Washington University Law Professors: Rescind Honorary Degree For Anti-Feminist Phyllis Schlafly
Washington University Law Professors: Rescind Honorary Degree For Anti-Feminist Phyllis Schlafly
Washington University recently announced that it would be awarding right-wing activist Phyllis Schlafly an honorary degree at its graduation ceremony on May 16. Schlafly is notorious for her outspoken belief that women should be homemakers and her opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. In a statement, the university lauded Schlafly as a “national leader of the conservative movement.”
Opposition was swift. Two Facebook groups opposing the award immediately popped up and now have more than 4,000 members combined. Today, 14 faculty members of the Washington University School of Law also wrote a sharp letter asking school’s chancellor to rescind the award:
We are extremely disappointed that the University has chosen to honor Phyllis Schlafly with an honorary degree at this spring’s commencement ceremony.
We are fully committed to the principle of free speech, and we believe the University should encourage a discussion of diverse viewpoints. Commencement, however, is first and foremost a time of celebration of the intellectual accomplishments of our students. It is, we believe, a disservice to those whom we honor to inject into the proceedings a person who has devoted her life to staking out and promoting polarizing, anti-intellectual positions. […]
An even more important reason to rescind the degree offer to Ms. Schlafly is that her repeatedly expressed views are antithetical to some of the most fundamental principles for which this University stands.
As the professors note, Schlafly’s accomplishments include going after “the gay and lesbian agenda,” calling for the “impeachment” of Supreme Court justices, calling anyone who believes in evolution an “atheist,” and opposing the Violence Against Women Act. She has also claimed that women “are too emotional to handle intellectual or scientific debate” and described sex education as “in-home sales parties for abortions.”
E-mail Washington University Chancellor Mark Wrighton here to object to the Schlafly award. (Be polite.)
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What a shrew.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:02 pmWhat would a pack of liberal law professors know about, like, the law? how dare they insinuate that Ms. Schlaffoutloudly be snubbed like the neanderthal beeatch that she is?
May 13th, 2008 at 12:07 pm/snark off
I was in St. Louis two weekends ago, and after staying up all night with some folks and going to smoke cigarettes in the butterfly garden, we saw Wrighton walking his dog. It was really surreal, because he was wearing a suit at 8AM on a Saturday to walk his dog, and he was wearing that plastered on grin he always has. Very strange man. I had lunch with him once, it was tremendously awkward.
The unfortunate reality is that this is going to turn the graduation into a protest against her, rather than an event for the students. And Chris Matthews is giving the commencement speech.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:12 pmSchlafly is too emotional to receive an honorary degree. And you can’t ask her to intellectual debate why she should get one, either. Finally, she should not be addressing a graduation class that probably is made up of at least 50% females, as this would be an implied endorsement of those females getting an education.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:14 pmDoes she blame the gay and lesbian agenda for the fact that her own son is gay?
May 13th, 2008 at 12:15 pmthis post, via C&L blog roundup on friday, is a MUST READ… and PASS IT ON…
Schlafly’s honorary degree: a travesty of a mockery of a sham
Posted by kathy
By Kathy G.
The decision on the part of Washington University, the highly respected research university located in St. Louis, Missouri, to award an honorary degree to the odious Phyllis Schlafly is deeply distressing to me. One reason why is that this story has gotten nowhere near the attention it deserves, either from the mainstream media or from the left blogosphere (although there are a few blogs that, against the grain, have been on the case).
I think part of the problem is that, these days, many people have no idea who Phyllis Schlafly was and is. And, compounding that, a lot of folks don’t understand what awarding an honorary degree means. I will try to correct what I see as those lacunae, or misunderstandings, in this post (which I’ll warn you right here, is exceedingly long).
Let me start by posing a question: how would you feel if a great university decided to bestow its highest award —an honorary doctoral degree—on Ann Coulter? Or on Karl Rove? Well, the reprehensible Schlafly is very much their equivalent, as I’ll explain later.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:22 pm[…]
http://crookedtimber.org/ 2008/ 05/ 08/ schlaflys-honorary-degree-a-travesty-of-a-mockery-of-a-sham/
The irony of a woman who made a 40 year career out of telling woman to stay home barefoot and pregnant and eschew careers in the workplace never ceases to make me chuckle.
Prof.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:23 pmToo bad the honorary degree wasn’t coming from Regency U. Now, that would make more sense and have more clout in the BushCo NeoCon world.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:27 pmI can understand and applaud any organization or institution’s effort to seek out diverse viewpoints. However, treating Phyllis Schlafly’s lunatic ravings as valid thought worthy of an honorary doctorate is like awarding an honorary doctorate to Fred Phelps.
Just because a viewpoint differs from the norm doesn’t always mean it’s worth our attention, let alone our respect.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:31 pmCaveman like her, her like man with club, her at fire place, her cook for caveman, caveman leader, her stay quiet, her know her place, her not smart like caveman.
How in the world do this kind of neanderthal thinking still exist this day and age?
May 13th, 2008 at 12:34 pmCal Malenky Says
May 13th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Does she blame the gay and lesbian agenda for the fact that her own son is gay?
___________________________________________
Tough to say, since she refuses to talk about it, dismisses anybody who asks her about it, and probably denies the whole thing in her mind.
But if she thinks about it at all, she probably does blame the “gay agenda” for “turning” her son gay. After all, she’s convinced that teaching a child evolution will turn him/her into an atheist.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:38 pmI am sick and tired of TP attacking the likes of this woman who has done so much to make this a better world and a better civilization. Women should know their place (under men) and concern themselves only with keeping a good house, learning to please their husband and raising children. This is their purpose on earth and we provide the perfect community in which you can realize this dream. If you are interested in how your spouse can be more like Phyllis (one of our early models), please e-mail us at stepfordvillage@snark.com.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:39 pmPhyllis Schlafly gets an honorary degree?
What’s next…. awarding Trannie Coulter magna cum laude?
May 13th, 2008 at 12:39 pmHEY!
Someone grab this woman and get her back to the compound in Texas!
Her husband and his other 38 wives are waiting for dinner.
P.S. Her 57 children thank the State of Texas for being busted out and set free.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:46 pmPlease think outside the box just once you liberals. God made women from a rib of a MAN. And He gave her just enough to get by. The average descendent of Eve is approximately 25% smaller than the average descendant of Adam, right? And God made them both proportionate, therefore women’s brains are 25% smaller than men’s. QED baby!
Except in poor Phyllis’ case, her cranium is filled with raspberry jello.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:47 pmHopefully, the school’s chancellor will take to heart all the impassioned letters and controversy this has caused the university. Her support of capital punishment for juveniles, her undermining of women’s rights, her negative views of women being too emotional and lacking in intellect is not a position that a university should be supporting.
By honoring someone with her radical views of women, they are setting a precedence of importance to her agenda.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:51 pmHer son is also a wonderful chip-off-the-ol’-block too — one of the founders behind Conservapedia:
http://www.conservapedia.com/Andrew_Schlafly
Lots of “interesting” reading there.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:52 pmI don’t get it. This is a woman that has 2 college degrees and she runs around spouting that women should stay home and make babies?
May 13th, 2008 at 12:55 pmDidn’t she marry Bobby Riggs?
May 13th, 2008 at 1:05 pmJMOHR Says:
For further information on being the perfect, subservient wife also see these great sites:
Created to Be His Help Meet http://www.createdtobehishelpmeet.org/
An Help Meet for Him
May 13th, 2008 at 1:06 pmhttp://hishelpmeet.com/?page_id=2
Northwestern University rescinded it’s honorary doctorate to Jeremiah Wright. Since Washington U is in the show me state perhaps they need an an example of the right thing to do.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:10 pmnanlichi; you are insulting raspberries and jello by that comparison and I won’t have that!
snark
May 13th, 2008 at 1:15 pmJeebus JMOHR, you seem to be channeling Daryll today!
May 13th, 2008 at 1:16 pmMmmmmm raspberry jello… I knew a girl once who named her boyfrien’s wang ‘jello’, cause, as everyone knows, ‘there’s always room for jello!’
May 13th, 2008 at 1:17 pmJello, I love you, won’t you tell me your name.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:21 pmIgnoranceIsNotBliss
She hates seeing success in other women and wants to keep as few women armed with college degrees as possible. If women have college degrees and good careers more often, she’ll feel ordinary.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:22 pmShe’s 84, isn’t it time for her to think about retiring from public life?
May 13th, 2008 at 1:24 pmGotta love thoes ‘Stepford Wives’….two coats on that shoe shine honey….
May 13th, 2008 at 1:24 pmnanlichi; you are getting snarky us us…………ain’tcha?
May 13th, 2008 at 1:25 pmwised up ~ and a buff with the nylon stocking from your leg!
May 13th, 2008 at 1:28 pmRUCerious Says
May 13th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Jeebus JMOHR, you seem to be channeling Daryll today!
____________________________________________
I assume that Daryll’s beeper failed to identify this as a “gay” thread, so he hasn’t been alerted. It’s nice to know that JMOHR can step up to the plate in Daryll’s absence.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:32 pmI graduated from the law school (where she is, ugh, a fellow graduate) and sent a kind protest to the good Chancellor, along with a not so veiled threat that continuing down this path will have a real reputational and FINANCIAL impact on the University. If WashU gives this nutcase an honorary degree, each and every time they send to me a donation letter, I will happily send it back with a note to seek donations in the future, not from me, but from good old Phyllis.
I was once less than 10 feet from good old Phyllis in the law library of Mudd Hall (the law school then). I should have throttled her when I had the chance then.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:36 pmRUCerious Says:
Not Darryl, but I did see the horrible remake of the Stepford Wiveson television. It inspired my snark today.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:43 pmUncle Ho, not too snarky, the song just stuck in my head. It was really just a waste of a post.
This one makes it two.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:50 pmJMOHR ~ all in good fun, but that is one scary fu*king movie!
May 13th, 2008 at 1:50 pmNan ~ channeling the Doors is never a waste of anything!
May 13th, 2008 at 1:51 pmRUC, missmolly, you two have probably just summoned “he who shall not be named”. Shame on you!
May 13th, 2008 at 1:58 pmThat’s right RUCerious, that’s your era’s music too isn’t it?
I had a buddy who spent his whole tour in Nam assembling reel to reel tapes of music. I inherited his collection a few years later and still have it stored away somewhere.
Classic stuff.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:00 pmThis is a most odious woman —
In an interview with Washington University’s student newspaper, Schlafly held her anti-woman ground:
Could you clarify some of the statements that you made in Maine last year about martial rape?
I think that when you get married you have consented to sex. That’s what marriage is all about, I don’t know if maybe these girls missed sex ed. That doesn’t mean the husband can beat you up, we have plenty of laws against assault and battery. If there is any violence or mistreatment that can be dealt with by criminal prosecution, by divorce or in various ways. When it gets down to calling it rape though, it isn’t rape, it’s a he said-she said where it’s just too easy to lie about it.
Was the way in which your statement was portrayed correct?
Yes. Feminists, if they get tired of a husband or if they want to fight over child custody, they can make an accusation of marital rape and they want that to be there, available to them.
So you see this as more of a tool used by people to get out of marriages than as legitimate-
Yes, I certainly do.
Actually, following this logic to it’s natural conclusion, would give women valid reason not to get married EVER — if it means giving up any right to not consent to sex.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:03 pmlibforequity Says:
While Prof. O’Reilly gives the commencement!
Actually, Chris Matthews is scheduled to give the commencement.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:13 pmSo why isnt she at home and what good would a degree do there?
If she were a true anti-feminist she would reject a degree, strip off her clothes and allow the old farts in the room go give her a go with no complaints.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:20 pmif you dig 60s psychadelic music, I have just the station for you. TWOS- the technicolor web of sound. on the net only.
go to windows media player, internet radio, and enter into search. far out stuff all the time. Hendrix, Cream, Joplin, Moody Blues, Doors, CSNY, Byrds, Airplane, many more.
I have it on the office computer and it doesn’t interfere with my work on the computer. waaaaayyyy cooooooolllll.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:24 pmThanks Uncle Ho, I can’t find TWOS. Are the offerings area related? I am in AZ.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:40 pmNAN ~ DID it have 10 years after with Alvin Lee??
May 13th, 2008 at 2:52 pmin so far as I know, TWOS should be available anywhere. I’m grooving to it here in Michigan. try using technicolor web of sound in keyword search. good luck.
May 13th, 2008 at 3:08 pmEUREKA! this should work. enter into keyword search: technicolor. this brings it right up.
May 13th, 2008 at 3:17 pmGot it Uncle Ho, way cool.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:14 pmAs Schafly advocates that women shouldn’t be in the workplace and should stay in the home, wouldn’t it naturally follow that an education for women is a waste of perfectly good resources that could be spent on educating men for the workforce ?
Wouldn’t a degree be a waste for a woman - after all, wouldn’t advancement be against what women should be doing ?
May 13th, 2008 at 4:58 pmSchlafly = HATE!!!
May 13th, 2008 at 7:55 pmI can’t stand this woman. She’s the most self-loathing woman on the planet. But she couldn’t just go home and hate us from afar, noooooo. She had to spend her time actively preventing the advancement of women as human beings.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:38 pmWhat are you people babbling about? Phyllis Schlafly is hot.
http://gayforphyllis.blogspot.com
May 20th, 2008 at 10:47 pm