Reddit reviews The Women's Room: A Novel

Part 2

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According to wikipedia, this was a quote from a character in her book, not her own words.

>French's 1977 novel, The Women's Room, follows the lives of Mira and her friends in 1950s and 1960s America, including Val, a militant radical feminist. The novel portrays the details of the lives of women at this time and also the feminist movement of this era in the United States. At one point in the book the character Val says "all men are rapists".[3] This quote has often been incorrectly attributed to Marilyn French herself. French's first book was a thesis on James Joyce.

I don't know the passage itself, but the book is available on amazon.

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“Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.” — Germaine Greer.

This quote is from her book, "The Female Eunuch". Here's a longer version of the quote:

> Security can be a killer, and corrode your mind and soul. But I wish I had it.

>Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release. The problem of recidivism ought to have shown young men like John Greenaway just what sort of a notion security is, but there is no indication that he would understand it. Security is when everything is settled, when nothing can happen to you; security is the denial of life. Human beings are better equipped to cope with disaster and hardship than they are with unvarying security, but as long as security is the highest value in a community they can have little opportunity to decide this for themselves. It is agreed that Englishmen coped magnificently with a war, and were more cheerful, enterprising and friendly under the daily threat of bombardment than they are now under benevolent peacetime, when we are so far from worrying about how many people starve in Africa that we can tolerate British policy in Nigeria. John Greenaway did not realize that his bastions of security would provide new opportunities for threat. The Elizabethans called the phenomenon mutability, and mourned the passing of all that was fair and durable with a kind of melancholy elation, seeing in the Heraclitean dance of the elements 271

>a divine purpose and a progress to a Platonic immutability in an unearthly region of ideas.2 Greenaway cannot have access to this kind of philosophic detachment; neither can he adopt the fatalism of the peasant who is always mocked by the unreliability of the seasons. He believes that there is such a thing as security: that an employer might pay him less but guarantee him secure tenure, that he might be allowed to live and die in the same house if he pays for it, that he can bind himself to a wife and family as assurance against abandonment and loneliness.

Here is the full book available to read online and that link goes to this specific quote's page.

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"95 percent of women's experiences are about being a victim." - Jodie fosters.

This quote is from a NY Times article and here's some more context:

>Consequently, she can't work a lot. She says: "I have to replenish myself. It's not that I go to the guru and chant. It's this muscling up. Physically and mentally."

>Perhaps part of the reason Foster tries to make only one movie a year is that she's only interested in "heavy dramas." " I love life-threatening situation movies," she says. "They're not about, 'Will I lose my virginity?' And in terms of women in history, 95 percent of women's experiences are about being a victim. Or about being an underdog, or having to survive. So, if I played Wonder Woman all the time I would be betraying where I come from. Women didn't go to Vietnam and blow things up. They're not Rambo. That's why 'Silence' is such a big departure, because it stands for all the same things, but you have a real female heroine. It's not about steroids and brawn, it's about using your mind and using your insufficiencies to combat the villain."

I think it's also important to remember that Jodie Foster had a stalker who tried to kill a president to get her attention.

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"All men are good for is fucking, and running over with a truck". Statement made by A University of Maine Feminist Administrator

Okay, so this was quoted by a man named Richard Dinsmore, who had a lawsuit against the University of Maine. I found an article that mentioned his lawsuit to be reinstated to his job here and this is what it said

>An example of an accused harasser who won back his job is Richard Dinsmore, a professor of European history at the University of Maine at Fort Kent. Many accused harassers take to the courts to try to avenge themselves, but he is one of a handful who have succeeded.

>In early 1992, one of the women students in Dinsmore's History of Ideas class complained to school administrators that he had sexually harassed her by touching her shoulder during a viewing of a film, by helping her put on her coat and by acting overly friendly while taking her out for coffee.

>An investigation was conducted by Myrna Cassel, the campus's vice president for academic affairs and student services. In addition to supporting the student's claims, she also said Dinsmore was "guilty of using inappropriate academic content" by requiring students to read a book by psychologist John Bradshaw called "Homecoming," which Cassel said could be "dangerous to students who might not be sufficiently mature." She recommended that Dinsmore, who had been suspended, should be terminated.

>He was fired from his tenured position in May 1992.

>Dinsmore sued, charging that his rights to free speech and due process had been violated and that he had been defamed. He won nearly $1 million in damages and attorneys fees in a jury verdict last year. His case was later resolved in a mediated settlement for $500,000 and he was reinstated to his previous job. He returned to work at the college campus this fall.

>Dinsmore said in an interview that the charges were "preposterous," and that he had become a victim of "man-hating feminists." He said he did not blame the young woman who had made the complaint because he believed she was a pawn in an ongoing dispute he had with administrators.

>Dinsmore's attorney David G. Webbert said Dinsmore had become a controversial figure on the campus by espousing unpopular views on gender issues. "In a university setting, sexual harassment is a weapon people can use to get people fired," Webbert said.

>Vendean Vafiades, counsel for the University of Maine System, confirmed that the university had settled the case and reinstated Dinsmore. But she said the university's views about Dinsmore's conduct had not changed, despite the jury's verdict.

>"Professor Dinsmore's conduct caused us great concern," Vafiades said. "We feel we have an institutional obligation to protect our students."

>Group dynamics appear to play an important role in these cases, experts said, as people join in denouncing those they mistrust. Particularly vulnerable are African-American men, especially if the alleged victim is white, or highly-paid older white men in a era of salary cutbacks, experts said.

>In a relatively small number of cases, alleged victims have invented harassment stories, experts said. These rare instances of false accusations stem from psychological problems, a desire to earn money in a lawsuit, or an attempt to protect their jobs if they are performing badly and fear they may be fired, according to attorneys who specialize in handling sexual harassment cases.

>One case cited by sexual harassment prevention trainer Monica Ballard involves a woman teacher was coming to work late and leaving early; she was confronted about it by the male principal, who told her he had been tracking her schedule of missed work. The next day, the woman falsely charged he had sexually harassed her, and the school district fired him immediately to avoid negative publicity.

So, uh, he's not exactly a trustworthy source, and if he's the only source of this quote then...I think that speaks for itself.

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And that's what my internet sleuthing has found!

The Women's Room by Marylin French

The Chomsky Reader by Noam Chomsky

Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir

The Classical Style by Charles Rosen

Floating Worlds by Cecelia Holland

The Troika Incident by James Cooke Brown

3DimensionalGirl wrote:

Part 2

According to wikipedia, this was a quote from a character in her book, not her own words.

> French's 1977 novel, The Women's Room, follows the lives of Mira and her friends in 1950s and 1960s America, including Val, a militant radical feminist. The novel portrays the details of the lives of women at this time and also the feminist movement of this era in the United States. At one point in the book the character Val says "all men are rapists".[3] This quote has often been incorrectly attributed to Marilyn French herself. French's first book was a thesis on James Joyce.

I don't know the passage itself, but the book is available on amazon.

“Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.” — Germaine Greer.

This quote is from her book, "The Female Eunuch". Here's a longer version of the quote:

> Security can be a killer, and corrode your mind and soul. But I wish I had it.

Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release. The problem of recidivism ought to have shown young men like John Greenaway just what sort of a notion security is, but there is no indication that he would understand it. Security is when everything is settled, when nothing can happen to you; security is the denial of life. Human beings are better equipped to cope with disaster and hardship than they are with unvarying security, but as long as security is the highest value in a community they can have little opportunity to decide this for themselves. It is agreed that Englishmen coped magnificently with a war, and were more cheerful, enterprising and friendly under the daily threat of bombardment than they are now under benevolent peacetime, when we are so far from worrying about how many people starve in Africa that we can tolerate British policy in Nigeria. John Greenaway did not realize that his bastions of security would provide new opportunities for threat. The Elizabethans called the phenomenon mutability, and mourned the passing of all that was fair and durable with a kind of melancholy elation, seeing in the Heraclitean dance of the elements 271

a divine purpose and a progress to a Platonic immutability in an unearthly region of ideas.2 Greenaway cannot have access to this kind of philosophic detachment; neither can he adopt the fatalism of the peasant who is always mocked by the unreliability of the seasons. He believes that there is such a thing as security: that an employer might pay him less but guarantee him secure tenure, that he might be allowed to live and die in the same house if he pays for it, that he can bind himself to a wife and family as assurance against abandonment and loneliness.

Here is the full book available to read online and that link goes to this specific quote's page.

"95 percent of women's experiences are about being a victim." - Jodie fosters.

This quote is from a NY Times article and here's some more context:

> Consequently, she can't work a lot. She says: "I have to replenish myself. It's not that I go to the guru and chant. It's this muscling up. Physically and mentally."

Perhaps part of the reason Foster tries to make only one movie a year is that she's only interested in "heavy dramas." " I love life-threatening situation movies," she says. "They're not about, 'Will I lose my virginity?' And in terms of women in history, 95 percent of women's experiences are about being a victim. Or about being an underdog, or having to survive. So, if I played Wonder Woman all the time I would be betraying where I come from. Women didn't go to Vietnam and blow things up. They're not Rambo. That's why 'Silence' is such a big departure, because it stands for all the same things, but you have a real female heroine. It's not about steroids and brawn, it's about using your mind and using your insufficiencies to combat the villain."

I think it's also important to remember that Jodie Foster had a stalker who tried to kill a president to get her attention.

"All men are good for is fucking, and running over with a truck". Statement made by A University of Maine Feminist Administrator

Okay, so this was quoted by a man named Richard Dinsmore, who had a lawsuit against the University of Maine. I found an article that mentioned his lawsuit to be reinstated to his job here and this is what it said

> An example of an accused harasser who won back his job is Richard Dinsmore, a professor of European history at the University of Maine at Fort Kent. Many accused harassers take to the courts to try to avenge themselves, but he is one of a handful who have succeeded.

In early 1992, one of the women students in Dinsmore's History of Ideas class complained to school administrators that he had sexually harassed her by touching her shoulder during a viewing of a film, by helping her put on her coat and by acting overly friendly while taking her out for coffee.

An investigation was conducted by Myrna Cassel, the campus's vice president for academic affairs and student services. In addition to supporting the student's claims, she also said Dinsmore was "guilty of using inappropriate academic content" by requiring students to read a book by psychologist John Bradshaw called "Homecoming," which Cassel said could be "dangerous to students who might not be sufficiently mature." She recommended that Dinsmore, who had been suspended, should be terminated.

He was fired from his tenured position in May 1992.

Dinsmore sued, charging that his rights to free speech and due process had been violated and that he had been defamed. He won nearly $1 million in damages and attorneys fees in a jury verdict last year. His case was later resolved in a mediated settlement for $500,000 and he was reinstated to his previous job. He returned to work at the college campus this fall.

Dinsmore said in an interview that the charges were "preposterous," and that he had become a victim of "man-hating feminists." He said he did not blame the young woman who had made the complaint because he believed she was a pawn in an ongoing dispute he had with administrators.

Dinsmore's attorney David G. Webbert said Dinsmore had become a controversial figure on the campus by espousing unpopular views on gender issues. "In a university setting, sexual harassment is a weapon people can use to get people fired," Webbert said.

Vendean Vafiades, counsel for the University of Maine System, confirmed that the university had settled the case and reinstated Dinsmore. But she said the university's views about Dinsmore's conduct had not changed, despite the jury's verdict.

"Professor Dinsmore's conduct caused us great concern," Vafiades said. "We feel we have an institutional obligation to protect our students."

Group dynamics appear to play an important role in these cases, experts said, as people join in denouncing those they mistrust. Particularly vulnerable are African-American men, especially if the alleged victim is white, or highly-paid older white men in a era of salary cutbacks, experts said.

In a relatively small number of cases, alleged victims have invented harassment stories, experts said. These rare instances of false accusations stem from psychological problems, a desire to earn money in a lawsuit, or an attempt to protect their jobs if they are performing badly and fear they may be fired, according to attorneys who specialize in handling sexual harassment cases.

One case cited by sexual harassment prevention trainer Monica Ballard involves a woman teacher was coming to work late and leaving early; she was confronted about it by the male principal, who told her he had been tracking her schedule of missed work. The next day, the woman falsely charged he had sexually harassed her, and the school district fired him immediately to avoid negative publicity.

So, uh, he's not exactly a trustworthy source, and if he's the only source of this quote then...I think that speaks for itself.

And that's what my internet sleuthing has found!