Ralph Dumain
You forgot to answer my question: the origin of your quote?
^^^^^^
CB: I don't send this endorsing anything said by anybody, but just to
respond to Ralph's question. The comment about anti-semitism is not exactly
the "central" concern in this, but as I say, it answer's Ralph specific
question to me.
^^^^^^
PORTSIDE'S OCTOBER 16 POSTING
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
[boldface emphasis and sq bracketed comments added by yr editor DC]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc:
Subject: My Father the Icon; My Father the Molester
Date: Mon, October 16, 2006, 22:16:00
We also print below material from the discussion of the
Phelps article on the listserve of the
Historians of American Communism (HOAC).
Other contributions to the HOAC discussion can be
found by typing in the keyword "aptheker" in the list
archives. -- moderator]
Comments from: Bettina Aptheker, Clare Spark, Melvyn
Dubofsky, Mark Rosenzweig, Stephen Schwartz
===
My Father the Icon; My Father the Molester
By Bettina Aptheker October 15, 2006
[see link for full text]
===
From: Clare Spark
Subject: Phelps on Herbert and Bettina Aptheker
Date: Thursday, October 05
I have been thinking, with some agitation, about
Bettina Aptheker's astonishing revelation of incest, as
reported by Chris Phelps' review in the _Chronicle of
Higher Education_ ever since it was posted yesterday. I
find it even more astonishing that the review accepts
this and her other claims against her father (low pay
for black help, criticism of Jewish passivity in the
Holocaust) at face value. Moreover, as some other
commentators have noted, it is passing strange that she
waited until her parents' death to tell the world. But
what I find most shocking is the review's credulity.
Nor did the review see the revelation as vindictive, or
possibly antisemitic. (The anti-Semitic stereotype
includes Jews as excessively carnal, cheap, and
cowardly.) Where is scholarly skepticism? Where is
common sense?
[it is passing strange that a woman who, despite all, still
loved her father and tried to forgive him, waited to write about
disturbing family matters until her parents were safely dead?
what the hell is so strange about that? I suppose if she had
published earlier she would be called an unfeeling monster for
*not* waiting until they were dead.]
[this has to be the most scurrilous application of the "self-hating
Jew" meme I have ever yet heard, and the looniest.]
The putative child abuse was not the only trial the
heroic Bettina Aptheker has endured. Here is how
Professor of Women's Studies Aptheker described her
educational background for Out In The Redwoods (easily
located through Google):
"[Aptheker:] I arrived in Santa Cruz in the fall of
1979 to begin my graduate studies in the History of
Consciousness Program. I had two young children, and I
was finalizing a divorce from my husband of thirteen
years. I was also struggling to claim my lesbian
identity. Brutalized by the police and FBI because of
my Communist affiliation and radical activism in the
1960s and 1970s, 'coming out' for me was at once
traumatic and exhilarating."
Recall that the review describes her sudden
recollection, previously repressed, as having come to
her while writing her memoir. Does this seem plausible
to anyone here? Let us assume that father committed
incest with young Bettina for years, yet she had no
memory of what had to be traumatic. The cynic in me
wonders if she is not beefing up her history to
demonstrate that she has overcome yet another assault
by authority, undeserved and extreme, of course. Why
would she do that? Nothing like a famous and
controversial father to expose as a way of getting
attention from reviewers for her book, published by
Seal Press, described on the internet as a small
feminist press.
The historian in me recalls that the
feminist theory informing women's studies requires that
patriarchy be viewed as the primary social
contradiction, and indeed there was a job posting for
teaching Women's Studies at UC San Diego while I was in
graduate school, stating that adherence to feminist
theory was a prerequisite for hiring. What could be
more dramatic proof that the male desire to control
women trumps class and other forms of illegitimate
domination?
[in other words. Bettina is just making up nasty stories
about her heroic Communist father in order to score ideological
purity points for job security. Does it get much nastier?
This comment could easily have been written by Camille Paglia,
Ann Coulter or Dave Horowitz... "feminazis" play the victim
card and accuse innocent men for sake of an ideological agenda.]
Clare Spark, Independent Scholar
===
_______________________________________________
Marxism-Thaxis mailing list
[email protected]
To change your options or unsubscribe go to:
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
