Barkley Rosser wrote:
I should add beyond my earlier message that indeed Deirdre has
published a book since the sex-change, which is doing quite well, I believe.
"Blackboard Economics" is in the title, but I don't remember the whole
thing. All in all, I would say that Deirdre is enjoying something of a
celebrity status that has hardly hurt her professional standing. Quite the
contrary, my dears, :-).
BTW, I wasn't there to witness it, but I gather that around the time of
the sex-change, mostly immediately before I understand, there was quite a
row on the fem-econ list involving McCloskey's pro-free market stance and
whether or not that was consistent with feminism, a row in which s/he was a
major participant. Perhaps somebody on the list was around for that or can
access it. I gather it was pretty heated, right up there with Louis P.
versus Jerry L. on pen-l....
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No one should shed tears for McCloskey's status. She is a hard core
libertarian, vicious in her attacks on marxists, real feminists, and most
other heterdox economists. She is still the darling of the libertarian
right wing, because she has adopted the pomo lingo and has crossed into
the heterodox camp to do her damage.
Barkley is right. In May and June of 1994, McCloskey single handedly
almost destroyed femecon-l, another list similar to pen-l. I still subscribe
to that list, and it is still much less vibrant than it once was.
In the "debate" concerning whether markets were the best thing that ever
happened to women, McCloskey threaten the careers of those her opposed her
views - threats that mean something considering the number of editorial
boards she sits on. She drove dozens of people of the list, most of whom
never returned. Nothing that Louis has ever posted on Pen-l can compare
to the level of sustained viciousness showm by McCloskey. Her libertarianism
is a form of anti-social pathology (see my article cited below).
For those who are interested in this incident, I suggest you read the
multiple articles published in the journal Feminist Economics that
discuss it.
Peter Dorman, et.al. Debating Markets, Fem. Econ, Vol. 2 No. 1, 1996.
Gudeman and Gudeman, Gender, Market and Community..., FE, V.2, No.2, 1996.
A Dialog on "Debating Markets" FE, V3, No. 1, 1997, includes:
Barbara Hopkins, Argument and Community in the Markets Debate
Doug Orr, Not only Gender: More on Debating Markets
Lisa Sauders, If You Can't Stand the Heat....
Gudeman and Gudeman, a response
Doug Orr
Eastern Washington Univ.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
