Latest news with #NewYorkStateSupremeCourt
Newsweek
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Ivanka Trump Promotes Book by Author Who Warned About Donald's Presidency
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Ivanka Trump shared a photograph on Instagram promoting a book written by a vocal critic of her father, President Donald Trump. Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email. The Context Ivanka Trump, who played a key role in the first Trump White House, has taken a step back from politics in recent years. Although she has continued to show support for her father, including attending his inauguration in January, she is not outwardly mixing politics and her personal life. Last year, she attended a Taylor Swift concert in Miami despite the pop star's endorsement of former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Ivanka Trump leaves the New York State Supreme Court on November 8, 2023. Ivanka Trump leaves the New York State Supreme Court on November 8, 2023. James Devaney/GC Images via Getty Images What to Know Over the weekend, Ivanka shared photos of family and friends on Instagram, as well as one of the book Untamed by Glennon Doyle. The author has previously spoken out against the Trump administration. Untamed is Doyle's memoir, described on Amazon as a story about how she "learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live. It is the story of navigating divorce, forming a new blended family, and discovering that the brokenness or wholeness of a family depends not on its structure but on each member's ability to bring her full self to the table." In August, Doyle shared a photo on Instagram at the Democratic National Convention voicing support for Harris. "Because in 76 days, when the votes are being counted, we will watch knowing we did everything, everything in our power to keep our children, your children, all children protected from Donald Trump and JD Vance having any power at all over their planet, their families, their bodies, their futures," Doyle wrote. The author wrote in an October post that if "Trump wins, we lose." "There are 19 Days until Election Day: The day that will determine whether we will – or will not – have the right to make decisions about our bodies and our lives. And whether future generations will have fundamental freedoms," she wrote. Ivanka Trump has generally avoided discussing politics after her father left the White House in January 2021. Earlier this year, she stated during an interview on the Skinny Confidential podcast that she does not intend to return to politics for the sake of her children. What People Are Saying Ivanka Trump, on the Skinny Confidential podcast in January: "I love policy and impact. I hate politics. And unfortunately, the two are is a darkness to that world that I don't really want to welcome into mine. To some degree, I'm at the center of the storm because my father is about to be president. It's a very dark negative. And some people love like the gladiator aspect of it, you know, the fight that, that was never me." Ivanka Trump in November 2022: "While I will always love and support my father, going forward, I will do so outside the political arena." Glennon Doyle wrote on Instagram in July 2024: "On Sunday night, 44,000 women gathered with @winwithblackwomen to support Kamala Harris, and raised over $1 million. It's our turn to show up." What Happens Next Ivanka Trump has not signaled that she plans to return to politics anytime soon.
NBC News
26-05-2025
- 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
25-05-2025
- 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
25-05-2025
- 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
25-05-2025
- 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.
