Latest news with #AgainstOurWill
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Susan Brownmiller Asked Us to Rethink Everything We Thought We Knew
Last Saturday, after a long illness, the radical feminist Susan Brownmiller died at 90. She leaves behind a few distant cousins, loving friends, and a public conversation about sex and gender that was transformed by her journalism, books, activism, and media presence. The author of seven books, Brownmiller is best known for Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape, still in print 50 years after its 1975 publication. This surprise bestseller came on the heels of a boomlet in radical feminist theory, criticism, and fiction marketed to a commercial audience. Brownmiller was, hands down, one of the savviest feminist media figures of the twentieth century. The architect of a savage takedown of Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner that aired on the March 26, 1970, episode of The Dick Cavett Show, she was a star in a movement that deplored self-appointed leaders or spokespeople. Accounts of Susan Brownmiller's life, as they have emerged in the press and in popular culture, rightly note the controversial stances she took over the course of her life in feminism. But perceiving Brownmiller as singular in this regard misses important context. Radical feminists were inherently controversial, not only because they promoted a gender revolution but because their insights emerged from intimate conversation, conflict, and arguments. Clashes over ideas and personal styles were also consistent with the radical political movements that Brownmiller and her sisters were forged in before feminism: Communist and Communist-adjacent groups, Fair Play for Cuba, anti-nuclear politics, the Civil Rights Movement, and the mobilization to end the war in Vietnam. Although she did not anticipate, or accept, some of the criticisms that would be aimed at her, Brownmiller also knew that the claims about male power that structured Against Our Will would be broadly controversial. Its project was to create a national debate about sexual assault based on facts that already existed, a debate that had not yet happened outside radical feminist circles. By recasting rape as a political act, Brownmiller asked her readers to rethink everything they thought they knew: Western civilization, their own attitudes, the law, and social science—among other things. In the introduction, Brownmiller also foregrounded the radical feminist principle that talking and listening can change minds. She, for example, had not believed that rape was a feminist issue. Yet other women 'understood their victimization,' she wrote. 'I understood only that it had not happened to me—and resisted the idea that it could. I learned that in ways I preferred to deny the threat of rape had profoundly affected my life.' From conflict came transformation, and the idea for the book that commercial editors had been soliciting from her since Brownmiller's 1970 insider account of the women's movement in The New York Times Magazine. Against Our Will was widely praised but also had its detractors. Black feminist intellectuals such as bell hooks and Angela Davis pointed out that Brownmiller's attempts to weave the crime of lynching into her theory of gender and power were clumsy and confounded history. For example, Black men were historically controlled not by the fear of rape but by the fear of being put to death by a false rape charge, a fact that Brownmiller acknowledged but then displaced in a tortuous section on the Emmett Till lynching. It isn't true, however, that only Black feminists thought Against Our Will was flawed. Some male, and a few female, reviewers were outraged by Brownmiller's conclusion that the patriarchy was promoted and preserved by the ever-present possibility of sexual assault. Some radical feminists who had always been uncomfortable with Brownmiller's high media profile deplored her use of ideas developed in consciousness-raising sessions, and challenged her to take her name off the book. Brownmiller's theory that the patriarchy is propped up by the possibility of sexual assault, as well as positions she took later—her fight to push sex workers and the adult entertainment industry out of Times Square; her assertion that Hedda Nussbaum, a battered woman and the subject of Brownmiller's 1987 novel, Waverly Place, was not an innocent victim; and most recently, her skepticism about the #MeToo movement—remain controversial, particularly among younger feminists who are fighting these fights in their own way. But what is often missed in accounts of Susan Brownmiller's life is that, in addition to her deep commitment to social justice, she was a fundamentally generous, good person with a terrific sense of humor. She loved dogs, the theater, movies, poker, and baseball. When she became prosperous, she put money back into political causes she cared about and took her friends on international trips. Brownmiller was profoundly loyal to, and generous with, those friends. Her archived correspondence is full of instances in which she connected other women with agents and editors, encouraged them to write books, and boosted their self-confidence. When she worked for ABC in the 1960s, assigned to the Washington bureau over one weekend, she asked the female assistant tasked with orienting her: 'Why aren't you in charge?' This woman quit her job, went on to her own career as a journalist, and became a lifelong friend. For the last 25 years, Susan Brownmiller played that role for numerous researchers too. In 2009, long before I imagined the biography of her that I am now writing, I went to interview Brownmiller. Nervously stepping off the elevator, I saw the woman on the back of the book I read back in 1975, draped against her door jamb. 'Welcome to Jane Street,' she greeted me, flashing a warm smile designed to put me at ease. By the end of the afternoon, I had not only a terrific interview but a fistful of appointments with other veterans of a political movement who are justifiably wary about how they will be represented. 'Her name is Claire Potter,' Susan would say, waving a lit (or sometimes unlit) cigarette with one hand and holding the phone in the other. 'She's a feminist—the real deal. Talk to her.' She would then thrust the receiver at me, and I would make another appointment. It was, to paraphrase a classic film, the beginning of a beautiful friendship. I was not Brownmiller's best friend, or her most daily friend, or the person who helped her the most in her final years. I'm the biographer. But as a feminist who will be in dialogue with her until my book is done and a new generation can argue with her, I will nevertheless miss the living, breathing Susan Brownmiller terribly.
NBC News
7 days ago
- NBC News
Susan Brownmiller, author of the landmark book on sexual assault, ‘Against Our Will,' dies at 90
NEW YORK — Susan Brownmiller, a prominent feminist and author of the 1960s and '70s whose 'Against Our Will' was a landmark and intensely debated bestseller about sexual assault, has died. She was 90. Brownmiller, who had been ill, died Saturday at a New York hospital, according to Emily Jane Goodman, a retired New York State Supreme Court justice and practicing attorney who serves as the executor of Brownmiller's will. A journalist, anti-war protester and civil rights activist before joining the 'second wave' feminist movement in its formative years, Brownmiller was among many women who were radicalized in the '60s and '70s and part of the smaller circle that included Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan and Kate Millett who radicalized others. While activists of the early 20th century focused on voting rights, the second wave feminism transformed conversations about sex, marriage reproductive rights, workplace harassment and domestic violence. Brownmiller, as much as anyone, opened up the discussion of rape. 'Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape,' published in 1975 and widely read and taught for decades after, documented the roots, prevalence and politics of rape — in war and in prison, against children and spouses. She denounced the glorification of rape in popular culture, contended that rape was an act of violence, not lust, and traced rape to the very foundations of human history. 'Man's structural capacity to rape and woman's corresponding structural vulnerability are as basic to the physiology of both our sexes as the primal act of sex itself,' she wrote. In her 1999 memoir 'In Our Time,' Brownmiller likened the writing of 'Against Our Will' to 'shooting an arrow into a bulls-eye in very slow motion.' Brownmiller started the book in the early 1970s after hearing stories from friends that made her shriek 'with dismay.' It was chosen as a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and considered newsworthy enough for Brownmiller to be interviewed on the TODAY show by Barbara Walters. In 1976, Time magazine placed her picture on its cover, along with Billie Jean King, Betty Ford and nine others as 'Women of the Year.' Brownmiller's book inspired survivors to tell their stories, women to organize rape crisis centers, and helped lead to the passage of marital rape laws. It was also received with fear, confusion and anger. Brownmiller remembered a newspaper reporter shouting at her, 'You have no right to disturb my mind like this!' Brownmiller was also faulted for writing that rape was an assertion of power that helped all men and was strongly criticized for a chapter titled 'A Question of Race,' in which she revisited the 1955 murder in Mississippi of Black teen Emmett Till. Brownmiller condemned his gruesome death at the hands of a white mob but also blamed Till for the alleged incident that led to his death: whistling at Bryant's wife, Carolyn Bryant. The chapter reflected ongoing tensions between feminists and civil rights leaders, with activist Angela Davis writing that Brownmiller's views were 'pervaded with racist ideas.' In 2017, New Yorker editor David Remnick would call her writing about Till's murder 'morally oblivious.' Asked by Time magazine in 2015 about the passages on Till, she replied that she stood by 'every word.' Steinem would criticize Brownmiller for comments she made during a 2015 interview with New York magazine, when Brownmiller said that one way for women to avoid being assaulted was not to get drunk, suggesting that women themselves were to blame. Brownmiller's other books included 'Femininity,' 'Seeing Vietnam' and the novel 'Waverly Place,' based on the highly publicized trial of lawyer Joel Steinberg, convicted in 1987 of manslaughter for the death of his 6-year-old daughter, Lisa. In recent years, Brownmiller taught at Pace University. 'She was an active feminist, she was not one to just agree with the popular issue of the day,' said Goodman, whose friendship with Brownmiller spanned decades. She recalled remarkable gatherings, including poker nights, at Brownmiller's longtime Greenwich Village apartment, which was the subject of her 2017 book, 'My City Highrise Garden.' Another longtime close friend, 92-year-old Alix Kates Shulman, a fellow writer and feminist, lived within walking distance. 'We were women's liberation comrades,' she said. Brownmiller was born in New York City in 1935, and would note proudly that her birthday, Feb. 15, was the same as Susan B. Anthony's. Her father was a sales clerk, her mother a secretary and both were so devoted to Franklin Roosevelt and so knowledgeable of current events that Brownmiller 'became very intense about these things too.' She was a Cornell University scholarship student at and had a brief 'very mistaken ambition' to be a Broadway star, working as a file clerk and waitress as she hoped for roles that never materialized. The civil rights movement changed her life. She joined the Congress of Racial Equality in 1960 and four years later was among the 'Freedom Summer' volunteers who went to Mississippi to help register Black people to vote. During the '60s, she also wrote for the Village Voice and for ABC television and was a researcher at Newsweek. In the late 1970s, Brownmiller helped found the New York chapter of 'Women Against Pornography,' with other members, including Steinem and Adrienne Rich. Organizers agreed that porn degraded and abused women, but differed over how to respond. Brownmiller wrote an influential essay, 'Let's Put Pornography Back in the Closet,' disputing arguments that pornography was protected by the First Amendment. But she opposed anti-porn leader Catherine MacKinnon's push for legislation, believing that pornography was best confronted through education and protests. In the 1980s, Brownmiller stepped back from activism and in her memoir noted her despair over the 'slow seepage, symbolic defeats and petty divisions' that were both causes and symptoms of the movement's decline. But she still remembered her earlier years as a rare and precious chapter. 'When such a coming-together takes place, when the vision is clear and the sisterhood is powerful, mountains are moved and the human landscape is changed forever,' Brownmiller wrote. 'Of course it is wildly unrealistic to speak in one voice for half the human race, yet that is what feminism always attempts to do, and must do, and that is what Women's Liberation did do, with astounding success, in our time.'
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Yahoo
Susan Brownmiller, author of landmark book on sexual assault, dies at 90
NEW YORK — Susan Brownmiller, a prominent feminist and author of the 1960s and '70s whose 'Against Our Will' was a landmark and intensely debated best-seller about sexual assault, has died. She was 90. Brownmiller, who had been ill, died Saturday at a New York hospital, according to Emily Jane Goodman, a retired New York State Supreme Court justice and practicing attorney who serves as the executor of Brownmiller's will. A journalist, anti-war protester and civil rights activist before joining the 'second wave' feminist movement in its formative years, Brownmiller was among many women who were radicalized in the '60s and '70s and part of the smaller circle that included Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan and Kate Millett who radicalized others. While activists of the early 20th century focused on voting rights, second wave feminism transformed conversations about sex, marriage reproductive rights, workplace harassment and domestic violence. Brownmiller, as much as anyone, opened up the discussion of rape. 'Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape,' published in 1975 and widely read and taught for decades after, documented the roots, prevalence and politics of rape — in war and in prison, against children and spouses. She denounced the glorification of rape in popular culture, contended that rape was an act of violence, not lust, and traced rape to the very foundations of human history. 'Man's structural capacity to rape and woman's corresponding structural vulnerability are as basic to the physiology of both our sexes as the primal act of sex itself,' she wrote. In her 1999 memoir 'In Our Time,' Brownmiller likened the writing of 'Against Our Will' to 'shooting an arrow into a bulls-eye in very slow motion.' Brownmiller started the book in the early 1970s after hearing stories from friends that made her shriek 'with dismay.' It was chosen as a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and considered newsworthy enough for Brownmiller to be interviewed on the 'Today' show by Barbara Walters. In 1976, Time magazine placed her picture on its cover, along with Billie Jean King, Betty Ford and nine others as 'Women of the Year.' Brownmiller's book inspired survivors to tell their stories, women to organize rape crisis centers and helped lead to the passage of marital rape laws. It was also received with fear, confusion and anger. Brownmiller remembered a newspaper reporter shouting at her, 'You have no right to disturb my mind like this!' Brownmiller was also faulted for writing that rape was an assertion of power that helped all men and was strongly criticized for a chapter titled 'A Question of Race,' in which she revisited the 1955 murder in Mississippi of Black teen Emmett Till. Brownmiller condemned his gruesome death at the hands of a white mob but also blamed Till for the alleged incident that led to his death: whistling at Bryant's wife, Carolyn Bryant. The chapter reflected ongoing tensions between feminists and civil rights leaders, with activist Angela Davis writing that Brownmiller's views were 'pervaded with racist ideas.' In 2017, New Yorker editor David Remnick would call her writing about Till's murder 'morally oblivious.' Asked by Time magazine in 2015 about the passages on Till, she replied that she stood by 'every word.' Steinem would criticize Brownmiller for comments she made during a 2015 interview with New York magazine, when Brownmiller said that one way for women to avoid being assaulted was not to get drunk, suggesting that women themselves were to blame. Brownmiller's other books included 'Femininity,' 'Seeing Vietnam' and the novel 'Waverly Place,' based on the highly publicized trial of lawyer Joel Steinberg, convicted in 1987 of manslaughter for the death of his 6-year-old daughter, Lisa. In recent years, Brownmiller taught at Pace University. 'She was an active feminist, she was not one to just agree with the popular issue of the day,' said Goodman, whose friendship with Brownmiller spanned decades. She recalled remarkable gatherings, including poker nights, at Brownmiller's longtime Greenwich Village apartment, which was the subject of her 2017 book, 'My City Highrise Garden.' Another longtime close friend, 92-year-old Alix Kates Shulman, a fellow writer and feminist, lived within walking distance. 'We were womens' liberation comrades,' she said. Brownmiller was born in New York City in 1935, and would note proudly that her birthday, Feb. 15, was the same as Susan B. Anthony's. Her father was a sales clerk, her mother a secretary and both were so devoted to Franklin Roosevelt and so knowledgeable of current events that Brownmiller 'became very intense about these things too.' She was a Cornell University scholarship student at and had a brief 'very mistaken ambition' to be a Broadway star, working as a file clerk and waitress as she hoped for roles that never materialized. The civil rights movement changed her life. She joined the Congress of Racial Equality in 1960 and four years later was among the 'Freedom Summer' volunteers who went to Mississippi to help register Blacks to vote. During the '60s, she also wrote for the Village Voice and for ABC television and was a researcher at Newsweek. In the late 1970s, Brownmiller helped found the New York chapter of 'Women Against Pornography,' with other members, including Steinem and Adrienne Rich. Organizers agreed that porn degraded and abused women, but differed over how to respond. Brownmiller wrote an influential essay, 'Let's Put Pornography Back in the Closet,' disputing arguments that pornography was protected by the First Amendment. But she opposed anti-porn leader Catherine MacKinnon's push for legislation, believing that pornography was best confronted through education and protests. In the 1980s, Brownmiller stepped back from activism and in her memoir noted her despair over the 'slow seepage, symbolic defeats and petty divisions' that were both causes and symptoms of the movement's decline. But she still remembered her earlier years as a rare and precious chapter. 'When such a coming-together takes place, when the vision is clear and the sisterhood is powerful, mountains are moved and the human landscape is changed forever,' Brownmiller wrote. 'Of course it is wildly unrealistic to speak in one voice for half the human race, yet that is what feminism always attempts to do, and must do, and that is what Women's Liberation did do, with astounding success, in our time.'
The Advertiser
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
Brownmiller, author of the landmark rape book dies
Susan Brownmiller, a prominent feminist and author whose book, Against Our Will, was a landmark and intensely debated bestseller about sexual assault, has died. She was 90. Brownmiller, who had been ill, died on Saturday at a New York hospital, according to Emily Jane Goodman, a retired New York State Supreme Court justice. "She was an active feminist; she was not one to just agree with the popular issue of the day," said Goodman, whose friendship with Brownmiller spanned decades. A journalist, anti-war protester and civil rights activist before joining the second wave feminist movement in its formative years, Brownmiller was among many women who were radicalised in the '60s and '70s and part of the smaller circle that included Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan and Kate Millett. While activists of the early 20th century focused on voting rights, second-wave feminism transformed conversations about sex, marriage, reproductive rights, workplace harassment and domestic violence. Brownmiller, as much as anyone, opened up the discussion of rape. Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, published in 1975 and widely read and taught for decades after, documented the roots, prevalence and politics of rape. She denounced the glorification of rape in popular culture, contended that rape was an act of violence, not lust, and traced rape to the very foundations of human history. "Man's structural capacity to rape and woman's corresponding structural vulnerability are as basic to the physiology of both our sexes as the primal act of sex itself," she wrote. In her 1999 memoir In Our Time, Brownmiller likened the writing of Against Our Will to "shooting an arrow into a bull's-eye in very slow motion." It was a book that Brownmiller started in the early 1970s, after hearing stories from friends that made her shriek with dismay. The title was chosen as a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and considered newsworthy enough for Brownmiller to be interviewed on the Today show by Barbara Walters. In 1976, Time magazine placed her picture on its cover, along with Billie Jean King, Betty Ford and nine others as Women of the Year. Brownmiller's book inspired survivors to tell their stories, women to organise rape crisis centres and helped lead to the passage of marital rape laws. Susan Brownmiller, a prominent feminist and author whose book, Against Our Will, was a landmark and intensely debated bestseller about sexual assault, has died. She was 90. Brownmiller, who had been ill, died on Saturday at a New York hospital, according to Emily Jane Goodman, a retired New York State Supreme Court justice. "She was an active feminist; she was not one to just agree with the popular issue of the day," said Goodman, whose friendship with Brownmiller spanned decades. A journalist, anti-war protester and civil rights activist before joining the second wave feminist movement in its formative years, Brownmiller was among many women who were radicalised in the '60s and '70s and part of the smaller circle that included Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan and Kate Millett. While activists of the early 20th century focused on voting rights, second-wave feminism transformed conversations about sex, marriage, reproductive rights, workplace harassment and domestic violence. Brownmiller, as much as anyone, opened up the discussion of rape. Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, published in 1975 and widely read and taught for decades after, documented the roots, prevalence and politics of rape. She denounced the glorification of rape in popular culture, contended that rape was an act of violence, not lust, and traced rape to the very foundations of human history. "Man's structural capacity to rape and woman's corresponding structural vulnerability are as basic to the physiology of both our sexes as the primal act of sex itself," she wrote. In her 1999 memoir In Our Time, Brownmiller likened the writing of Against Our Will to "shooting an arrow into a bull's-eye in very slow motion." It was a book that Brownmiller started in the early 1970s, after hearing stories from friends that made her shriek with dismay. The title was chosen as a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and considered newsworthy enough for Brownmiller to be interviewed on the Today show by Barbara Walters. In 1976, Time magazine placed her picture on its cover, along with Billie Jean King, Betty Ford and nine others as Women of the Year. Brownmiller's book inspired survivors to tell their stories, women to organise rape crisis centres and helped lead to the passage of marital rape laws. Susan Brownmiller, a prominent feminist and author whose book, Against Our Will, was a landmark and intensely debated bestseller about sexual assault, has died. She was 90. Brownmiller, who had been ill, died on Saturday at a New York hospital, according to Emily Jane Goodman, a retired New York State Supreme Court justice. "She was an active feminist; she was not one to just agree with the popular issue of the day," said Goodman, whose friendship with Brownmiller spanned decades. A journalist, anti-war protester and civil rights activist before joining the second wave feminist movement in its formative years, Brownmiller was among many women who were radicalised in the '60s and '70s and part of the smaller circle that included Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan and Kate Millett. While activists of the early 20th century focused on voting rights, second-wave feminism transformed conversations about sex, marriage, reproductive rights, workplace harassment and domestic violence. Brownmiller, as much as anyone, opened up the discussion of rape. Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, published in 1975 and widely read and taught for decades after, documented the roots, prevalence and politics of rape. She denounced the glorification of rape in popular culture, contended that rape was an act of violence, not lust, and traced rape to the very foundations of human history. "Man's structural capacity to rape and woman's corresponding structural vulnerability are as basic to the physiology of both our sexes as the primal act of sex itself," she wrote. In her 1999 memoir In Our Time, Brownmiller likened the writing of Against Our Will to "shooting an arrow into a bull's-eye in very slow motion." It was a book that Brownmiller started in the early 1970s, after hearing stories from friends that made her shriek with dismay. The title was chosen as a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and considered newsworthy enough for Brownmiller to be interviewed on the Today show by Barbara Walters. In 1976, Time magazine placed her picture on its cover, along with Billie Jean King, Betty Ford and nine others as Women of the Year. Brownmiller's book inspired survivors to tell their stories, women to organise rape crisis centres and helped lead to the passage of marital rape laws. Susan Brownmiller, a prominent feminist and author whose book, Against Our Will, was a landmark and intensely debated bestseller about sexual assault, has died. She was 90. Brownmiller, who had been ill, died on Saturday at a New York hospital, according to Emily Jane Goodman, a retired New York State Supreme Court justice. "She was an active feminist; she was not one to just agree with the popular issue of the day," said Goodman, whose friendship with Brownmiller spanned decades. A journalist, anti-war protester and civil rights activist before joining the second wave feminist movement in its formative years, Brownmiller was among many women who were radicalised in the '60s and '70s and part of the smaller circle that included Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan and Kate Millett. While activists of the early 20th century focused on voting rights, second-wave feminism transformed conversations about sex, marriage, reproductive rights, workplace harassment and domestic violence. Brownmiller, as much as anyone, opened up the discussion of rape. Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, published in 1975 and widely read and taught for decades after, documented the roots, prevalence and politics of rape. She denounced the glorification of rape in popular culture, contended that rape was an act of violence, not lust, and traced rape to the very foundations of human history. "Man's structural capacity to rape and woman's corresponding structural vulnerability are as basic to the physiology of both our sexes as the primal act of sex itself," she wrote. In her 1999 memoir In Our Time, Brownmiller likened the writing of Against Our Will to "shooting an arrow into a bull's-eye in very slow motion." It was a book that Brownmiller started in the early 1970s, after hearing stories from friends that made her shriek with dismay. The title was chosen as a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and considered newsworthy enough for Brownmiller to be interviewed on the Today show by Barbara Walters. In 1976, Time magazine placed her picture on its cover, along with Billie Jean King, Betty Ford and nine others as Women of the Year. Brownmiller's book inspired survivors to tell their stories, women to organise rape crisis centres and helped lead to the passage of marital rape laws.
The Hill
7 days ago
- The Hill
Susan Brownmiller, author of the landmark book on sexual assault, ‘Against Our Will,' dies at 90
NEW YORK (AP) — Susan Brownmiller, a prominent feminist and author of the 1960s and '70s whose 'Against Our Will' was a landmark and intensely debated bestseller about sexual assault, has died. She was 90. Brownmiller, who had been ill, died Saturday at a New York hospital, according to Emily Jane Goodman, a retired New York State Supreme Court justice and practicing attorney who serves as the executor of Brownmiller's will. A journalist, anti-war protester and civil rights activist before joining the 'second wave' feminist movement in its formative years, Brownmiller was among many women who were radicalized in the '60s and '70s and part of the smaller circle that included Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan and Kate Millett who radicalized others. While activists of the early 20th century focused on voting rights, the second wave feminism transformed conversations about sex, marriage reproductive rights, workplace harassment and domestic violence. Brownmiller, as much as anyone, opened up the discussion of rape. 'Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape,' published in 1975 and widely read and taught for decades after, documented the roots, prevalence and politics of rape — in war and in prison, against children and spouses. She denounced the glorification of rape in popular culture, contended that rape was an act of violence, not lust, and traced rape to the very foundations of human history. 'Man's structural capacity to rape and woman's corresponding structural vulnerability are as basic to the physiology of both our sexes as the primal act of sex itself,' she wrote. In her 1999 memoir 'In Our Time,' Brownmiller likened the writing of 'Against Our Will' to 'shooting an arrow into a bulls-eye in very slow motion.' Brownmiller started the book in the early 1970s after hearing stories from friends that made her shriek 'with dismay.' It was chosen as a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and considered newsworthy enough for Brownmiller to be interviewed on the 'Today' show by Barbara Walters. In 1976, Time magazine placed her picture on its cover, along with Billie Jean King, Betty Ford and nine others as 'Women of the Year.' Brownmiller's book inspired survivors to tell their stories, women to organize rape crisis centers and helped lead to the passage of marital rape laws. It was also received with fear, confusion and anger. Brownmiller remembered a newspaper reporter shouting at her, 'You have no right to disturb my mind like this!' Brownmiller was also faulted for writing that rape was an assertion of power that helped all men and was strongly criticized for a chapter titled 'A Question of Race,' in which she revisited the 1955 murder in Mississippi of Black teen Emmett Till. Brownmiller condemned his gruesome death at the hands of a white mob but also blamed Till for the alleged incident that led to his death: whistling at Bryant's wife, Carolyn Bryant. The chapter reflected ongoing tensions between feminists and civil rights leaders, with activist Angela Davis writing that Brownmiller's views were 'pervaded with racist ideas.' In 2017, New Yorker editor David Remnick would call her writing about Till's murder 'morally oblivious.' Asked by Time magazine in 2015 about the passages on Till, she replied that she stood by 'every word.' Steinem would criticize Brownmiller for comments she made during a 2015 interview with New York magazine, when Brownmiller said that one way for women to avoid being assaulted was not to get drunk, suggesting that women themselves were to blame. Brownmiller's other books included 'Femininity,' 'Seeing Vietnam' and the novel 'Waverly Place,' based on the highly publicized trial of lawyer Joel Steinberg, convicted in 1987 of manslaughter for the death of his 6-year-old daughter, Lisa. In recent years, Brownmiller taught at Pace University. 'She was an active feminist, she was not one to just agree with the popular issue of the day,' said Goodman, whose friendship with Brownmiller spanned decades. She recalled remarkable gatherings, including poker nights, at Brownmiller's longtime Greenwich Village apartment, which was the subject of her 2017 book, 'My City Highrise Garden.' Another longtime close friend, 92-year-old Alix Kates Shulman, a fellow writer and feminist, lived within walking distance. 'We were womens' liberation comrades,' she said. Brownmiller was born in New York City in 1935, and would note proudly that her birthday, Feb. 15, was the same as Susan B. Anthony's. Her father was a sales clerk, her mother a secretary and both were so devoted to Franklin Roosevelt and so knowledgeable of current events that Brownmiller 'became very intense about these things too.' She was a Cornell University scholarship student at and had a brief 'very mistaken ambition' to be a Broadway star, working as a file clerk and waitress as she hoped for roles that never materialized. The civil rights movement changed her life. She joined the Congress of Racial Equality in 1960 and four years later was among the 'Freedom Summer' volunteers who went to Mississippi to help register Blacks to vote. During the '60s, she also wrote for the Village Voice and for ABC television and was a researcher at Newsweek. In the late 1970s, Brownmiller helped found the New York chapter of 'Women Against Pornography,' with other members, including Steinem and Adrienne Rich. Organizers agreed that porn degraded and abused women, but differed over how to respond. Brownmiller wrote an influential essay, 'Let's Put Pornography Back in the Closet,' disputing arguments that pornography was protected by the First Amendment. But she opposed anti-porn leader Catherine MacKinnon's push for legislation, believing that pornography was best confronted through education and protests. In the 1980s, Brownmiller stepped back from activism and in her memoir noted her despair over the 'slow seepage, symbolic defeats and petty divisions' that were both causes and symptoms of the movement's decline. But she still remembered her earlier years as a rare and precious chapter. 'When such a coming-together takes place, when the vision is clear and the sisterhood is powerful, mountains are moved and the human landscape is changed forever,' Brownmiller wrote. 'Of course it is wildly unrealistic to speak in one voice for half the human race, yet that is what feminism always attempts to do, and must do, and that is what Women's Liberation did do, with astounding success, in our time.' ___ Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen contributed to this report from Chicago.
