Wendy Kaminer (born 1949) is a
lawyerA lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person licensed to practice law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain stability, and deliver...
and
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
. She has written several books on contemporary social issues, including
A Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight From Equality, about the conflict between egalitarian and protectionist feminism;
I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help FashionsI'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help Fashions is a non-fiction book about the self-help industry, written by Wendy Kaminer...
, about the
self-helpThe term self-help refers to self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis....
movement; and
Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials : The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety.
Kaminer graduated from
Smith CollegeSmith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...
in 1971.
Wendy Kaminer (born 1949) is a
lawyerA lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person licensed to practice law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain stability, and deliver...
and
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
. She has written several books on contemporary social issues, including
A Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight From Equality, about the conflict between egalitarian and protectionist feminism;
I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help FashionsI'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help Fashions is a non-fiction book about the self-help industry, written by Wendy Kaminer...
, about the
self-helpThe term self-help refers to self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis....
movement; and
Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials : The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety.
Early life
Kaminer graduated from
Smith CollegeSmith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...
in 1971. She earned her law degree from Boston University Law School and practiced law as a staff attorney in the New York Legal Aid Society and the office of the
Mayor of New York CityThe Mayor of the City of New York is head of the executive branch of New York City's government. The Mayor's office administers all city services, public property, police and fire protection, most public agencies, and enforces all city and state laws within New York City.The budget overseen by the...
.
Anti-pornography movement and anti-censorship movements
In the late 1970s, Kaminer worked with
Women Against PornographyWomen Against Pornography was a radical feminist activist group based out of New York City and an influential force in the anti-pornography movement of the late 1970s and 1980s....
, where she advocated in favor of private consciousness raising efforts and against legal efforts to censor pornography. She contributed a chapter to the anti-pornography anthology,
Take Back the Night, in which she defended First Amendment freedoms and explained the dangers of seeking legal solutions to the perceived problem of pornography. She opposed efforts by
Catharine MacKinnonCatharine Alice MacKinnon is an American feminist, scholar, lawyer, teacher and activist.- Biography :MacKinnon was born into an upper-middle class family in Minnesota. Her mother is Elizabeth Valentine Davis; her father, George E. MacKinnon was a lawyer, congressman , and judge on the U.S. Court...
and
Andrea DworkinAndrea Rita Dworkin was an American radical feminist and writer best known for her criticism of pornography, which she believed to be linked with rape and other forms of violence against women....
to define pornography as a civil rights violation, and she critiqued the pro-censorship movement in a 1992 article in
The Atlantic,
“Feminists Against the First Amendment.” An ardent free speech advocate, she is currently a member of the advisory board of the
Foundation for Individual Rights in EducationThe Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is a non-profit group founded in 1999 and focused on civil liberties in academia in the United States...
.
Kaminer, an equality or individual rights feminist, was an early opponent of late 20th century “protectionist”
feminismThe term Feminism can be used to describe an academic discourse, or to describe a political, cultural or economic movement aimed at establishing more rights and legal protection for women...
, reflected in the movement to censor pornography, and of the “difference” feminism associated with
Carol GilliganCarol Gilligan is an American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist best known for her work with and against Lawrence Kohlberg on ethical community and ethical relationships, and certain subject-object problems in ethics. She is currently a Professor at New York University and a Visiting Professor...
. She critiqued
“Feminism’s Identity Crisis” in an October 1993 cover story for
The Atlantic.
ACLU
Kaminer was a member of the board of the
American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts from the early 1990s until June 2009. She was a national board member of the
American Civil Liberties UnionThe American Civil Liberties Union consists of two separate non-profit organizations: the ACLU Foundation, a 501 organization which focuses on litigation and communication efforts, and the American Civil Liberties Union, a 501 organization which focuses on legislative lobbying...
from 1999 until her term expired in June 2006. In 2003, during her tenure on the national board, she became a strong critic of the ACLU leadership and was centrally involved in a series of controversies that culminated in a highly publicized effort to prohibit board members from criticizing the ACLU. Her 2009 book
Worst Instincts: Cowardice, Conformity and the ACLU critiques what she regards as the ACLU’s ethical decline, ideological hypocrisy, and descent into groupthink.
Writings
Kaminer, a former Guggenheim fellow, has published seven books, in addition to
Worst Instincts, including her landmark, 1992 critique of self-help and the recovery movement,
I’m Dysfunctional, You’re Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help Fashions. She has also written extensively about irrationalism, spiritualism, and the intersection of religion and politics in America, the subject of
Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Risks of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety. Her feminist writings include her 1990 book,
A Fearful Freedom: Women’s Flight from Equality, reviewing the historic conflict between equality and protectionism for women and exploring the legal and social pitfalls of protectionism. A former legal aid attorney, she is a staunch critic of the death penalty and the criminal justice system, the subject of
It’s all the Rage: Crime and Culture. She is also the author of
Free for All: Defending Liberty in America Today;
True Love Waits: Essays and Criticism; and
Women Volunteering: the Pleasure, Pain, & Politics of Unpaid Work.
Personal life
On November 17, 2001 Kaminer married longtime companion Woody Kaplan. Kaplan, a former real estate developer, founded the Civil Liberties List (a political action committee) and is a full-time political and civil liberties activist. Kaplan is president of the
Defending Dissent Foundation and chairs the advisory board of the
Secular Coalition for AmericaThe Secular Coalition for America is an advocacy group representing atheists, humanists, and freethinkers in American politics. It is located in Washington, D.C. and is currently directed by Sean Faircloth, a former Maine state representative...
.
External links