My deepest impulses are optimistic; an attitude that seems to me as spiritually necessary and proper as it is intellectually suspect.
"Tom Wolfe's Failed Optimism" (1977), Beginning To See the Light: Pieces of a Decade (1981)
Mass consumption, advertising, and mass art are a corporate Frankenstein; while they reinforce the system, they also undermine it. By continually pushing the message that we have the right to gratification now, consumerism at its most expansive encouraged a demand for fulfillment that could not so easily be contained by products;...
"Introduction", Beginning To See the Light: Pieces of a Decade (1981)
While liberals appeared to be safely in power, feminists could perhaps afford the luxury of defining Larry Flynt or Roman Polanski as Enemy Number One. Now that we have to cope with Jerry Falwell and Jesse Helms, a rethinking of priorities seems in order.
"Lust Horizons: Is the Woman's Movement Pro-Sex?" (1981), No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays (1992)
Whatever their limitations, Freud and Marx developed complex and subtle theories of human nature grounded in their observation of individual and social behavior. The crackpot rationalism of free-market economics merely relies on an abstract model of how people 'must' behave.
Letter to The New York Times (February 27, 1997)
Ellen Jane Willis was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
left-wing political
essayAn essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
ist,
journalistA journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, activist and
pop musicPop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
critic.
Biography
Willis was born in
ManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
to a Jewish family, and grew up in the boroughs of
the BronxThe Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
and Queens in New York City. Her father was a police lieutenant in the
New York City Police DepartmentThe New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
. Willis attended
Barnard CollegeBarnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...
as an undergraduate and did graduate study at
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, where she studied
comparative literatureComparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
for a semester but left
graduate schoolA graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
shortly afterwards.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, she was the first pop music critic for
The New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, and later wrote for, among others, the
Village Voice,
The Nation,
Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
,
SlateSlate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
, and
SalonSalon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, as well as
DissentDissent is a quarterly magazine focusing on politics and culture edited by Michael Walzer and Michael Kazin. The magazine is published for the Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas, Inc by the University of Pennsylvania Press....
, where she was also on the editorial board. She was the author of several books of collected essays.
At the time of her death, she was a professor in the journalism department of
New York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
and the head of its Center for Cultural Reporting and Criticism. She lived in Queens with her husband
Stanley AronowitzStanley Aronowitz is professor of sociology, cultural studies, and urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is also a veteran political activist and cultural critic and an advocate for organized labor.-Social Text:...
and her daughter, Nona Willis-Aronowitz.
On November 9, 2006, a non-smoker, she died of
lung cancerLung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
. Her papers were deposited in the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, in the Radcliffe Institute at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 2008.
Writing and activism
Willis was known for her feminist politics and was a member of
New York Radical WomenNew York Radical Women was an early second-wave feminist group that existed from 1967–1969.NYRW was founded in New York City in the fall of 1967, by Shulamith Firestone and Pam Allen. Early members included: Ros Baxandall, Carol Hanisch, Patricia Mainardi, Robin Morgan, Irene Peslikis, Kathie...
and subsequently co-founder in early 1969 with
Shulamith FirestoneShulamith Firestone , is a Jewish, Canadian-born feminist. She was a central figure in the early development of radical feminism, having been a founding member of the New York Radical Women, Redstockings, and New York Radical Feminists...
of the
radical feministRadical feminism is a current theoretical perspective within feminism that focuses on the theory of patriarchy as a system of power that organizes society into a complex of relationships based on an assumption that "male supremacy" oppresses women...
group
RedstockingsRedstockings, also known as Redstockings of the Women's Liberation Movement, is a radical feminist group that was founded in January of 1969...
. She was one of the few women working in music criticism during its inaugural years, when it was predominantly a male-dominated field. Starting in 1979, Willis wrote a number of essays that were highly critical of anti-pornography feminism, criticizing it for what she saw as its sexual
puritanismReligious fanaticism is fanaticism related to a person's, or a group's, devotion to a religion. However, religious fanaticism is a subjective evaluation defined by the culture context that is performing the evaluation. What constitutes fanaticism in another's behavior or belief is determined by the...
and moral
authoritarianismAuthoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
, as well as its threat to free speech. These essays were among the earliest expressions of feminist opposition to the anti-pornography movement. Her 1981 essay, "Lust Horizons: Is the Women's Movement Pro-Sex?" is the origin of the term, "pro-sex feminism".
She was a strong supporter of women's abortion rights, and in the early 1980s was a founding member of the
pro-choiceSupport for the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-choice movement, a sociopolitical movement supporting the ethical view that a woman should have the legal right to elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy....
street theater and protest group
No More Nice GirlsNo More Nice Girls is the third studio album from Hang on the Box. It was released on September 27, 2007 in China.-Track listing:- Personnel :*Wang Yue – Vocals*Yang Fan – Guitar*Yilina – Bass*Shen Jing – Drums-References:**...
. A self-described
anti-authoritarianAnti-authoritarianism is opposition to authoritarianism, which is defined as a "political doctrine advocating the principle of absolute rule: absolutism, autocracy, despotism, dictatorship, totalitarianism." Anti-authoritarians usually believe in full equality before the law and strong civil...
democratic socialist, she was very critical of what she viewed as
social conservatismSocial Conservatism is primarily a political, and usually morally influenced, ideology that focuses on the preservation of what are seen as traditional values. Social conservatism is a form of authoritarianism often associated with the position that the federal government should have a greater role...
and
authoritarianismAuthoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
on both the political right and left. In cultural politics, she was equally opposed to the idea that cultural issues are politically unimportant, as well as to strong forms of
identity politicsIdentity politics are political arguments that focus upon the self interest and perspectives of self-identified social interest groups and ways in which people's politics may be shaped by aspects of their identity through race, class, religion, sexual orientation or traditional dominance...
and their manifestation as
political correctnessPolitical correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
.
In several essays and interviews written since the September 11 attacks, she cautiously supported
humanitarian interventionHumanitarian intervention "refers to a state using military force against another state when the chief publicly declared aim of that military action is ending human-rights violations being perpetrated by the state against which it is directed."...
and, while opposed to the US invasion of Iraq, she criticized certain aspects of the anti-war movement.
Willis wrote a number of essays on
anti-SemitismAntisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
, and was particularly critical of
left anti-SemitismNew antisemitism is the concept that a new form of antisemitism has developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, emanating simultaneously from the far-left, radical Islam, and the far-right, and tending to manifest itself as opposition to Zionism and the State of Israel.The concept...
. Occasionally she wrote about
JudaismJudaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
itself, penning a particularly notable essay about her brother's spiritual journey as a
Baal TeshuvaBaal teshuva or ba'al teshuvah , sometimes abbreviated to BT, is a term referring to a Jew who turns to embrace Orthodox Judaism. Baal teshuva literally means, "repentant", i.e., one who has repented or "returned" to God...
for
Rolling Stone in 1977.
She saw political authoritarianism and sexual repression as closely linked, an idea first advanced by psychologist
Wilhelm ReichWilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry...
; much of Willis' writing advances a Reichian or radical Freudian analysis of such phenomena. In 2006 she was working on a book on the importance of radical psychoanalytic thought to current social and political issues.
Rock criticism
Willis was the first popular music critic for
The New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, between 1968 and 1975. As such, she was one of the first American popular music critics to write for a national audience. She got the job after having published only one article on popular music in the underground magazine
Cheetah, "Dylan," in 1967. In addition to her "Rock, etc." column in the New Yorker, she also published criticism on popular music in
Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, the
Village Voice, and for liner notes and book anthologies, most notably her essay on the Velvet Underground for the Greil Marcus "desert island disc" anthology
StrandedStranded is the third album by art rock band Roxy Music, and was released late 1973, reaching number one on the UK album charts. The cover features Ferry's then girlfriend and 1973 Playmate of the Year, Marilyn Cole...
(1979). Contemporary Richard Goldstein characterized her work as "liberationist" at its heart and said that "Ellen, Emma Goldman, and Abbie Hoffman are part of a lost tradition-radicals of desire."
She was a friend of many contemporary critics, including
Robert ChristgauRobert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
, Georgia Christgau,
Greil MarcusGreil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.-Life and career:Marcus was born in San Francisco...
, and
Richard GoldsteinRichard Goldstein is an American journalist and writer. He wrote for the Village Voice from June 1966 until 2004, eventually becoming executive editor. He specializes in gay and lesbian issues, music, and counterculture topics....
. Christgau, Joe Levy, Evelyn McDonnell,
Joan MorganJoan Morgan was a British actress. She was the daughter of Evelyn Morgan and Sidney Morgan.-Selected filmography:* The Road to London * The Lilac Sunbonnet * Fires of Innocence * Dicky Monteith...
, and
Ann PowersAnn Powers is an American writer and pop music critic.Powers has been writing about popular music and society since the early 1980s...
have all cited her as an influence on their careers and writing styles. In 2011, the first anthology exclusively devoted to Willis's popular music writing,
Out of the Vinyl Deeps (University of Minnesota Press), arrived. Willis "celebrated the seriousness of pleasure and relished the pleasure of thinking seriously," a review in
The New York Times said. It was announced that a conference at New York University, Sex, Hope, & Rock 'n' Roll: The Writings of Ellen Willis, celebrated her anthology and pop music criticism on April 30, 2011.
External links
- "Ellen Willis, 64, Journalist and Feminist, Dies" by Margalit Fox, New York Times, November 10, 2006.
- "Journalism professor, activist dies at 64" by Josh Burd and Nick Brennan, Washington Square News
The Washington Square News is the daily student newspaper of New York University and serves the NYU, Greenwich Village, and East Village communities. The paper, better known as WSN, has a circulation of 10,000 and an estimated 65,000 readers online...
, November 10, 2006.
- "A Remembrance of Ellen Willis" by Susie Linfield, Dissent (magazine)
Dissent is a quarterly magazine focusing on politics and culture edited by Michael Walzer and Michael Kazin. The magazine is published for the Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas, Inc by the University of Pennsylvania Press....
, Winter 2007.
- "Ellen Willis, 1941-2006", The Nation, November 10, 2006.
- "Ellen Willis, 64; radical critic targeted foibles wherever she saw them, on the left or right" by Jocelyn Y. Stewart, Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, November 15, 2006.
- "Remembering Ellen Willis, Rock �n� Roll Feminist Superhero" by Suzy Hansen, New York Observer
The New York Observer is a weekly newspaper first published in New York City on September 22, 1987, by Arthur L. Carter, a very successful former investment banker with publishing interests. The Observer focuses on the city's culture, real estate, the media, politics and the entertainment and...
, November 20, 2006.
- "Ellen Willis, 1942-2006" by Judith Levine
Judith Levine is an American author, journalist, civil libertarian and co-founder of the National Writers Union, a trade union of contract and freelance writers, and No More Nice Girls, a group dedicated to promoting abortion rights through street theater...
, Seven DaysSeven Days is an alternative weekly newspaper that is distributed every Wednesday in Vermont. Seven Days is published by Da Capo Publishing, Inc., and owned by Pamela Polston and Paula Routly. It is distributed free of charge throughout the following areas: Burlington, Middlebury, Montpelier,...
, November 22, 2006.
- "My Ellen Willis" by Michael Bronski, The Boston Phoenix, November 30, 2006.
- "Sex, Hope and Rock and Roll: A Conversation with Ellen Willis" by Chris O'Connell, Pop Matters, January 8, 2007.
- "Ellen Willis Remembered" The Common Ills, November 11, 2006.
- Ellen Willis online archives – evergrowing archive of Willis's work.
Essays by Ellen Willis
- Ellen Willis Tumblr Page - large collection of Willis's writings.
- Ellen Willis NYU homepage – includes links to numerous essays.
- "We Remember Ellen Willis", Dissent, Fall 2006. – links to her essays for Dissent.
- "Ellen Willis's Reply", 1968.
- "Women and the Myth of Consumerism", Ramparts
Ramparts was an American political and literary magazine, published from 1962 through 1975.-History:Founded by Edward M. Keating as a Catholic literary quarterly, the magazine became closely associated with the New Left after executive editor Warren Hinckle hired Robert Scheer as managing editor...
, 1969.
- "Hell No, I Won't Go: End the War on Drugs", Village Voice, September 19, 1989.
- "We Need a Radical Left", The Nation, June 29, 1998.
- "Monica and Barbara and Primal Concerns", New York Times, March 14, 1999.
- "Vote for Ralph Nader!", Salon, November 6, 2000.
- "The Democrats and Left Masochism", New Politics
New Politics is an independent socialist journal founded in 1961 and still published in the United States today. While it is inclusive of articles from a variety of left-of-center positions, the publication leans strongly toward a Third camp, democratic Marxist perspective, placing it typically to...
#31 (new series), Summer, 2001.
- "The Realities of War" (A response to Elaine Scarry's
Elaine Scarry , a professor of English and American Literature and Language, is the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University...
“Citizenship in Emergency”), Boston Review, October/November 2002.
- "Can Marriage Be Saved?: A Forum" (II), The Nation, June 17, 2004.
- "The Pernicious Concept of 'Balance'", The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty, staff members and administrators....
, September 9, 2005. Note: scroll down page.
- "Commentary on Maxine Greene's The Dialectic of Freedom"
Reviews and critiques of Ellen Willis
- Review of Beginning to See the Light by Liza Featherstone
Liza Featherstone is an American journalist and journalism professor who writes frequently on labor and student activism for The Nation....
, The Nation, August 8, 2002.
- Review of Don't Think, Smile! by Eugene McCarraher, Commonweal
Commonweal is a American journal of opinion edited and managed by lay Catholics. It is headquartered in The Interchurch Center in New York City.-History:...
, October 22, 1999.
- Review of Don't Think, Smile! and interview with Ellen Willis by Michael Bronski, Weekly Wire, November 29, 1999.
- Review of Don't Think, Smile! by Marcy Sheiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian
The San Francisco Bay Guardian is a free alternative newspaper published weekly in San Francisco, California. The paper is owned mostly by its publisher, Bruce B...
, March 29, 2000.
- Bully in the Pulpit? (Discussion of Ellen Willis "Freedom From Religion"), The Nation, February 22, 2001.
- "Open Letter to Ellen Willis" by Louis Proyect, PEN-L (internet mailing list), March 25, 2003.
Interviews
- "Ellen Willis, Feminist and Writer", Fresh Air
Fresh Air is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States. The show is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its longtime host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated to 450 stations and claimed 4.5 million listeners. The show...
, November 10, 2006 (originally broadcast February 14, 1989). (page links to RealAudioRealAudio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks and first released in April 1995. It uses a variety of audio codecs, ranging from low-bitrate formats that can be used over dialup modems, to high-fidelity formats for music. It can also be used as a streaming audio format, that is...
audio file)
- Interview with Ellen Willis and others on Implicating Empire by Doug Henwood
Doug Henwood is an American journalist who writes frequently about economic affairs. He publishes a newsletter, Left Business Observer, that analyzes economics and politics from a left-wing perspective, and is a contributing editor at The Nation.- Early years :Henwood was born in Teaneck, New...
, Left Business Observer (radio), March 27, 2003. (page links to MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
audio)