the Title IX on men's college athletics, particularly wrestling, and the little-acknowledged fact that boys and girls, men and women, are somewhat different from each other.

I asked a question about regarding the almost complete silence of feminists groups (and women's studies departments) regarding mistreatment of women within Muslim communities.

Her response was:
Maybe if they did talk about that, maybe it would show how well women are treated in the United States. (Applause)
Well put. That prompted the one women's studies student in the audience to ask a question.

The photograph was taken by Jake Jacobsen of Freedom Folks. Jake and "The Bald Chick" videotaped Mrs. Schlafly's speech, it's available here. My part, you only hear my voice, is in Part 5.

She had her book, Feminist Fantasies, on sale that night. I picked up a copy.

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