Communist propaganda, arguments for lesbianism, accusations of white supremacy, and conspiracy theories about rape culture: perhaps not what the average 19-year-old (or tax-paying parent thereof) was expecting when she registered for Philosophy of Sexual Politics at Paterson State University in Wayne, New Jersey c. 1974. But that’s what she got.
The class was taught by Professor Paula Rothenberg, a prominent feminist leader who called for the “radical transformation of all our institutions.” With Alison Jaggar, Rothenberg would go on to co-author one of the first women’s studies textbooks (Feminist Frameworks: Alternative Theoretical Accounts of the Relations Between Women and Men [1978]). Later, she published White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism (2002).
Her New Jersey classroom became the laboratory in which young women were encouraged “to rethink every aspect of our lives.”
A very interesting read.
